Wife had surgery last year. We put our portion on a payment plan.
Been paying monthly with no issue. Just made a payment on the 7th of this month.

Today get a letter from a different company saying that the full balance is due and I have 30 days to notify them in writing of the validity of the debt.
The balance is what was due prior to my payment on the 7th.

There is nothing on my bill from the Surgery Center showing payment was overdo or were being sent to collections.

I called the Surgery Center and the lady said any payment plans that reach one year are sent to their long term billing company.
She said their long term billing company is not collections.

At the bottom of the letter I received today it says in big bold letters.

THIS COMMUNICATION IS FROM A DEBT COLLECTOR AND ANY COMMUNICATIONS OR PAYMENTS ARE DOCUMENTED AS SUCH.


It’s a valid debt that we have been paying monthly as setup directly with the Surgery Center’s billing department.
So, what do I do now to get this paid off without showing a collections issue?

They are a third party company and probably have a collections arm, any correspondence would need that federal disclaimer you quoted.

The question is if the new company is just a billing service or if they bought the debt from the surgical center.

Have you googled that company name, found a web page and see how they are structured, is it a subsidiary of the surgical/hospital, billing company, collections/billing service.

If they bought the debt they could report it as an outstanding debt on credit reports as an active account if you're paying on it.

Need to contact the billing company and find out

Don't every say its valid. Your first letter should simply say I dispute this debt (which in this case is the facts, you had a payment plan and nobody told you it ended at 1 year) with the appropriate details.
Make sure you send it with some form of certified mail and return receipt.

I would hope when you put it on a payment plan, they gave you documents and you kept those documents. And I hope that those documents set out the payment schedule that you've been following and intend to follow, and that that schedule extended past one year.

If so, I'd ignore the nonsense coming from whatever third party has mistakenly been loosed on you, and amble down to the Surgery Center, and tell their accountants to follow the agreement they made, and call off their dogs.

Companies like this use bully tactics to get people to pay. They like to threaten with legalese and hope you are ignorant enough that they can keep you scared.

They use the same tactics that scammers do. And they get a slice of what you owe. The quicker they collect, the quicker they make money.

I had a run in with one 15 or so years ago with similar circumstances. They would send threatening letters and call a bunch because “they” didn’t believe the minimum I had been
Paying (as agreed with by the provider) was enough. I reminded them that they have to sue me in the district court of the county I live in, and I would be requesting a jury trial. And that they could explain to six of my peers why they were the agreement police for a debt that was being paid on time. The calls stopped and I paid it off on schedule.

Weird.
So I got a 2nd letter from this new company thanking me for my payment. That would be the payment I made directly to the Surgery center prior to getting the 1st letter. Because I have had zero contact with the 2nd company.

It said to continue to make my monthly payments but now to the new company. Yet, still stated it was a past due delinquent account.
That all payments would need to be on time or I had to call for prior approval.

Then at the bottom of the letter it stated the full balance was due upon receipt of the letter.
It gave me a website to pay at, just for giggles I tried to go to the site but it did even take to a website.

So, today I called the surgery center billing office directly (not this new company) and said that I wanted to make a payment.
Gave her the account number and she made no mention of the balance being transferred to the other company.
So I just went ahead and paid it in full directly with the surgery center.
She also gave me a 10% discount for paying in full. Wanted to have ZERO dealings with this new company.

I also got it in writing from the surgery center that the balance was paid in full.

My first call would be to the place you had the original agreement.
Then go from there.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
My first call would be to the place you had the original agreement.
Then go from there.

That is what I ended up doing and just laid it of directly with the Surgery Center and not this new billing company.

This will never hit your credit report; they are not allowed to report it. And EVERYTHING is negotiable!