How Medical Bills Affect Credit Score

Do Medical Bills Affect Your Credit Score?

Trinity Credit Services will not only help you establish or repair your credit, but they will also give you the advice you need to know about what affects your credit score.

There's a very common myth surrounding the issue of medical bills and how they impact a person's credit score. Many people erroneously believe that medical bills don't factor into their credit scores, and that lenders can't consider medical debt in their decision to approve a loan. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Medical bills do affect your credit, likely costing thousands of people more than they know. If you have high medical debt, making late payments or ignoring the debt could mean a big hit to your credit score.

Many of us have extremely high medical debt. Whether you didn't have insurance coverage when you got sick, or if costs exceeded your plan's coverage, you're still on the hook to pay the physicians who provided you care.

It is true that most physicians and hospitals don't report medical bills to the three major credit bureaus, which could mean that you're in the clear, so long as the outstanding bill doesn't go to collections. If your debt is transferred to a third-party collections agency, they do report to the credit bureaus, and can use aggressive collection tactics to settle the debt.

Medical collections, though, are still a part of most lenders' approval process. The debt isn't considered less important, and your medical bills could prevent you from being approved for a home or car loan.

If you've been unable to work after an injury or illness, you could be looking at a serious financial crisis. One study showed that medical debt is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the United States 56 million Americans currently have extremely high medical bills.

Your credit score is an important part of your financial future, and it's important to keep medical bills out of the way if at all possible. If you're having trouble paying, work with doctors and other providers to set up a payment plan, and stick to it. If you are completely unable to pay back medical debt, you may need to consider getting professional help.

Facing high medical bills is extremely challenging, but there are a number of services that can help you fight back against your debt. Working with a credit counselor can help you consolidate bills, and work out settlements with accounts that have been sent to collections. You can always improve your credit score over time, but the increases come slowly.

Contact us at Trinity Credit Services for any questions you may have. 

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