Amerisol Collections on Your Credit Report? Fight Back and Win

You’re ready to make a big purchase, so you pull copies of your credit report from the three major bureaus, only to find a collections account from Amerisol Collections listed there, or maybe you’re hearing from this company through phone calls or letters. You don’t know what Amerisol Collections is, nor do you know why it’s negatively affecting your credit score.

What can you do? How do you deal with a collections company? There are solutions and also laws that protect you as a consumer.

What Is Amerisol Collections?

Amerisol Collections is a debt collector, also known as AmeriFinancial Solutions or AFS. You could see any of these three names listed on your credit report. A debt collector like Amerisol Collections works as a third party. If you had a debt they’re trying to collect, it didn’t originate with this company.

Instead, another company has hired Amerisol Collections as a third-party collector. This concept is why it can get confusing for some people. You don’t see the original name of the company you worked with or received services from once it goes into collections with a third party.

Am I Being Scammed by Amerisol Collections?

Amerisol Collections is not a scam. They are a real company, and they’re located in Baltimore, MD. You can contact the corporate headquarters at 1-800-753-7100.

Even though Amerisol Collections is legitimate, that doesn’t mean that their reporting to credit bureaus is always accurate or that you owe the debt they’re contacting you about.

Who Does Amerisol Collections Collect For?

Amerisol Collections is specifically a medical debt collection agency. The company further specializes in physician groups that work in hospitals. So someone could hear from Amerisol Collections if they didn’t pay a debt from an emergency medicine provider, a hospitalist, which is like a primary care doctor in a hospital setting, a radiologist, pathologist, or anesthesiologist.

It’s fairly common for people to have debts when they get hospital services and not even realize it for a few reasons.

First, any time you receive hospital care, it’s already a stressful experience. The last thing on your mind as you recover might be dealing with bills. You also could assume your insurance is going to cover everything.

Plus, hospital billing is inherently chaotic. Most providers you see are all going to bill separately, so you can get bills from dozens of different providers, all of whom provided you with services during a single hospital visit or stay. It’s tough to stay organized and know what you’ve paid versus what you haven’t, so things can easily slip through the cracks.

If Amerisol Collections, a.k.a AmeriFinancial Solutions, is contacting you, the first step you should take whenever possible is to contact a Fair Credit Reporting Act attorney. The Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, is an important federal law protecting all consumers with regard to how their credit and financial information is collected, reported, and accessed. 

You’re also protected under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The FDCPA is meant to ensure that when anyone contacts you about a debt, you receive transparent information without harassment or intimidation. Debt collectors can’t threaten you to try and collect money, and they can’t call you at times they know are inconvenient, like early in the morning. If a collections company isn’t compliant with this, you might have to contact an FDCPA attorney.

It’s possible to request that a debt collector no longer contact you under the FDCPA. That doesn’t mean you are free from owing the debt or that the company can’t take legal action against you, but it does alleviate the stress of constant calls.

What If You Think There’s a Mistake?

In a recent study, Americans were asked to review their credit report for errors, and more than one-third of participants found at least one. We tend to think that our credit reports are accurate, but there are a lot of scenarios where that’s not true. Errors often found on credit reports include:

• Your name could have been mixed up with someone else’s. Someone, especially if they’re in the same geographic area and have a similar name to yours, might actually owe the debt, but it’s listed on your credit report.
• The original creditor, which in this case would be a physician, might have reported wrong information, like an incorrect balance, or maybe you did pay the bill in question.
• Sometimes with hospital services, you might have been approved for payment help based on income, and that might not be factored into what’s reported to a collections agency. It also gets more complicated with medical debt because insurance companies are involved.
• The debt could be old but reported as new. Maybe the statute of limitations (usually seven years) has passed, but the debt’s still on your report.

If you think there’s a mistake in some or all of the information Amerisol Collections is contacting you about, an FCRA attorney can help. They can assess your case and determine if you should file a dispute. 

It’s your right under the FCRA to dispute any incorrect information on your credit or on file with a debt collector. An attorney can manage the dispute process for you. 

The company you’re disputing the debt with has to, under the law, investigate it in a timely way. They also have to let you know their findings, and if it is a mistake or the information shouldn’t be on your credit report, they’re legally obligated to take it off.

Does that always happen, though? Not necessarily. You could find the debt collector isn’t responsive or doesn’t follow through if you try to handle this process on your own. Talking directly with a debt collector can also worsen your situation. 

Talk to an FCRA Attorney

If you’re dealing with Amerisol Collections and want them off your credit report, the best way to get their attention to take the proper steps might be to work with an FCRA attorney.

Fair Credit can help you, and we encourage you to get in touch for a free case review.