Last July I went to the emergency room because I had a kidney stone that was causing me tremendous amounts of pain. And I ended up having to stay for 4 days and get a surgery. But I didn't have health insurance and I asked the hospital for a phamplet to help me pay and I called the hospital for financial help and they never got back to me. Now I have like 5 debt collectors calling me everyday and I don't know what to do because I don't have money to pay them. I don't want to go to jail or anything! I'm only 20 and I'm thousands of dollars in debt over a surgery I didn't ask for. What can I do?

Should I declare bankruptcy?

Please help I'm scared

They stop calling when you pay. It was your job to have insurance. All you can do now is work out a payment plan, otherwise expect to be sued for the debt. July was over 7 months ago, all you had to do was call & talk to them. It is not rocket science. The collectors want their money, that should be easy to understand.

At 20, with all your work years ahead of you, they will not give you a bankruptcy. They will put you in a settlement program. Tomorrow, call & talk to them. Now relax, your imagination is working overtime. You will feel better once you get answers from the hospital.

First of all you will not go to jail over old debt. Next I would try to deal with each collector as soon as possible. You need to find out if they are trying to collect on the same debt or if it's different debts. You can ask them by writing to stop calling you BUT that does NOT make the debt go away. It just makes the calls stop. After you find out if it's separate debts ask if each collector will work with you, for example asking for a payment plan. You can request in writing for the collectors to prove you owe the debt, how they got the debt and exactly how much you owe. When trying to work with them know exactly how much you can pay each one each month. Stick firm in that amount.

Learn from this. It is your responsibility to keep after the information you need. If it means calling the people for it, going in to speak to someone in person because money issues can be very stressful later on as you are finding out now. It becomes harder, more stressful later one to deal with debt because in a way it looks like the person is skipping out on the debt. Debt collectors are trained to try to get the most money, if not all the money or more owed, out of each person. It is better to try hard to deal with the original creditor, even in the moment the stress can be great, but the reward of keeping it with them is much better.

As it has gone to debt collections now it maybe too late to work something out with the hospital for payment. I would recommend you search in your area for some free debt counseling service who can take a look and see what maybe done to clear this. Bankruptcy is different in each state for medical debt. But you want to pay it off as it can hold you back from some jobs.

Tell them their calls are being recorded and it's against the law to call you daily.