A new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finds that 52% of all debt on credit reports is medical debt.
Even if you carry no debt on your credit card and pay your mortgage every month, another kind of debt might be ruining your credit: medical debt.
Almost 43 million Americans have overdue medical debt dragging down their credit, according to a new report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But 15 million of those people, by CFPB estimates, have no other dings on their credit. And debt collection agencies pursue fairly small medical debts: The average medical debt on a credit report is $579, and the median is just $207.
The scariest part? You may not know that you have a problem. ?Many, many people don?t even know they have a bill?much less that it?s affecting their credit score,? says Christina LaMontagne of NerdWallet.
The CFPB attributes part of the problem to a debt collection practice called ?parking.? The federal agency says some debt collectors will ding the consumer?s credit before even notifying the consumer that there?s an outstanding medical bill. ?Parking? the debt where it can do the most damage motivates the person to pay it off quickly. Sometimes insurers ultimately pay the costs?after a consumer?s credit may have already suffered.
Read more at TIME.COM
