One of our readers, Andy L. sent us this question:

My aunt has an outstanding doctor bill that is past due. The account for this bill is in her name only. Without my approval, she told the office manager at the doctor’s office to start sending me the bill for payment. I have not made any payments, and have not signed any agreements to pay this bill, even though the bills are now being sent to my address. The bill is now past due and will be sent to a collection agency, since it is delinquent. Will non-payment of this bill affect my fico score? If so, what do I need to do to clear this up?

Dear Andy,

Thanks for your question! First, I am going to have you go get the most recent bill you received on her behalf. Is it in your name? Or is it in her name and being mailed to you?

If the bill is in her name, but being mailed to you then it most likely will not show up on your credit report if it goes further delinquent. From your question, it looks like this is the case.

If the bill has been transferred to your name, then you have a problem. As long as that bill is in her name, it should only affect her credit score, even if it comes to your address. However, if the bill is actually addressed to you and has your name on it, then yes, it will affect your credit if it goes past due.

Here are some steps you can take to help protect your credit score from someone else’s debt:

1. Call the doctor’s office and speak to their billing department. Explain to them that you did not authorize this debt, that your aunt does not live with you, and that you have no intention of paying someone else’s bill. Ask that they remove your address from their records. If you can do this before it goes to collections, then you can avoid collection calls at your address once they do sell the debt.
2. Temporarily purchase a credit monitoring service. I highly recommend Transunion’s credit monitoring service, True Credit. I use it myself, and I really like it. It will cost you around $15 a month to monitor your credit report at all three credit bureaus. You do not need to purchase your credit score, just your credit reports. Keep an eye on your reports for the next two to three months. That will be long enough to be sure that her debt is not showing up on your credit reports. You will need to monitor all three of your credit reports because not all collections companies report to all three credit bureaus.
3. If you begin getting phone calls from collections companies asking for your aunt, do not hang up on them, they will not go away. Your best bet is to tell them exactly what you told the doctor’s office. This is not your debt, you are disputing it. Make sure they know your aunt does not live with you. If possible, give them her information instead. You may have to tell them this up to three times before they will quit contacting you.
4. Alternatively, if you do not wish to spend a lot of money monitoring your credit, simply wait about 3 months to be sure the doctor’s office has sold her debt, and then request a free copy of all three of your credit reports. You only get one free credit report from each bureau per year so you will want to wait long enough to be sure that the debt is showing up.

It is a difficult situation any time you have a family member who is avoiding their debt. I wish you the best of luck as you get everything worked out. Please come back and let us know how it goes?

Thanks,
Jenna

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 at 09:45 and is filed under Debt Reduction FAQ, Reader's FAQ. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.