First, I’m not looking for absolution or comfort. Please let me know what this will mean for a BI and chances for clearance.
3 years ago my wife and I moved. We bought a house with a big yard and a pool - something we hadn’t before. The house was a fixer upper and the yard needed serious work. So when we moved we broke down responsibilities. I’d take of the house projects and yard while she’d take care of the finances and daily things like the kitchen and laundry.
Over the course of a year 3 medical bills went to collections. Small. All less than $300 each. I didn’t know about them until I got a call from the collector, and paid immediately. In one case we never got notice from collections, and the other two were just my wife forgetting and just habitually playing bills through online portals rather than by mail which this provider required until recently.
This hasn’t happened again in a year since we got some financial monitoring software, and we’ve done better keeping track of all bills.
We both have excellent credit (750+), and not a history before that. I know, my bills my responsibility. But in our relationship she handles the money - just recently got her CPA.
So, what are everyone’s thoughts? Would this issue be mitigated?
I think if you have paid these off there should not be a problem. The investigator will probably want to see details of the debts and the payments, maybe some kind of paid-in-full notice or a statement showing a zero balance.
Also, I’m not sure if medical debt is treated differently. I’ve heard there are changes in how medical debt is treated for credit reporting purposes, but I don’t think that extends to what investigators and adjudicators have access to.
It may attract some additional scrutiny, but you should be in good shape.
Thanks. I actually contacted the debt collector and verified any and all and had them send paperwork. I recall conversations in the past where they actually said that if they were paid by a certain date that they wouldn’t report them to the credit bureaus.
Just be aware that even if they are not reported to the credit bureaus you still should list items that went to collections on the paperwork. As long as you have documentation that the debts have been paid, can explain why they went unpaid and steps you have taken to ensure debts are paid going forward, it should not be a disqualifying issue on its own.
My wife let several of her medical bills and a utility bill go to collections. When I asked my CSO, she said that since those bills are in her name, it doesn’t affect my clearance and I don’t need to report anything. Not sure if that would apply to you since you haven’t gotten your clearance yet. But, at least something to consider, if those bills were in your wife;s name only…
Thanks, hah unfortunately not. And I spent some time looking back. We did 4 things to address it but though:
Got quicken software to monitor all accounts, debts & balances
Signed up with hospital system to have all bills emailed and texted
Remaining bills put on automatic payment with HSA account
Contacted the hospital system to verify a zero balance.
I also found emails where I had disputed one. It was strange situation. I got a debt collection bill after I had paid off the balance on my account. Fortunately the hospital tracks every time you login and pay, so it shows the account balance paid prior to receiving the debt collection. I’ll have to go back and find out why that happened.
Question - will it look bad or good if I signed up for credit monitoring just before I accepted the job offer? I would figure another proactive step would also show mitigation, but of course the contractor pulls credit in their own background check and I wanted to make sure that was okay before accepting the offer.