One of the debts on our Debt spreadsheet is from an outstanding medical bill we owe. Before this month’s payment, we owed $5611.00. We’ve been making payments for years but have only been paying the minimum $25/month (with 0% interest). At some point we always knew we’d obviously pay more. But it was a lower priority when we have other student loan debts racking up over 6.5% interest!
Well, just this week we received a bill from the debt collection agency stating:
“If you will pay $3647.15 of your balance by phone using a debit card, credit card, or check by phone, our client has agreed to adjust the remaining $1963.85 and you will have a zero balance.”
Well, I thought it was a good deal. I immediately showed hubs.
“Hey, should we just pay this debt off and be done with it?!”
His thought is: no. We should continue making our minimum $25 payment as normal. He thinks that eventually they’ll come down even more. While we focus on my student loans we’re in no hurry with them. It can sit and wait (as we continue making our $25/month payments). They’ll be there when we’re ready to negotiate.
As a little backstory, at the time when we first incurred the medical debt (back in December 2013) I called and tried to negotiate settlements if I could pay the debt in full. We owed several different Medical Entities (I wrote about how hubs had a weird health crisis in one of my very first posts on this blog). When I called around, only one (0ut of maybe 4 or 5) would even negotiate. I’ve since heard Dave Ramsey talk about this on his radio shows: few medical entities (or collectors for medical entities) will negotiate and settle debts. I guess they’re less likely to do it than a major credit card company, for example.
So the fact that this company is offering a settlement now, I thought, was HUGE!
But then, I got a call today on my cell. It’s the debt collection company (who has never once tried to contact me before). They asked how we planned to pay our bill. I told them that we’ve been paying our bill and planned to continue the way we have been. They said that, no, we were not actually on a payment plan. That we needed to pay the bill in full. And then they started trying to confirm information (employer, address, etc.). I confirmed our address but, when they asked about employers I said I was uncomfortable talking about that and they got all huffy and ended up hanging up on me. No mention of the settlement offer that they had just mailed.
Soooo…what the heck, guys???
I don’t know what to do! I’ve heard many times on Ramsey’s show about nasty debt collectors calling employers, etc. I’ve literally never had a call from this entity before and have been making faithful payments. Now I don’t know if they’re lying, or trying to scare us into paying, or what?! And I was about to pay in full to receive this settlement, but now I don’t know if that’s a terrible idea – like if they’re trying to take advantage of us. For instance, if we pay with a debit card and then they try to withdraw more than we agreed to, etc. Or what if I’m being overly dramatic? I just have absolutely NO experience with debt collectors. And then we get this letter, and now this rude call, and now I’m worried about my boss getting a call… What the heck!?
Thoughts? Advice? Words of wisdom?
