Venting debt collector stopped contacting

[Kalista]

someone on here mentioned early last year that if i simply ignore all calls and mail regarding the medical debt, they'll eventually stop. they have stopped a few months ago it seems. mail from the hospital also stopped coming in. i keep my phone off most of the time unless i need to check something. when i do check, i'd notice getting a voicemail from the debt collector which is an automated call.
will it start again? no idea.

the medical debt is the involuntary check-in that was imposed on me. i refuse to pay any of the amount because it's ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT to be billed for something you never fucking wanted.

the justification for this kind of thinking is outright idiotic. anyone who believes this is a good thing is a fucking idiot.
"oh, hey. we caught and stopped you from killing yourself which could have eliminated all your pain and suffering. here's a bill for 1k++ for our services which you can barely afford, if at all. make sure to pay or we'll sic a debt collector on you and/or lower your credit score. be grateful and just comply to society's rules, then we'll have no problem for as long as you're alive."

there are things that make considerable sense, and things that absolutely don't. this is the latter. they may have used their resources to 'care' for the individual, however, the point is it was FORCED. on top of that, people close to you will encourage it anyway because they believe they know better. never you, though, right? taking control of your own mind and body is not your human right according to others. so they send people to control you by locking you up.

what an amazing 'mental health community' this is.

for anyone residing in california, this is something to consider in case you truly don't want to pay for this kind of bill.

 

[EmptyBottle]

You can go into settings and block unknown callers, google "how to block unknown callers on [iphone|samsung|android]"

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Ok. Here's the poop on debt collectors. The debtee probably contracts with a debt collection outfit to collect debt owed to them. The outfit is given the needed info on you - your contact info and how much is owed - and they start contacting you through various means to try and get you to pay the debt. This can go on for months. If there's no response, or payment of the debt, after a certain amount of time, the collector will stop. Then you won't hear anything for a while about it, but, eventually, a new, different debt collection agency will start contacting you to pay the debt, usually a more aggressive one. This will, also, go on for a while. Eventually, they'll stop and another debt collection agency will begin contacting you shortly thereafter. How many times the debt owed gets sold, or contracted, to various agencies is anyone's guess. For mine I think it was four times. Now we come to the fun part.

Eventually, you'll receive a notice that reads something like (paraphrasing), "If you don't pay the such and such amount you owe by a specific date, a claim for that amount will be initiated against you in your jurisdictional area's municipal court". If you still don't pay by the specified date the letter says, you WILL receive notice that a case has been filed against you in your area's municipal court for the amount owed.

How do I know all this? I went through it myself. And it was for medical debt, also. And I had insurance. The amount I owed was about $40. FORTY DOLLARS! That's right. I didn't feel I owed it because I went back through all the money I had paid out-of-pocket that year and felt I had reached my out-of-pocket burden, and that insurance should have covered all the costs of that specific medical incident where this debt in question was incurred. I wasn't paying it due to principle. Didn't make one bit of difference that the debt was only for $40. They kept hounding me for over a year until they finally had enough and filed the small claims case against me in court. I just sent them a check.

All that debt collection gets put on your credit reports, as well would the small claims judgment once you lost in court. Once they get a judgment against you, they have the ability to put liens on your house, if you own one, your car, attach to any bank accounts you may have, garnish your paycheck, and all sorts of other things in order to forcibly take the money you owe them from you one way or another.

 

[Bootleg Astolfo]

An appropriate awnser to this kind of extortion lol.

 

[nihilistic_dragon]

the justification for this kind of thinking is outright idiotic. anyone who believes this is a good thing is a fucking idiot.
"oh, hey. we caught and stopped you from killing yourself which could have eliminated all your pain and suffering. here's a bill for 1k++ for our services which you can barely afford, if at all. make sure to pay or we'll sic a debt collector on you and/or lower your credit score. be grateful and just comply to society's rules, then we'll have no problem for as long as you're alive."

This sums up perfectly one of the biggest problems with this stupid society. Sorry you have to be dealing with this :(

 

[deathbydesign]

Ok. Here's the poop on debt collectors. The debtee probably contracts with a debt collection outfit to collect debt owed to them. The outfit is given the needed info on you - your contact info and how much is owed - and they start contacting you through various means to try and get you to pay the debt. This can go on for months. If there's no response, or payment of the debt, after a certain amount of time, the collector will stop. Then you won't hear anything for a while about it, but, eventually, a new, different debt collection agency will start contacting you to pay the debt, usually a more aggressive one. This will, also, go on for a while. Eventually, they'll stop and another debt collection agency will begin contacting you shortly thereafter. How many times the debt owed gets sold, or contracted, to various agencies is anyone's guess. For mine I think it was four times. Now we come to the fun part.

Eventually, you'll receive a notice that reads something like (paraphrasing), "If you don't pay the such and such amount you owe by a specific date, a claim for that amount will be initiated against you in your jurisdictional area's municipal court". If you still don't pay by the specified date the letter says, you WILL receive notice that a case has been filed against you in your area's municipal court for the amount owed.

How do I know all this? I went through it myself. And it was for medical debt, also. And I had insurance. The amount I owed was about $40. FORTY DOLLARS! That's right. I didn't feel I owed it because I went back through all the money I had paid out-of-pocket that year and felt I had reached my out-of-pocket burden, and that insurance should have covered all the costs of that specific medical incident where this debt in question was incurred. I wasn't paying it due to principle. Didn't make one bit of difference that the debt was only for $40. They kept hounding me for over a year until they finally had enough and filed the small claims case against me in court. I just sent them a check.

All that debt collection gets put on your credit reports, as well would the small claims judgment once you lost in court. Once they get a judgment against you, they have the ability to put liens on your house, if you own one, your car, attach to any bank accounts you may have, garnish your paycheck, and all sorts of other things in order to forcibly take the money you owe them from you one way or another.

Thankfully - a law was passed under Biden so medical debt isn't allowed to be on our credit reports any longer - so at least got that debt - there is no worry about the other stuff.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Thankfully - a law was passed under Biden so medical debt isn't allowed to be on our credit reports any longer - so at least got that debt - there is no worry about the other stuff.

Uh, that's not exactly right. If, after 365 days (1 year), the debt is still not paid, onto the credit reports it goes. Unpaid bills under $500 won't show up at all, and if you pay the debt, even after 365 days, it gets removed, unlike how it used to linger there for 7 years.

 

[Scythe]

You know what would help a suicidal person? Medical debt
This system sucks, it's so clear they don't even want to help. At least the kidnap/prison sentence is paid for in some countries by government.

 

[cemeteryismyhome]

My God this is idiotic. From what I understand, in the 1800's in America we had snake oil salesmen. Things have gotten much worse since then. Makes me so angry to hear stories like this.

 

[spero_meliora]

Uh, that's not exactly right. If, after 365 days (1 year), the debt is still not paid, onto the credit reports it goes. Unpaid bills under $500 won't show up at all, and if you pay the debt, even after 365 days, it gets removed, unlike how it used to linger there for 7 years.

Seven years?! What a farce. That system is really set up to punish the common person...

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Seven years?! What a farce. That system is really set up to punish the common person...

Well, I agree. At least that's s thing of the past with medical debt, though. 7 years still applies to non-medical debt, though, afaik.

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

In most cases it won't get to the court stage. They might threaten it, but unless it's a large amount and you have significant assets that show up on paper (such as a house) they most likely won't bother. It's always possible, but it's a bit like an IRS audit - can happen, but won't for most. Locked was super unlucky.

You have a couple options:

Continue to ignore it completely, in which case they'll just bug you again at some stage and you'll take the ding on your credit score.
Pay it off in full if that's ever an option.
Try to settle it for a lower amount in the future.

In the meantime you can always request that they stop hassling you, in which case they should stop calling and mailing.

Even if they do decide to serve you with a court notice in the future, you might be considered judgement proof if you're poor and don't have assets amounting to much. So I wouldn't worry about it too much. Medical bills are typically exorbitant and they seemingly charge you whatever they like. If it's a blood out of a stone situation though it's probably not going to affect you either way. Worst case though, they can levy your bank account, garnish your wages, or try to nab your tax refund as Locked said above.

In any case, it will indeed fall off your credit report after x number of years, and the impact of it will lessen the ding on your score over time too.

 

[Apathy79]

Uh, that's not exactly right. If, after 365 days (1 year), the debt is still not paid, onto the credit reports it goes. Unpaid bills under $500 won't show up at all, and if you pay the debt, even after 365 days, it gets removed, unlike how it used to linger there for 7 years.

I think the new California state laws are permanent. I.e. Medical debt can't be reported to credit agencies ever as of January this year. National laws might be different.

As for the rest, I'd ignore it and see what happens. They might just give up because it's not worth it and it's ethically murky. Also if it ever does get to the court stage and you get Legal Aid and challenge it, huge chance they drop it because it's more expensive to fight it than get the money back.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

I think the new California state laws are permanent. I.e. Medical debt can't be reported to credit agencies ever as of January this year. National laws might be different.

As for the rest, I'd ignore it and see what happens. They might just give up because it's not worth it and it's ethically murky. Also if it ever does get to the court stage and you get Legal Aid and challenge it, huge chance they drop it because it's more expensive to fight it than get the money back.

From my reading of the legislation, the debt still gets reported to credit agencies after a certain time, but it just can't be used against you for obtaining other credit. Ignoring debt hardly ever makes it go away. The collection agencies who bought the debt in the first place have pressure to collect on it to recoup their money. As far as court losses, some states allow for the winner's expenses to be tacked on to the judgments. These lawyers who file suit to collect debt, in a lot of cases, are salaried employees of the collection agencies, so they get paid regardless. There is little benefit oftentimes from dropping the cases. That low amount of $40 I owed wasn't low enough to get them to drop it. I had to pay the court filing fee, too.

 

[Life'sA6itch]

someone on here mentioned early last year that if i simply ignore all calls and mail regarding the medical debt, they'll eventually stop. they have stopped a few months ago it seems. mail from the hospital also stopped coming in. i keep my phone off most of the time unless i need to check something. when i do check, i'd notice getting a voicemail from the debt collector which is an automated call.
will it start again? no idea.

the medical debt is the involuntary check-in that was imposed on me. i refuse to pay any of the amount because it's ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT to be billed for something you never fucking wanted.

the justification for this kind of thinking is outright idiotic. anyone who believes this is a good thing is a fucking idiot.
"oh, hey. we caught and stopped you from killing yourself which could have eliminated all your pain and suffering. here's a bill for 1k++ for our services which you can barely afford, if at all. make sure to pay or we'll sic a debt collector on you and/or lower your credit score. be grateful and just comply to society's rules, then we'll have no problem for as long as you're alive."

there are things that make considerable sense, and things that absolutely don't. this is the latter. they may have used their resources to 'care' for the individual, however, the point is it was FORCED. on top of that, people close to you will encourage it anyway because they believe they know better. never you, though, right? taking control of your own mind and body is not your human right according to others. so they send people to control you by locking you up.

what an amazing 'mental health community' this is.

for anyone residing in california, this is something to consider in case you truly don't want to pay for this kind of bill.

Exactly! Lack of money is a big factor is many suicides for adults at least and th e "help" that is forced on people is not free and adds to their financial burden. HOW could this possibly help? Further, the vast majority of people refuse to think at all, let alone logically about the fact that some people actually have such horrible lives that they want to end and doing so needs to be made easier and safer.

 

[deathbydesign]

Uh, that's not exactly right. If, after 365 days (1 year), the debt is still not paid, onto the credit reports it goes. Unpaid bills under $500 won't show up at all, and if you pay the debt, even after 365 days, it gets removed, unlike how it used to linger there for 7 years.

So I read more into it

There is a rule enacted January 2025 that was supposed to have gone into effect march 2025 - eliminating all medical debt from credit reports and disallowing lenders from using or being given info about medical debt.

It was pushed to start in June because of a lawsuit filed to prevent it from happening.

Congress is working on something

But I was mostly right - it just hasn't gone into effect yet

 

[alleine]

You can go into settings and block unknown callers, google "how to block unknown callers on [iphone|samsung|android]"

my father had a debt collector after him and he blocked the calls but they kept using different numbers. its was a bullshit case where they tried to claim an illegitimate debt and he sued and made a list, and there were over 70 numbers...

 

[EmptyBottle]

my father had a debt collector after him and he blocked the calls but they kept using different numbers. its was a bullshit case where they tried to claim an illegitimate debt and he sued and made a list, and there were over 70 numbers...

unknown callers are anyone not on the contact list. No matter what number they use, unless they are someone in the contacts the user has chosen... the phone will drop the call silently. 1 suspected spam, and 1 potential fraud call was blocked by my phone at 10am a week ago, despite those numbers not being otherwise known to me in the past. Hope your father won the suit.

 

[theboy]

It's like: The doctor talks to your family about your accident: "We can save your son from this accident. It's 3.000 dollars" :)

 

[locked*n*loaded]

So I read more into it

There is a rule enacted January 2025 that was supposed to have gone into effect march 2025 - eliminating all medical debt from credit reports and disallowing lenders from using or being given info about medical debt.

It was pushed to start in June because of a lawsuit filed to prevent it from happening.

Congress is working on something

But I was mostly right - it just hasn't gone into effect yet

https://www.creditkarma.com/debt/i/how-to-remove-medical-collections-from-credit-reports

Congress (Republican controlled) and Trump Administratìon are working on nullifying all Biden imposed rules and regs that were put in place to help the consumer.

https://www.npr.org/2025/05/26/nx-s1-5406799/cfpbs-medical-debt-credit-report-lawsuit