Pro tip: My credit took a hit when I forgot about a $35 medical bill from 3 years ago

I was sitting at my kitchen table in Phoenix last month checking Credit Karma and saw my score dropped 60 points over some random ER copay I never paid. Anyone else have tiny medical bills sneak up and wreck their score?

4 comments

4 Comments

taylor.brooke3mo ago

and @anthony_jackson31 is right, that tiny bill can sit there for years. i had a $28 lab fee from 2019 pop up last spring and drop my score 50 points. it wasn't even from a doctor i remembered going to. the whole system feels broken when something that small can cause that much damage.

anthony_jackson313mo ago

Man @wesley639 you might have gotten lucky with that one because my experience was totally different. That little $35 bill sat on my report for almost two years before I even noticed it. Credit Karma popped up with the alert and I was kicking myself for not catching it sooner. The whole thing just feels unfair how one tiny slip up can mess with your score like that.

the_betty1mo ago

Girl YES exactly. I had a $42 copay from a dentist I literally went to ONE time in 2017 show up out of nowhere last year and tank my score by 60 points. Like how is that even legal? It's such a joke that a small bill you don't even know about can carry more weight than years of on time payments. And the worst part is you have to jump through hoops to get it removed even after you pay it. Makes me feel like the whole system is rigged to keep us stressed out over pennies.

wesley6393mo ago

I actually push back on that a little. I've had a $45 urgent care copay go to collections and it never showed up on my credit report. Sometimes those medical debts under $500 get lost in the system or sold to different agencies that never report.