Why isn’t debt showing up on my credit report?
Posted on Mar 17, 2006 with Comments 5
Alex D asked:
I have a company trying to collect a hospital bill from me from 3 yrs ago for $2700. However when I recently checked my free annual credit report, this debt does NOT appear. The rest of my debts show except this one.
Why isn’t it showing up on any of the credit bureaus or freecreditreport.com???
Whitney Hyppolite
I have a company trying to collect a hospital bill from me from 3 yrs ago for $2700. However when I recently checked my free annual credit report, this debt does NOT appear. The rest of my debts show except this one.
Why isn’t it showing up on any of the credit bureaus or freecreditreport.com???
Whitney Hyppolite
Filed Under: Credit
IDK –make them prove it is your debt
Probably because the hospital didn’t report it.
In order for a debt to show up, the creditor must pay to be a subscriber of the credit bureau. The fact that it doesn’t show up on the report doesn’t mean that you don’t owe the money.
No one is required to submit information to the credit bureaus. It looks like your hospital or their collection agency simply chooses not to. While that is good news for you, it does not release you from that debt. It also doesn’t mean it can’t be put on your report at a later date, and it can stay on there for 7 years past the date of first delinquency.
What ever you do, don’t talk to them until you figure out what you want to do. Any thing you say is recorded, and you are incriminating yourself.
Check the reports in another 30 days to see if this debt shows up.
It sounds like a second or third party collector.
If in fact it does show up on your reports, send a Debt Validation letter asking them to prove it’s your debt. Rarely do they have the ability to prove it’s your debt. Unless of course you admit it on the phone.
If it never shows up on your reports you have nothing to worry about!
Good luck.