My wife and I were just denied an equity loan because of five notice of collections on my wifes credit. We were not very happy since we don't owe any such debts, and we could really use the equity loan to pay off some credit card debts. In fact, all of our accounts are current and the only legitimate derogatory entries between us for the last seven years are 3 times paying department store credit cards 30 days late because they were seldom used cards that we didn't normally have to pay and we just simply forgot.
When we checked the credit report, there were five entries listing bills sent to collection from a health care provider. My wife and I had been with that healthcare provider, but switched from them 9-10 years ago. In 2006 we got a bill from them for over $9,000 and some associated providers sent us bills for several thousand each. After many phone calls with mostly unhelpful people in their billing department, a woman said that oops, she saw the problem and would fix it immediately. Somebody had taken the name of a current patient, pulled up my wife's old billing information (that didn't match in any way but the name) and added it the other woman's records.
We never got any more bills from the health care provider after that. After referring the other associated parties to contact the health care provider to obtain the correct billing info, we didn't hear back from any of them either. My wife was concerned that the health care company would screw up her credit, but they assured her the problem was fixed and that wasn't an issue. In fact, both the health care provider and the associated providers each compared ssn's with my wife and agreed that they had a different ssn for the current patient so it would not be tied to her credit in any case. Now we come to find that the health care provider itself has destroyed her credit while the associated parties all seem to have gotten the correct info, since nothing appears from them.
On top of the needed equity loan, we each have jobs where poor credit can become a fireable offense. I just found out about this today (Saturday, may 24th). What is our recourse, and what are the proper steps to take to correct this properly, and as quickly as possible?
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Paul
When we checked the credit report, there were five entries listing bills sent to collection from a health care provider. My wife and I had been with that healthcare provider, but switched from them 9-10 years ago. In 2006 we got a bill from them for over $9,000 and some associated providers sent us bills for several thousand each. After many phone calls with mostly unhelpful people in their billing department, a woman said that oops, she saw the problem and would fix it immediately. Somebody had taken the name of a current patient, pulled up my wife's old billing information (that didn't match in any way but the name) and added it the other woman's records.
We never got any more bills from the health care provider after that. After referring the other associated parties to contact the health care provider to obtain the correct billing info, we didn't hear back from any of them either. My wife was concerned that the health care company would screw up her credit, but they assured her the problem was fixed and that wasn't an issue. In fact, both the health care provider and the associated providers each compared ssn's with my wife and agreed that they had a different ssn for the current patient so it would not be tied to her credit in any case. Now we come to find that the health care provider itself has destroyed her credit while the associated parties all seem to have gotten the correct info, since nothing appears from them.
On top of the needed equity loan, we each have jobs where poor credit can become a fireable offense. I just found out about this today (Saturday, may 24th). What is our recourse, and what are the proper steps to take to correct this properly, and as quickly as possible?
Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Paul
