Can anyone recommend a good credit monitoring service? (1 Viewer)

[Chicken Rob]

im in the middle of medical bill hell. I have bills being sent to collection that I never received, while the medical records office was withholding my records so my short term disability claim remained rejected for 3 months.

I'm happy to pay my bills, but when I call the hospital billing they say I'm in collections, and collections has no bills for me. I don't know even how to pay.

The last time this happened to me it trashed my credit rating. I'd like to see what is being reported to all 3 credit reporting agencies. All the sellers of this service seem really crappy to me. Can anyone recommend someone?

 

[links_slayer]

bah - this really sucks. sorry to hear this rob, especially since there seems to be a disconnect somewhere on their end. i don't have any advice but i really hope you can get it sorted out. you definitely don't strike me as the deadbeat non-bill-paying type (and i'm pretty confident in my read here).

threadjack

reminds me of a scuffle i had with insurance during my ordeal. they didn't cover the reading of a scan/consult from an out of network radiologist because i didn't get pre-authorization. i didn't know he was going to read it and i told them i wasn't sure how i was supposed to get pre-auth for a service that i didn't know was going to be done. and it's not like i wasn't familiar with the out of network red tape - i had dozens of pre-auth requests on file with all of the tests, scans, etc. it turned into a finger pointing game between the insurer and the out of network provider and i finally threw up my hands and said "you know what, i have more important things to deal with right now than listening to the two of you blame each other. here's my credit card number."

/threadjack

 

[pltrgyst]

I have no personal experience with credit monitoring services, but a good friend used USAA's credit monitoring service when he had a similar sticky situation involving some badly entangled real estate deals, and was very happy with them. I do all my banking and as much insurance as I can with USAA, and they've always been the best.

If you have or are eligible for USAA membership, I'd certainly recommend them.
http://bit.ly/1QEmZut

 

[Chicken Rob]

Awesome. I'll look into usaa. I asked my dad to join so I could be eligible too, as I think it's my only way in. I never served. In the mean time, I'll still take other recommendations on this topic.

 

[Chicken Rob]

bah - this really sucks. sorry to hear this rob, especially since there seems to be a disconnect somewhere on their end. i don't have any advice but i really hope you can get it sorted out. you definitely don't strike me as the deadbeat non-bill-paying type (and i'm pretty confident in my read here).

threadjack

reminds me of a scuffle i had with insurance during my ordeal. they didn't cover the reading of a scan/consult from an out of network radiologist because i didn't get pre-authorization. i didn't know he was going to read it and i told them i wasn't sure how i was supposed to get pre-auth for a service that i didn't know was going to be done. and it's not like i wasn't familiar with the out of network red tape - i had dozens of pre-auth requests on file with all of the tests, scans, etc. it turned into a finger pointing game between the insurer and the out of network provider and i finally threw up my hands and said "you know what, i have more important things to deal with right now than listening to the two of you blame each other. here's my credit card number."

/threadjack

I was in the finger pointing game between medical records and disability insurance. They kept blaming each other. For 3 months. They owed me $18k, which was enough to keep fighting for. I finally got a check last week. 3 weeks after returning to work.

 

[links_slayer]

They owed me $18k, which was enough to keep fighting for.

Uhhhh, yeah, I'd say! Mine wasn't even 4 figures and I just figured it was a small price to pay considering my total out of pocket was so insignificant compared to the grand total.

 

[Chicken Rob]

I also think it's funny that the hospital withheld my records from the insurance company for 3 months, leaving me no income for that period, depriving me of 18k in benefits, yet in that same time period sent me to collections for 1k in bills I never even saw. The bureaucracy is just crazy.

 

[Chicken Rob]

I feel like I'm living in a Kafka novel.

 

[David O]

You can also use "Credit Karma" which will give you your three scores. It's a pretty good way to see what changes are throughout the month. They update the scores quite often. It is free but does not alert you like a true credit monitoring service.

 

[trever]

Call the hospital's patient ombudsman, they may be able to help. If they dont have one, call the directors of revenue cycle and patient records. Also file a complaint about the hospital with your insurance company.

 

[Chicken Rob]

You can also use "Credit Karma" which will give you your three scores. It's a pretty good way to see what changes are throughout the month. They update the scores quite often. It is free but does not alert you like a true credit monitoring service.

I'm gonna check them out. Does it give the whole report, or just the scores?

 

[David O]

I'm gonna check them out. Does it give the whole report, or just the scores?

It shows you what the creditors have put in for past payments with any comments. It is free with no obligations. I use it just to see whats going on. It constantly updates so you know where you stand with Equifax and Transunion. It shows all of your history of loans and which ones are closed. I think it is pretty detailed for a free service. You can also tie in your accounts and bank services so it will let you know what is going on with them, In fact I logged in this morning and it shows that my scores were updated 7 days ago. I highly recommend it.

Go to Creditkarma.com and take a look.

 

[Chicken Rob]

Just got back from credit karma. My most recent update was today. No derogatory marks at the 2 agencies reported.

Anyone know a good source of free reporting on experian? Or even a good pay service? I'd love to keep an eye on this stuff until my bills are sorted out.

 

[David O]

You can dispute the entries by writing the credit bureaus stating your case. By using Credit Karma I saw they had out my son on my credit report which really did not affect it but I did not want his items in my report. They will ask you for some proof which I gave them and they removed the items from my report. Here is a helpful link from credit karma on disputes.
https://www.creditkarma.com/article/dispute-credit-report-errors

 

[Chicken Rob]

I have experience successfully disputing charges, I'm just trying to keep an eye out to see if there is anything to dispute.

 

[David O]

Give it a try and if you have an iPhone there is a free app on there as well which you can set up alerts. Hope everything works out for you!!!

 

[tommythecat]

I use myFICO.com. It's $25 a month but it has been the best out of the few I have used. It gives you all 3 reports every year and monitors all 3 bureaus daily. And it gives you all of your real FICO scores.

Edit: It has helped me tremendously in rebuilding my credit. I filed bankruptcy almost 9 years ago and being able to keep an eye on things really helped bring my scores back up as it kept me more responsible.

 

[Chicken Rob]

I don't think I need ongoing monitoring. Or maybe I do. I don't know.

All I do know is that I have good credit scores and no current derogatory reports on my record, and want to be sure this hospital billing fiasco doesn't haunt me. $25 for a month of reports is probably reAsonable for me right now, but $300/year seems like a lot for credit monitoring, especially when 2 of 3 of the agencies allow for free monitoring.

 

[tommythecat]

I don't think I need ongoing monitoring. Or maybe I do. I don't know.

All I do know is that I have good credit scores and no current derogatory reports on my record, and want to be sure this hospital billing fiasco doesn't haunt me. $25 for a month of reports is probably reAsonable for me right now, but $300/year seems like a lot for credit monitoring, especially when 2 of 3 of the agencies allow for free monitoring.

Yeah, if my scores were better and my bankruptcy was off all 3 of my reports (still on 2) I wouldn't find the same value in it that I do now. I haven't had a single late payment or derogatory report since filing 9 years ago. Once everything is in the clear I will be cancelling because the free options will give enough info for regular monitoring.

 

[Chicken Rob]

I'm now getting credit karma banner ads on PCF. I clicked one in case it gives tommy revenue. Felt like good karma.

 

[SixSpeedFury]

Credit Karma is all you need really. Download the app and you'll have it in the palm of your hands as well.

 

[Chicken Rob]

Credit Karma is all you need really. Download the app and you'll have it in the palm of your hands as well.

I have found in the past that the 3 agencies can have different information. I still want to be sure experian stays clean as well. I just don't trust the hospitals billing practices.

 

[tigon]

Even basic medical treatment in the US seems like it could be a potential financial nightmare if you're not insured to the gills. Sucks you have to go through this when you're supposed to be recovering!

 

[Chicken Rob]

Even basic medical treatment in the US seems like it could be a potential financial nightmare if you're not insured to the gills. Sucks you have to go through this when you're supposed to be recovering!

I'm fully insured, and will probably be $2500 out of pocket for this recent health crisis. To top it off, I get no coverage on the therapies that are actually helping me recover. U.S. Healthcare is a mess.