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California Collection Laws?*

Is there a certain amount of time businesses have to send you to collections? Here's the problem. I went to a dentist April 2003. Moved in Dec 2003 (had mail forwarded & same phone #) in other words I can be contacted. I never received a bill or phone call from them. It's now 2009 and this appeared on my credit reported.As far as I'm concerned I never even had a balance with them . It has now been sent to some shady collection agency who has complaints all over (including ripoffreport.com) This does not seem fair. I cannot get in touch with a live person at the collection agency. Basically why didn't the dentist ever contact me???? Can they now send me to collections 6 years later? Any advice appreciated. *** I should not have had a balance I am meticulous about my personal finances.Before you waste your time and mine by asking why I didn't pay for services rendered make sure you read carefully. I never tried to skip out on making payments. If I had bad credit I wouldn't even be concerned with this. I am trying to maintain my excellent credit. The question is how long do they have to send me to collections. If there even is a time period. Seems strange they would send me 6 years later. Thank you to those who have given me useful advice.

Answers:

1) Equally as important, why didn't you contact your dentist? You knew you got the service and did not pay for it.

2) The statute of limitations for collections in CA is 4 years. However, if you make any payment on it, it starts a new 4 year collection period regardless of the lapse between the 1st 4 yrs and the re-start. By law, collections can report on your credit for a total of 7 years from the date of last activity. Therefore, if your trip to the dentist were in April 2003, it can only report until April 2010. Ignore the collection. At this point, new creditors will regard it as an insurance issue that failed to pay, and not against you. Any damage to your credit score has fully recovered. If you paid it now, it would have a serious detrement to your scores again. Should the agency call you, try to get a name (even just a first name) of the collector and then tell them do not call you again. If they continue to harass after that point, call your District Attorneys office and report them.

3) Actually it is very common for medical/dental bills to turn up several years after the service. Insurance companies tend to drag out payment and claims get rejected due to code problems. These small amounts sit on the medical provider's books for years till they decide to charge 'em off and sell to a collection agency. At this point, the debt is beyond the Statute of Limitation (SOL), the timeframe to bring lawsuit and will age off your credit report in another year or so. A six year old dental bill isn't hurting your score very much. If the collection agency contacts you again, get the name and address (you can google the name to get the address). Send them a certified, return receipt letter telling them to cease and desist all contact. The debt is beyond the SOL. They must stop. But they may sell the debt off to another collection agency and you will need to send another cease and desist letter.

4) If you have been meticulous in your record keeping, send a letter to the dentist and prove to the dentist that he/she was paid. Also request that the dentist recall the (paid) debt from the collector, making sure the collector fully removes the account from their files and what they had placed on your reports. If insurance was supposed to pay, you need to contact the dentist and the insurance company to see where the problem lies.

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