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BY MONICA HATCHER
mhatcher@MiamiHerald.com
SUNDAY APRIL 16, 2006

Fido's expired rabies tags could take a bite out of your credit score. An
unpaid ambulance ride to Jackson Memorial Hospital could cost you a trip to
a debt counselor.
Throughout South Florida, local governments are wielding a big stick in the
battle to collect the hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid fees and
fines from residents -- and taking a whack at their credit scores.
Depending on the locality, everything from unpaid solid waste bills to fees
for cremation documents from the medical examiner could end up knocking
points off that highly guarded three digit number -- which marks an
individual's credit worthiness -- forcing borrowers to pay higher interest
rates.
In addition to property tax and utility liens and any judgement logged in
the public record, ''Just about any type of consumer debt owed to the county
is eligible for reporting to the credit bureau,'' said Lucien Hope, who
manages credit and collections for Miami-Dade County.
Unpaid fees from animal services are no exception. So, if Fido dies, don't
blow off those registration fees coming in the mail. Also, a heart attack
doesn't mean your ride to the hospital is on the house, one of the more
frequent misconceptions, Hope said, that people end up paying with a ding on
their credit score.
Local governments, at both the municipal and county level, have long
outsourced delinquent accounts to collection agencies, sometimes authorizing
those agencies to let the country's biggest three credit bureaus --
Experian, Equifax and TransUnion -- know a tab has not been settled.
Bad checks for fees of various sorts, fines for hazardous dumping and
automobiles failing emissions tests are among the kinds of fines that could
end up marring a credit report.
Some government bodies are considering adding even more fees and fines to
the list.
REPORTING OFFENSES
Miami-Dade County clerk of courts, for instance, is discussing whether to
report unpaid traffic and parking tickets as well as misdemeanor and felony
offenses and court fees.
''We have advised the collection agencies to let the individuals know that
we reserve the right to refer them to the credit bureau,'' said Martha
Alcazar, the comptroller for the Miami-Dade County clerk.
In Broward, libraries will decide in a year whether to report late fees and
overdue books to the bureaus.
Is taking a stab at a consumer's credit score, which could cost an
individual thousands of dollars in additional interest, an unnecessarily low
blow? Government officials say no: Unpaid debt costs everyone.
''We give people every opportunity to pay,'' Hope said. ``If they still
don't pay, then it's our obligation to others and the credit industry to
report how someone pays their bills or doesn't pay their bills.''
Sometimes, he said, the only way residents will settle up is if they see a
blemish on their credit report. But, he said, the credit bureau is the last
resort.
Still, Norma Garcia, a senior attorney with Consumers Union, questioned how
much an unpaid citation for a rabies tag could really rise to the level of
describing someone's creditworthiness.
''Aside from fairness issues, people need to be aware that municipalities
are doing this with increasing regularity, and that besides being watchful
of overdue books and expired rabies tags, they need to check their credit
reports on a regular basis,'' Garcia said.
VARYING POLICIES
Collection policies vary by department, but most government agencies make
their own attempt to collect from residents through mail. When that fails,
usually after 90 days, the account is turned over to an outside company
specializing in government collections. Those agencies themselves make money
by either tacking on additional fees -- up to 40 percent of the account
balance -- or by taking a cut of the full amount.
How much an individual's credit score can be affected is difficult to
determine.
''Any delinquency can affect your score, how serious it is is going to
depend on other delinquencies you might have,'' said Jessica Cecere,
president of Consumer Credit Counseling Services of Palm Beach County and
the Treasure Coast of Florida, a nonprofit firm which helps consumers manage
debt.
Cecere said that someone with a good credit history won't be badly affected
if they pay the outstanding debt.
''But if somebody is delinquent on their rabies tag, they are probably
delinquent on other things too, because they just don't have the money,''
Cecere said.
After a bankruptcy, evidence of collection activity on a credit report is
most damaging to a credit score.
''If it's a collection account even something small can be significant,''
said Maxine Sweet, vice president of public education for Experian.
A $50 delinquent account reported to Experian can reduce an above average
score of 700 by 100 points, Sweet said, though it depends on the
individual's credit history. The item will stay on the report for the next
seven years, even after the debt has been paid, she said.
It appears the danger of being reported to the credit bureaus ends with
unpaid county accounts.
Some city governments, including Miami, Coral Gables and Fort Lauderdale,
said they used collection agencies to help in the effort to collect, but
don't allow them to take the last resort.
''The city does not have a lot of delinquency out there like the county,''
said Pete Chircut, treasurer for Miami, who added that most fees came from
businesses and not residents.
In Coral Gables, the city's finance director, Donald Nelson, said they kept
all their collection efforts in-house.
''We have good results because we work with our residents and our commercial
businesses in order to get them to pay their bills,'' he said.