Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Maryland

Receiving letter from debt collector even though paying on bill

Does a hospital have the right to send a bill that you are paying on to a debt collector? I owed a hospital $474.81. I paid two monthly payments of $100.00 and now owe $274.81. I did not receive a bill in July and I always know when something is due by where I put my bills. If a bill had been sent I would have paid another $100.00 in July. And then in August would have paid in full. But they sent it to a debt collector because they want the total amount in full. I thought that as long as you are paying or attempting to pay a bill they could not do this. They did this once before amd I sent my payments to the debt collector, but even though I had been paying the hospital and then paid the collector in full and they still send it in to credit reporting agencies and it appears as a debt to be collected as though I hadn't been paying on it at all.


Asked on 8/11/05, 5:57 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michelle Stawinski Bouland & Brush LLC

Re: Receiving letter from debt collector even though paying on bill

Unless you have an agreement that the creditor will accept payment over time, the creditor has a right to collect all of the amounts owed at once. If they agreed to accept your partial payments every month, they should not have sent the debt to a debt collector. However, if you just decided to make partial payments without their approval, they can send the debt to a debt collector. You should, however, request verification of the amount of the debt from the debt collector to ensure that you do not overpay.

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Answered on 8/12/05, 8:44 am


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