When I was moving away from NC, I missed a medical payment at Duke Healthcare that was not covered by the Duke HMO. It was referred to Security Collection Agency for collections.
I received a letter from SCA in which they threatened to report their claim to the credit agencies if I did not pay within 30 days. SCA's accounting was inaccurate -- they had the amount in question wrong and the wrong number of accounts (I only had one account with Duke, but they insisted I had three). I called to discuss their letter and dispute the amount they claimed. The amount in question was only $155 out of $7,300 that had already been paid on time.
To avoid credit problems I agreed to pay SCA over the phone. This was within the 30 day period -- but it turned out SCA had already reported their claim to the credit agencies! Theirs is the first and only negative mark I've ever had on my credit reports. I've tried to have it removed, but once on, these things are very difficult to have deleted. Not only did SCA report the claim, they reported the wrong amount ($120) and they reported the same amount twice, thus showing two collections instead of one.
I was eventually able to get one of the collections removed from TransUnion, but I can't seem to get Equifax to make any changes. SCA is completely uncooperative. This has been going on for nearly four years.
This company should be investigated by the NC Attorney General's office.
Pros: Received no paper cuts from their letter.
Cons: Lied about 30-day notice. Poor communication. Bad arithmetic. Unresponsive.
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