Dear Dr. Cho,
Nearly two years ago you fixed my tooth. You were fast, efficient, and the process was mostly painless.
I was broke, young, stupid, and in pain.
I didn’t clear with my insurance that the procedure would be covered, and so I was not expecting the $90 bill when it came due from your office.
I didn’t pay you. A few months later I filed bankruptcy.
Fast forward to today. I received an invoice from your office, and frankly, I had completely forgotten about this.
And for that I apologize.
Your check is in the mail. (really)
~DK
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Honorable
Extremely honourable – well done!
Wait — was this money discharged in your bankruptcy? If so, under federal law, they were prohibited from sending you any more bills to collect on the old debt. Violation of discharge is a serious, serious offense. You could move to have your bankruptcy case reopened and punitive damages assessed for something like that. I’m not saying you would do that for $90, but just know that in the future…
Good for you DK!!!
It’s good to hear stories like this, of people who fee on hard times and are trying to do what’s right when they can.
@ Anonymous: Perhaps you are missing the point. Even though bankruptcy discharges your debt, it is not always some huge credit card bank/corporation that has to eat the cost. Some times it is the neighborhood dental office, doctors office, small business, and those are individuals who have to eat that cost, which takes away from what they bring home to their families. Some times, even if your debt is discharged, making an effort to pay back some people is just the right thing to do.
@ ryan – Exactly what I was going to reply!
I am NOT missing the point. I see nothing wrong with debtors approaching their old creditors out of their own volition to pay back an old debt. This is perfectly legal, and it happens all the time. And where these debtors have managed to pick up the pieces and are doing well, perhaps they SHOULD do this.
My problem is only with the fact that the dental office BILLED you for those services after your bankruptcy. If you owed them the money when you filed for bankruptcy, they are responsible for canceling your debt, and thus should know you no longer owe it.
When a creditor continues to provide invoices to a debtor who has no legal obligation for that debt, the creditor is attempting to skirt the legal system and collect money to which it is not rightfully entitled by appealing to the debtor’s heartstrings. There are several reasons why this is a problem. First, if everyone did it, even just the small mom and pop businesses (as you seem to distinguish these as somehow special), they would undermine debtors’ fresh start. Can you imagine, Debt Kid, if you had just wiped away your debt in bankruptcy but your creditors were allowed to continue to harass you by mailing you bills and calling you all the time? What if they were just the mom and pop stores, but they tried to manipulate you by trying to make you feel bad about not paying them, or told you you could never purchase their products again if you didn’t pay up on the old debt? Wouldn’t you feel like you’d just run through the bankruptcy process for nothing? The great majority debtors are in bankruptcy for reasons entirely beyond their control — because they were too poor to carry medical insurance and fell behind on medical payments, or because they lost their jobs and had to put their groceries on credit cards to feed their kids. Would you say it is ok for businesses to harass these people until they pay back every last dime post-bankruptcy, so long as they are mom and pop stores?
Secondly, the theory of bankruptcy is that debtors often have limited funds by the time they file, so general unsecured creditors should all be placed on equal footing as to the percentage of their debt that they collect. I would argue that if mom and pop stores were given a free pass to take more from debtors, big corporations would run to their lobbyists to try to change the federal laws to allow THEM to do the same, and the entire system would collapse. The system only works to the extent that it is FAIR.
Again, I have no problem with Debt Kid or any other debtor recognizing the great hit that a particular business (or other creditor, like a family member) is taking from his or her bankruptcy, and voluntarily deciding to pay this money back. However, the debtor does not legally owe the money, and the business should NOT be able to continue to mail bills as though he/she did.
@Anonymous
Unless some one informed the dentists office that debtkid had filed for bankruptcy the office would have no way of knowing that the invoice was not legal. It may not have actually been a harassing and illegal missive. Additionally, unless debtkid listed that $90 bill on his bankruptcy filing, it was not discharged. The court only discharges what is presented to them in the filings.
Yes, I am sorry if I was not clear. IF Debt Kid listed the debt on his schedules, then the dentist office received notification by mail, and the court would determine that it received notice of his debt (the fact that the business inadvertantly forgot to cancel the debt, or that higher-ups at a company were not aware of the mailing is not a defense).
In some states, a court would consider the debt discharged even if a debtor did not list it on his schedules in a no-asset bankruptcy, but there would be no presumption of knowledge in such a case to find a violation of discharge until the debtor mentioned the bankruptcy specifically.
I did not list this on the schedule. They had no clue, so I think that should end this thread discussion.
Nested comments, sweet!
Okay this is the issue. I have a credit score the highest is 555 and I’m trying to purchase a home for first time homebuyers. The loan officer told me that I need a credit score of 620 in order to qualify. The thing is that I want to take advantage of purchasing my own home by the end of the year. So what do I need to do to raise my credit score fast to 620 at least. I have to negative accounts on my credit report. I have no credit cards thats in good standing . The ones that I had been charged off and close they also been transferred to another company. So what is the best solution to this in order to get into my new home with that 620 credit score.