Comment Re:You must be kidding. (Score -1, Redundant) 63
Thank you. That's sweet of you to say.
Thank you. That's sweet of you to say.
There were fewer eyes back then...
In our particular case we keep getting sent a $600 bill from a local hospital because a specialist couldn't figure out the right ICD-9 on his paperwork which he submitted 6 months after the treatment, and our insurance rejected it. They're over the SOL, but that doesn't seem to stop them from mailing us twice a year.
I sort of feel bad for the hospital. Stupid doctor. They could get paid pretty quickly if they'd send the right paperwork to my previous insurer.
...having one is sufficient, until that one cancels you for never using it.
You'll get a good credit report either way short term, but make sure to do something to keep your account from being closed due to inactivity.
In a past life, I was fortunate to work for a large west-coast healthcare company.
The largest deductible I had in-network was $100 for surgery, and $75 for ER trips. I had to use said west-coast healthcare facilities if there was one within 50 miles of me, but we were pretty good hospitals, so I never minded.
I suspect most medical collections (by volume, not dollar) fall into unpaid copays, and miscoded bills that are never correctly sent to insurance.
I suspect most medical collections by dollar are catastrophic issues of some sort. Hospitalization for uninsured or underinsured.
A lot of people are stupid, sure.
Most big banks offer virtual card services. Google Wallet does too. If your bank doesn't, plenty of prepaid options make for safer online shopping.
I think EA and Microsoft should do their best to charge customers whatever their customers voluntarily agreed to, by whatever the cardholder agreement says. If they're breaking the cardholder agreement, they should be held responsible.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say you're over the statue of limitations on that...
I don't know why anyone has more than a couple quick interactions with a debt collector.
A flowchart for 'ya.
I actually suspect that's a lot of people's 35%.
We've been fighting a small medical bill because the hospital couldn't bill insurance correctly. Bill trickle in after major events (doctors and other specialists bill separately, badly, incorrectly coded) and rarely are they all seamless. Even perfectly covered items might leave a hospital (or doctor, or...whatever) chasing you around the world for a co-pay.
If my wife wasn't a benefits specialist in a previous life, we'd drown in the things - all so badly handled by incompetent billers and insurers.
Theme song?!?
Yeah, but entitlement!
This was discussed on Fatwallet today, and most of the sensationalism was debunked quickly.
http://www.fatwallet.com/forum...
A few juicy tidbits:
More details: "An alarming 35 percent of people with credit files have debt in collections reported in these file s . This percentage is nearly identical to results from a 2004 analysis of credit bureau data by the Federal Reserve, which found that 36.5 percent of people with credit report s had debt in collections reported in their file s (Avery et al. 2004). Note that consumers themselves may not realize they have debt in collections. Some consumers report becoming aware of this debt only when they review their credit report (CFPB 2013)"
...and...
The actual source: http://www.urban.org/publicati...
Only 5.3% are currently past due on a bill. "5.3 percent of people with a credit file have a report of past due debt, indicating they are between 30 and 180 days late on a nonmortgage payment"
So most of the people have old debts which could be up to 7 years old.
So there you go. A lot of us have an outstanding medical bill on our credit reports, and we should check them more often.
As much as I've already posted my support for this idea, there's no friggin' way Madden.Current will be available at launch for $30/year for year after year.
Madden fans are a slam dunk lock for $70/year.
I think it's just absolutely darling that people use non-virtual credit card numbers online.
If all else fails, lower your standards.
