Ampath and ITCBA - Can they work like this?

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neoprema

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So I have a family member who’s elderly. Went for blood tests. Long story short the account was unpaid because the payment statement went to them and they never sent it to me to pay for them.

It got handed over. From what I know, it’s within ones right to settle medical accounts directly with a supplier even if they’ve got debt collectors involved.

I did this, settled with Ampath, all good.

No. The debt collection agency ITCBA is now sending them final notices before legal action. So I called them. Apparently, Ampath is not allowed to charge interest on undue payments BUT once handed to the debt collectors, they’re allowed to charge interest. So even though I paid Ampatn the debt collector wants money for interest charged since the account was given to them…

Isn’t that a strange way of doing things? I phoned Ampath and they confirmed debt is settled and they can’t charge interest. But their debt collectors has charged 6 month of interest and they want it…
 
Ampath will have the relevant agreement with debt collectors, to charge interest etc. If you paid Ampath and they accepted it, tell them (in writing via email) to settle the matter with their agency. Debt collection agency letters agency probably outsourced that letter/email job to some other agency.
 
Sideshow Bob said:
Ampath will have the relevant agreement with debt collectors, to charge interest etc. If you paid Ampath and they accepted it, tell them (in writing via email) to settle this with their agency.
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So I was just discussing it at work. Someone said what’s probably happened is the debt collector BOUGHT the debt from Ampath. That’s why they charging interest as the debt collectors use borrowed money to buy off debt, then collect it with interest to make money from it.
 
Sideshow Bob said:
Sure but they can get him blacklisted. I still think it is for Ampath to take it with them if he settled account.
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Ampath is pointing the finger to them - they took over the debt recovery, they've charged interest, you owe it to them (Even though it was settled with Ampath)
 
neoprema said:
Ampath is pointing the finger to them - they took over the debt recovery, they've charged interest, you owe it to them (Even though it was settled with Ampath)
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ok. It is best you settle the interest with debt collection agency then. It can't really be worth your time unless amount is huge.

One suggestion. If debt agency calls you, ask if you can pay 50% and say you can't afford it etc. Good chances they will take it. If they accept it on phone/email, ask them to send final settlement invoice first.
 
neoprema said:
So I was just discussing it at work. Someone said what’s probably happened is the debt collector BOUGHT the debt from Ampath. That’s why they charging interest as the debt collectors use borrowed money to buy off debt, then collect it with interest to make money from it.
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It should have gone through the debt collectors.

What can happen with debt collectors is that they don't necessarily buy the debt but they get a percentage of whatever amount they recover. so with you paying Ampath directly now they don't get their "cut" of the proceeds for the letters and phone calls etc. IF they recover nothing they also get nothing.

At our company we have sometimes used debt collectors like this to try and get bad debts back that we don't expect to be paid for.
 
Have you tried hellopeter? They do reply so worth a try
 
Have you done a credit check? If there is nothing there then just wait for the debt to prescribe.
If there is something there send the credit bureu your invoice that the debt is settled and see if they can remove it.
 
B-1 said:
Have you done a credit check? If there is nothing there then just wait for the debt to prescribe.
If there is something there send the credit bureu your invoice that the debt is settled and see if they can remove it.
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I checked, nothing is listed. Also, the trace alerts that SABC claims to have logged don't appear either...
 
neoprema said:
I checked, nothing is listed. Also, the trace alerts that SABC claims to have logged don't appear either...
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The onus is on the third party to provide proof that the debt has been ceded to them. If that has not been done then you can ignore them and report their spammy calls to the ombudsman.

I read that you stated previously that Ampath confirmed that the debt was bought by them, but no cession of debt was shown by the third party. (Unless I missed that).
 
neoprema said:
Ampath is pointing the finger to them - they took over the debt recovery, they've charged interest, you owe it to them (Even though it was settled with Ampath)
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That's an ampath problem, not yours, ampath accelpted the payment therefore ampath can deal with their contractual obligations to a debt collector.
 
ToxicBunny said:
That's an ampath problem, not yours, ampath accelpted the payment therefore ampath can deal with their contractual obligations to a debt collector.
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Yeah so Ampath's accounts sort of told me off politely lol. They said once a debt goes to a collection agency one should only pay that collection agency otherwise it causes problems. But they didn't deny that i could pay them as well so...
 
now05ster said:
The onus is on the third party to provide proof that the debt has been ceded to them. If that has not been done then you can ignore them and report their spammy calls to the ombudsman.

I read that you stated previously that Ampath confirmed that the debt was bought by them, but no cession of debt was shown by the third party. (Unless I missed that).
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The third party just keeps saying i owe them money due to the ampath account being handed over, and i should not liaise with Ampath. I said i want to liaise with Ampath, they said ok. I thus paid Ampath. Then they kept sending SMS reminders so i phoned them, they said they aren't aware of the debt being paid-off with Ampath because i should have paid them, but they will contact Ampath to confirm and mark the debt as paid. She was very offish.
 
neoprema said:
Yeah so Ampath's accounts sort of told me off politely lol. They said once a debt goes to a collection agency one should only pay that collection agency otherwise it causes problems. But they didn't deny that i could pay them as well so...
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Not your problem really. You have an obligation to ampath to pay them.. Anything else is their problem not yours.
 
neoprema said:
The third party just keeps saying i owe them money due to the ampath account being handed over, and i should not liaise with Ampath. I said i want to liaise with Ampath, they said ok. I thus paid Ampath. Then they kept sending SMS reminders so i phoned them, they said they aren't aware of the debt being paid-off with Ampath because i should have paid them, but they will contact Ampath to confirm and mark the debt as paid. She was very offish.
Click to expand...

If it was me and anyone phoned I would just state that the bill was settled with ampath as soon as I was made aware of the outstanding amount and they settled it.
I doubt it would go anywhere other than some annoying phone calls.
 
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