I just saved hundreds, all because of my clumsy fingers!

I worked for 20 years for the local Methodist Hospital system. Such write-offs were routine for them. Don't know about "for profit" hospitals.

I am glad that you came out ahead. Although if I did that, we would be in big trouble. It is nice that you will not owe them the rest though, but in the longrun, you are really farther ahead. Call it a good mistake.

Congratulations! It is always a relief to get rid of debts. I got rid of at least one debt, my study loan - due to "old" age. I have been paying it about $40 a month for many years, but now it is gone. I knew it would disappear when i became 65, but I thought I would have to wait until the month I was born. But no, they took away the loan on January 1st - at least this is one advantage of getting older.. If I get wiser - that is another story..

Oh wow! That's quite a keystroke of luck you've had there! Can you work that kind of magic on a car payment or on my mortgage? I'd forever Dragon!

It never hurts to ask. Hospitals have to write off so much that they are often the most forgiving if you can pay most of the bill.

I wonder if a company such as Citi Cards would do this? I owe about the same amount (a little over $500) and have been paying off usually the minimum payment per month. I'm just such a bad arguer, which is usually what it takes to get the call center people to make these deals with you. I have a friend who had over $100 in over-limit fees on one of his cards, and he agreed to pay the balance in full ONLY if they would drop the over-limit fee. And they agreed, amazingly enough! But it feels wrong of me to do this. I don't know why. I am bad at haggling, I guess. . That's an awesome mistake! I ten-key (type using the 10 key pad numbers on a keyboard) for a living (in data entry) so rarely do I make these kinds of mistakes.. Besides, the amount would probably be declined for insufficient funds if I did it that way . Well, that's awesome! At least now you don't have to worry about it for a while, not to mention all you saved in compounding interest and APRs and whatnot. Maybe I'll throw $400 and some at Citi Bank from my next pay check, and see what happens!!! Congratulations!!

That's awesome! I wish that could happen with my bills, but I don't think credit card companies would do this.

good for you! there is actually a website that is called fat fingers and it lists things on ebay that are misspelled and sometimes it is a good way to save money.

That is so awesome! Who knew clutzy fingers could do such a great thing? By paying that off, it goes on your credit history as paid in full, so in the future that looks good on you if you want to get a loan or need something serviced and don't have the funds immediately. I hope things get better for you and many other places do this too. You can call up your credit card companies (after you have had the account for 6 months or more) and do the same thing. It saves everyone time and money later.

I have negotiated settlement amounts in the past, and although it did pay off the debt, it had some unfortunate consequences. The settled debts showed up as bad debts on my credit report. They showed up paid, but at a reduced amount, which is a negative thing on a credit report. I have since declined any offers to settle debts at a reduced amount. You may want to check with the hospital and make sure this won't be the case with yours.

My husband and I, with the help of his grandparents, paid off a debt I had accrued. We did this before we got married. In any case I was advised to call the debt agency and I did, and we started making payments. I was told one day that I called about a way to pay the thing off faster, and I believe I also got a deal out of it by not having to pay the whole thing off. I forget exactly how much we paid in the end but we have documentation as well to say that it was paid off. It seems like your clumsy fingers paid off this time, congratulations!

Congrats! I'm still a a little confused as how the hospital is ok with this. The credit card company is able to write off a hospital bill?

Wow! That's really great congratulations! Now were you paying your credit card bill or the hospital bill? Maybe i'll give this a try?...hmmmm...

I think paying in full is always best than paying off thru credit card monthy because you pay doubled interests. I'm sorry to hear about the appendectomy I went through it too and it wasn't easy because mine was raptured. I understand the bill part. Geez I spent more than $2000 for my surgery... and had to really scrimp.