I put $20 into my savings. I owe a lot of money to hospitals and Dr.s but that does not mean that I should neglect myself! I put my money into my savings first. Then I will think about paying them what I can afford. It won't be much either, because I am poor. But as I understand it, as long as I pay them something each month, they cannot take me to court. So I will pay them a little bit each month and in something like ten years, maybe I will have paid them off! Our local hospital has been kind enough to take off 90% of what I owe, because I am poor. The mental hospital is not so kind though. I owe them $1,288.00 and some other smaller bills too. They said something about that if I did not pay them $111.00 per month, they will send me to collections next month.
A friend told me today about how to handle collections agencies. Her suggestions involved lying, so I probably won't do that. I will just pay them a little bit each month and not answer their calls. I will have to watch my caller ID though, so I know which calls to answer and which ones to ignore! There's no law that says I have to answer my phone if it rings!