 TITLE: What Types of Debt Can Go to Collections? CONTENT: What Happens When an Account Goes to Collections?\n-------------------------------------------------\nYour credit reports track your history of repaying loans and credit cards. If you leave any of those bills unpaid long enough, the creditor could charge off the debt, close your account and sell the debt to a third-party collection agency. Typically, this is done after 120 days, or four billing cycles, although it can take up to 180 days for a credit card to be charged off. When a collection agency takes over the debt, the balance on the charged-off account changes to $0, and a new collection account appears on your credit report.\nIf you check your credit reports regularly, it's difficult to be surprised by collections related to money you've borrowed since updates to your credit report will reflect each missed payment before the collection account appears. Furthermore, creditors will certainly be reaching out to you in the months following your first missed payment, trying to get your payments back on track.\nCollection accounts connected to other unpaid bills can come as more of a surprise, however: Missed payments to banks, medical providers, utilities and other service providers do not automatically appear on your credit reports, but if those unpaid bills are turned over to collections, the collection accounts do get added to your credit reports. The companies you owe will invariably try to reach you before that happens, but it's possible, in the case of individuals who have moved or in cases of medical bills for which the provider has been dealing with an insurance company instead of the patient, for you to be unaware of the debt in question until it appears on your credit reports.\nTo determine whether you have any collection accounts you are not aware of, check your credit reports regularly. END