Collection Accounts - What are my options?

In reply to psteav:

Hey, Esq: Tell the OP about the berkeley off letter to send to the collection agencies. You know, Fair Debt Collections Act blah blah, berkeley off, bu-bye.

Also, I've seen references to it in the above chain, but not the actual name: Statue of Limitation. Each state has one for debt and it's different for different types of debt. Look it up. The whole system with the medical bills has been established to push the bill to a collection agency. Those $5 aspirin do exist, if they are not $10 today, or more, and they are there, in my opinion, to maximize the bill as much as possible so that whatever percentage the hospital eventually gets results in a larger net income. So, if you get 40% of a .5 cent aspirin, that's not near as good as 40% of a $10 aspirin. The states then set up medical debt to have a separate class in their statues of limitation. Anyway, that's just how I think it went. An important point, noted above, is that if you send one cent to a collection agency on a 5 year old debt, that restarts the clock. Full payment in one shot on old debt (as a settlement) is the only thing to do from a protect-your-back side standpoint and to avoid more Esquire related issues. In the mean time, they can't touch you.

I ain't a lawyer. Do your own research, and teh car forums on teh intr4w3bz, y0, is not a good source of legal advice. A friend of mine was in a position not dissimilar to the OP and I had to help him get through it. I learned a lot, and it sucked, but knowledge is pow-wah.

Dr. Hess wrote: In reply to psteav: Hey, Esq: Tell the OP about the berkeley off letter to send to the collection agencies. You know, Fair Debt Collections Act blah blah, berkeley off, bu-bye. Also, I've seen references to it in the above chain, but not the actual name: Statue of Limitation. Each state has one for debt and it's different for different types of debt. Look it up. The whole system with the medical bills has been established to push the bill to a collection agency. Those $5 aspirin do exist, if they are not $10 today, or more, and they are there, in my opinion, to maximize the bill as much as possible so that whatever percentage the hospital eventually gets results in a larger net income. So, if you get 40% of a .5 cent aspirin, that's not near as good as 40% of a $10 aspirin. The states then set up medical debt to have a separate class in their statues of limitation. Anyway, that's just how I think it went. An important point, noted above, is that if you send one cent to a collection agency on a 5 year old debt, that restarts the clock. Full payment in one shot on old debt (as a settlement) is the only thing to do from a protect-your-back side standpoint and to avoid more Esquire related issues. In the mean time, they can't touch you. I ain't a lawyer. Do your own research, and teh car forums on teh intr4w3bz, y0, is not a good source of legal advice. A friend of mine was in a position not dissimilar to the OP and I had to help him get through it. I learned a lot, and it sucked, but knowledge is pow-wah.

That's STATUTE of limitation, doc. Each state sets its own different statute of limitation on medical debt. From the general gist of the OP's post, it seemed to me like these had been fairly recent events. FDCPA in my experience is occasionally useful, but by itself it won't absolve you from debts that you actually owe.

OP, check out nclc.org for a start.

Yeah, statute. My bad. A dyslexic doctor is not an esquire.

My point was that states typically have a different STATUTE of limitation on medical debt versus, say, credit card debt, and my THEORY is because it's part of the game. And, of course, debt just being old doesn't mean you don't owe it, just that they can't sue you for it, and THE LETTER will get the phone calls stopped. Just ask Greece, and Spain soon. Wait a little bit and ask Italy.

In reply to mattmacklind: Thank you for all the additional information! I am not that well educated in this sort of thing...I guess I will be by the time I am done dealing with all this though!

In reply to alex: I am definitely going to have to do some more research on bankruptcy, I think it may be a good route to go. There is a stigma surrounding the word that made me hesitant to consider it!

In reply to psteav:

Thank you very much! I sent you a quick message with a couple of additional questions, it would be much appreciated if you could take a minute to look it over!

For the record I am currently residing in Oregon. I do have a couple of debts based out of Texas as well.

In reply to bearmtnmartin: The bike has already been sold, actually I sold three motorcycles already to help with this. The Jeep is technically owned by a business of mine, which is incorporated, and it is needed for installations, etc. Besides my business I work in sales, and spend a fair amount of time visiting clients for that job as well. And I hate to say it, but image counts when it comes to your clients. I don't really like the Jeep, as most SUVs. But this thing is a necessary evil. Also I will add that my SO and I are currently sharing the Jeep for all purposes, which sucks but has to be done.

In reply to novaderrik:

True. Things were going extremely well, especially considering my age. Well I will not give any exact figures its pretty well above the median household income for the west. It has decreased since before the problems started by about 25% unfortunately.

In reply to curtis73: Thank you for the words of encouragement!

In reply to Curmudgeon: My debt equals about what I make in a year between the business and job...under 100k over 50k

In reply to Dr. Hess: I didn't realize there was a statute of limitations on debt, I'll check that out. Thank you

I agree car forums aren't the best source, but this forum at least has a lot of knowledgeable people on it that can at least give me some ideas. I look at it like I am talking to some buddies at a bar, asking them what THEY think.

'Bout time for you to buy another round, ain't it?

Curmudgeon wrote: 'Bout time for you to buy another round, ain't it?

Haha, its my pleasure.

Gentleman, have a Black Butte Porter on me: