Can a medical bill affect my credit if they only have my name?

Call the hospital where you had the ER visit. This was back in 07 this should have already went to a collection agency..I would not pay anything to this person sounds shady...tell them that you will call the hospital personaly and make payment arraignments with the hospital.

When the zombie collection agency calls back, tell them to go pound sand. This is a zombie collection agency trying to strongarm you into pay. It may not even be your bill. The frequently do skip traces and then contact everyone trying to squeeze out some money. You might want to point out to this collector that according to the FDCPA, they must mail you a validation notice within 5 days of contact. Tell 'em to include actual proof the debt is yours -- copies of the bill. Indicate that once you review that notice and the proof, you'll get back to them. This is a 5 year old medical bill. It is undoubtedly beyond the Statute of Limitations (SOL), the timeframe to bring lawsuit. It likely falls under the 4 year UCC for services SOL. Even if the collector now decides to report this debt to the credit bureaus, it will age off in another 2 years. Should it show, dispute the debt as not yours.

if they end up reporting it it could affect your credit report for 2 years after that it would be too old to be reported on a credit report. (most delinquent debt older than 7 years cannot be reported on a credit report and will not affect your score - the main exception is student loans and IRS tax Debt) I don't know of any medical provider that will treat you without getting a social security number during admissions (outside of emergency treatments..) If the bill IS legitimate you should pay it but I would certainly never give a credit card number or any other financial information to someone cold calling me like that. If they are legitimate get the name of the medical facility that claims that you owe them money and look them up yourself. do not trust the caller to give you a number for you to call back. also never pay ANY bill that is not legitimately yours. If you pay even one dime the clock starts over for credit reporting AND your ability to dispute the legitimacy of the debt goes out the window. If this truly is not a valid debt then you should have them send you IN WRITING proof of that debt. Then you need to respond within 30 days in writing AND via certified mail (so you have proof of delivery) that the debt is not valid and state why it is not valid. I would also state clearly that they may not contact you any further about the debt under the fair debt collection practices act - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Debt_Collection_Practices_Act sample of a "drop dead" letter - http://www.clarkhoward.com/news/clark-howard/consumer-issues-id-theft/sample-letters-drop-dead-letter/nFbC/