Posted On: December 4, 2006, 4:41 pm CST

Posted By: Credit Scoring Victim

We used to have a very good credit score. Until we were in an accident. The other driver's insurance company drug their feet for years and eventually was liquidated. I ended up disabled for a few years and our credit ruined. I eventually recovered sufficiently to return to work. Then, about 10 years later, my husband became disabled. His income dropped to base pay only (about 60% of his prior net pay), then after six months to 60% of base pay, then after two years his long term disability insurance was terminated completely because it had a two year limit for mental problems unless they were organic. It was not discovered until about a year later that the real problem all along was that he had a seizure disorder. We went three years with no benefits of any kind for my husband and me making only a small fraction of what he had made. My income could only cover keeping a roof over our head and the doctor visits and prescription co-pays that had to be paid up-front. There was nothing left. Our credit that we had worked so hard for the past 10 years to restore was once again ruined. Our vehicles were repossessed, we had tax leins (we owed for the last year he had made a lot of money) and we eventually had to file bankruptcy. He was finally approved for his social security disability benefits and we were able to get vehicles instead of me having to bum rides to work. But I have been having to pay outrageous prices for insurance. If the things on the credit report were medical bills I was told they would not count them, but they are not. We could not see the doctor or take the prescriptions without paying the co-pays up front. That's how things work these days. The bills that we couldn't pay because of his medical condition were the car notes, school loans, a small limit credit card, and a few small misc bills. Some insurance companies won't even consider writing us because of our credit. And the ones that will are charging us at least three times what we used to pay. In the past 20 years of driving we have never had an at fault accident and never had a moving violation at all. And this is the thanks we get. And no, I don't make claims for little things because I can't afford for my insurance to go up any more.