Medical Debt Help: Beware of Junk Debt Buyers

Junk Debt Buyers are also known by the perfumed name debt acquisition companies. What these companies specialize in is to assume the debts due to bankruptcy, unpaid mortgages, settlement or medical bills. The intangible nature of debt makes it very easy for a company to trade it with another collection agency. This has become a problem in the United States although not much attention is given to it, again because nobody could keep track of what everybody is doing as the federal government struggles to keep the economy afloat. So if you suspect that you are dealing with a junk buyer, seek medical debt help immediately.

First and foremost, you can go to a lawyer. Trading debts is illegal in all states and your lawyer can petition the court anytime which would result in the dismissal of the collection case filed by the junk debt buyer against you.

As you can see, there's a lot of risks involved for the junk debt buyer. So how do you explain why the practice is still proliferating? The easy answer, of course, is they get away with it by pressuring families that they will be haled to court if they won't pay their obligations. Usually, families don't know that their medical bills have already been sold to a junk debt buyer.

Second, the legal system has several weak points that allows these junk debt buyers to continue with the illegal practice. Just to cite an example, once you fail to seek medical debt help and default on your payments, the hospital will send your case to a collection agency. When your debts are sold to another company, the collection agency is not mandated by law to report any transaction to the credit bureau, which would have nipped the practice in the bud. Other debts that are considered suspect is when it is under litigation as in the case of bankruptcy or settlement.

To be clear, the practice of hospitals to hire collection agencies to do the dirty job for them in case of unpaid medical bills is not illegal. Once the junk debt buyer purchases that same debt from the collection agency, however, that's when the questions rise.

Essentially, what these collection agencies and junk debt buyers are doing is violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Under the law, they are mandated to inform you about the transaction but they are in a Catch-22 situation: they tell you and risked being alerted to authorities, they stay silent and break the law. The second option it turns out is more palatable considering the number of junk debt buyers still operating in the country. If you seek medical debt help for a lawyer, for example, you would know how to proceed such as demanding from the junk debt buyer the original documents and contracts, which it is in no position to do. Any lawyer worth his salt will not only ask the judge to strike off your debts but also impose sanction on the debt acquisition company.