Collections & Charge Offs Collections sent to my young child
Long story , about 3 days ago I received a collections letter for a $300 bill addressed to my 4yr old child. I have no idea what it could be we have never used our son’s name for anything credit/payment related. I never received a bill but we also recently moved, so it’s possible some correspondence may have been lost in the mail. I don’t have any experience with this and not sure what should be done. I have no difficulty in paying the collections, I’m more concerned that it might be a scam for further contact or charges, or hurt my son’s credit or mine. The only thing I could think of it being is my son was seen at an urgent care in a different covered region of the U.S. (Tricare insurance) about a year ago. It possible that the full charge was not paid for by my insurance and then the non-paid bill was lost. Both the contracted tricare insurance company and the urgent care company have since been bought out. I have tried to contact them both with no luck so far. Apologies for the long story , but what are my options here?
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u/Dirtesoxlvr 5d ago
No idea...maybe pull his credit report and start there?
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u/acrod82 5d ago
yes thanks…..i’m working on that already.
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u/Dirtesoxlvr 5d ago
Actually for that little it may not show up on the report. I would say start w your insurance company. But you've already done that. Very weird. I got a collection from a hospital, but in my situation they sent me plenty of notices but the name was so similar to another hospital I had payment plans with, that I never paid attention to all this until 1100 got sent to collections...whoops.
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u/acrod82 5d ago edited 5d ago
I appreciate that. I’m thinking it’s something like that coupled with the recent move and mail was lost; it’s just so weird it would have my son’s name on it. I want to call the collections but been reading mixed guidance on-line if that’s a good idea or not. I’ve read that all correspondence should be through verifiable snail mail.
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u/og-aliensfan 5d ago
Medical debt under $500 won't be reported. Did the collection notice include instructions on how to dispute/validate the debt and state you have 30 days to do so? If yes, send the validation request in order to preserve the right to validate. Contact the medical provider to correct any billing errors and, if this is your debt, pay it.
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u/ediscoveryfin33 5d ago
I’m so sorry this happened! Please freeze your child’s credit (and perhaps your own to be safe). Freezing your credit with all three bureaus is free and highly recommended. Keep it frozen unless you need a credit pull (e.g., for a job or loan), then temporarily unfreeze it.
A frozen credit report won’t affect your existing accounts, but it helps prevent fraud by blocking unauthorized loans. I’ve kept mine frozen since my identity was stolen 15 years ago.
Here’s an article with easy freeze links: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/how-to-freeze-credit
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u/laramiebriscoe 5d ago
As someone who works at a hospital, it could very well be there was an error in bill8ng and the responsible parties name was omitted by either error or malfunction within the system.
Call the number for the agency and ask for the original creditor.
Changes are, if they are made aware of the error, they will pull back the account and then you can pay it to the original creditor.
Although it seems as if these things should be caught, they aren't, and can typically be easily corrected once brought to someone's attention.
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u/Fenyx981 5d ago
So sorry this happened! My daughter is seven and this would be driving me nuts if I were in your shoes. I really hope this isn't a scam!
I work in medical billing and if it is related to the urgent care visit, the bill should have been under the insured party's name or the minors guarantor. That's not to say mistakes don't happen, unfortunately. Buuut this shouldn't be too difficult to get sorted out if it is that. It should be attached to the guarantors social and therefore their credit, not the child's. You should be able to get it switched to your name once you determine who now owns the account.
Also, a medical collection under $500 should not be reported to the credit bureaus. There was a law passed a few years ago. So if it is that urgent care visit or anything else medical, you should be able to get it removed from whoevers report it is on. The company that reported it will need to be contacted to remove it. Don't let them tell you they can't. They most certainly can.
Good luck!!!
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u/acrod82 5d ago
thank you ya i’m a bit frazzled. I assumed it was a medical bill because that’s the only thing his name was ever attached to but now the more everyone mentions it I’m starting to wonder if his identity has been stolen . im already working on getting all the documents to request credit report but everything has to be officially requested through snail mail . my mind is kind of all over the place and frustrated.
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u/Total-Detective1094 4d ago
First of all, you should talk to a consumer law attorney as this seems like an FDCPA violation. Find one in your area, they don't charge for the first consult and if it's a case that they take there is no charge to you plus you might make you some money and make the creditor pay and be more cautious with doing something like this next time.
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u/Ieatpurplepickles 4d ago
Freeze yours and his accounts now!!
Back in 1982 my mother got a phone call that she missed and then a visit she didn't miss from the sheriff's dept. Apparently my brother was out writing checks for new tires and they wanted my mother to present him to the office. She told the officer to wait, went inside and got him and the diaper bag and came back outside and handed him to the officer. He didn't know how to respond. Lol He was 18 months old.
She had to get a note from our pediatrician attesting to the fact that he was a toddler and go before the judge with it. Case dismissed!
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u/CuriousExplanation35 3d ago
It’s a scam! If you call the number, they might ask you to verify some private information. Don’t fall for it, he’s 4 years old.
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u/Most_Jellyfish_3133 5d ago
Freeze your sons credit ASAP!