Someone tell me this is wrong or stop me

**Palooka** · 06-21-2008, 03:59 AM

I even have more doctor bills now. Got two big fat ones in the other day..after insurance payed..

My total is higher now. I just want to pay them all off at once, but don't have all the funds now, but faithfully pay on time every month.

I know this is stupid... I have a major credit card with zero balance. I could just transfer all the doctor/balances to one big balance and have all those docs payed for(as in off my ass)...I hate the fact of having say..8 small bills every month and just a nice..one lump some of a bill. I'm sure that paying the interest would be so wrong.(I have 5% on the cc)

gah, what to do...I think it's right that I pay for the balance of them all every month,(and I do) but I don't feel like I am getting anywhere close to paying them off. "sigh*

I think I heard Suze saying not to transfer doc bills onto a cc...

Sooo..suggestions...Dave fans...Help?

Need a wise choice here. With OCD, I hate having a million bills..when it could just be one...a big one..

Hope that made sense.

TIA

**alarosalpn** · 06-21-2008, 05:34 AM

Do you pay interest on the doc bills? If so, then I would say it depends on which interest is lower (doc vs. cc) If not, then no, pay the doc bill. you don't want to pay interest on something you don't have to. Then you'd be wasting money/spending more and it would take you longer to pay them off. JMO.

**Greebo** · 06-21-2008, 06:15 AM

I'm in total agreement with alarosalpn.

Originally Posted by Palooka

My total is higher now. I just want to pay them all off at once, but don't have all the funds now, but faithfully pay on time every month.

Very understandable, but if you pay them off all at once, you won't actually be paying them off. It will be an illusion. What you'll really be doing is lying to yourself in the hopes you'll believe it. Short term you might, long term, I think you know you won't believe it for long.

I hate the fact of having say..8 small bills every month and just a nice..one lump some of a bill. I'm sure that paying the interest would be so wrong.(I have 5% on the cc)

But is it worth paying 5.25% (estimated APY after compound interest kicks in) more for 5.25% longer to have one bill? If your bills amount to, for sake of argument, $10,000, then do you really want to pay at least 500 more PER YEAR just to have one bill instead of 8? Ok, we could factor in stamp savings... 8 bills * 12 months at say $0.40 per stamp is $38.40 in stamps vs. 1 bill is $4.80 so you'ld save $33.60 in stamps, but you're still back $462.40 at the end of the year.

Sooo..suggestions...Dave fans...Help?

Question - are you including them in the debt snowball? Can you pay off the smallest one faster, then apply that payment to the next larger, and so forth?

Another thought - will your bank do automatic bill pay for the same or less than it costs to mail it yourself? If so, you could set up automatic payments from your bank account to the various doctors, and set them up for a limited run. So if you owe one doc $1,000 and the monthly is $100, you tell the automatic banking system to send 1 check a month for 10 months for $100. Then you fire and forget. The risk, however, is that you'll forget those checks are going out and you miscalculate your money. But if you can keep those payments in your mind and schedule them on your calendar so you always add them into your balance book, then you won't have the frustration of sending out 8 checks personally every month.

I'm not actually recommending that last option, as I wouldn't do it myself (I'd just send the 8 checks and debt snowball them as fast as possible), but if your OCD is giving you fits, maybe that would help relieve the internal pressures? Or not - honestly, couldn't say, not my expertise.

**Jenna** · 06-21-2008, 10:03 AM

I would only consolidate the Dr. bills with the c/c if you are paying more than 6% interest on the Dr. bills.

Otherwise, keep paying the 8 bills.

**Lady_V** · 06-21-2008, 10:11 AM

I have to second (third) not putting them on the CC unless you pay 6% interest to the doctors... and then only if you absolutely positively have to do it or your OCD will keep you up at night!

If you use the CC now, what happens if you have a real medical emergency?

**PrairieRose** · 06-21-2008, 01:43 PM

I wouldn't put them on a CC. I'd contact each office (in writing will do) and tell them that you are paying on 6 or 8 or how ever many....pay off the smallest first (paying the most on it but pay on all of them each month) and then start snowballing on each one.

**Wendy99** · 06-21-2008, 03:14 PM

I'd keep doing the min on each , start with teh smallest and do a larger amount on that one .. as you get going you will have fewer, definately wouldn't put them on cc

**knotme** · 06-21-2008, 03:28 PM

DS was in an accident and the medical bills ended up being over $150,000. (Yes 1 hundred fifty thousand ) we would just pay a little bit on each one 25-50 dollarseach month until we were able to pay them off completely. Most of the Dr's knew that they weren't the only want wanting $$$ from us and were very patient with getting the money when we could get it to them. (the down side of this, was I did have 1 Dr that threatened every month to send us to collections, but gladly cashed our cheques to them every month.) we were charged no interest by the Dr's so I definitely would not put Dr bills on a CC, unless it could be paid in full that month.

**dolphin** · 06-21-2008, 03:43 PM

No! Don't pay them off with your credit card. Life circumstances change way to often and you never know what kind of trouble you'll end up in. A future creditor might overlook a late payment or non-payment on a doctor bill but they will NEVER overlook a late payment on a credit card.

**Cricketlegs** · 06-21-2008, 04:56 PM

I had a nice little stack at the beginning of the year myself but now I am down to one and it is $182 so I can PROBABLY pay it all off next month.

Sure it stinks to have a pile of debt but one by one they do get paid for.

Medical bills I think, should be a snowball in themselves meaning, do your regular debt snowball ie credit card, car,loan house whatever in one group and do medical bills seperate as their own snowball.

They aren't getting higher without interest and only getting lower.

Hit the smallest the hardest(or whoever is giving you flack..sigh) and then minimums on the rest and snowball snowball snowball.

**inneedofhope** · 06-21-2008, 05:06 PM

You may be able to cut a deal with them, Really high dr's bills will sometimes be reduced in circumstances like yours. Look at the itemizations. Are there questionable charges?
I wouldn't go with the cc route, just keep paying what you can pay. The cc will get you into more trouble in the long run.

**Palooka** · 06-22-2008, 02:32 AM

Thank you all for knocking some sense into my head. It's just so frustrating sometimes.

I did send a written letter to one along with a payment to see if they would waive the extra fee a month because I can't pay the balance in full.

Lets see how nice they will be...

**Jenna** · 06-22-2008, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by Palooka

I did send a written letter to one along with a payment to see if they would waive the extra fee a month because I can't pay the balance in full.

how much are they charging you in fees? what % of the entire amount owed?

**Palooka** · 06-24-2008, 11:11 PM

Well here is an update...the letter I wrote was to the dentist.(i've posted a thread somewhere about doc bills before)

In that letter I wrote that no one told me that if I don't pay my balance off in full, I would get charged a fee every month.(if they did I would have got the work done slowly and payed the balance as I go after insurance payed the part)

She said it was in the bill....Yeah right,of course it was....after I had the work done. There was no info that I signed or read when I filled out my insurance info that I would be charged extra!

They said my options are to transfer it on a major credit card(yeah right) or do like that "care payment" thing that I have talked about it here before. Basically a company pays them off and you have a set fee to pay them a month. So no deal.

So...I took some advice here. No doctors in this area will bend.

So back to square one. Just paying what I can faithfully every month is all I can do unless I win the lotto.

Also those new doctor bills was when my husband went to the doc. He had not met his deductible for the year...so ya know it was all paying the dedutible out of our pocket.

*grumble*