As a international student in Finland, I recently received a payment reminder and I don’t know if it’s a scam or not.

23 comments

1. I think the first thing to do is to call their customer service line tomorrow and ask them to explain, in detail, why you are being charged this amount. My guess, such as it is, is that you’re not deemed to be covered by Kela and as such are liable for the full amount. Please look into any private health insurance coverage you might have purchased before moving to Finland.

   While it won’t help you for treatment you’ve had in the past, I would recommend that you familiarize yourself with [https://www.kela.fi/medical-care-entitlement-finland](https://www.kela.fi/medical-care-entitlement-finland) as well as any student healthcare you might be entitled to.

2. It seems legit and Svea is a legit debt collection company, but especially if you have already paid it to the hospital you should call the hospital (most likely financial department) and ask why you got that letter. You can also call and from svea, but I recommends calling the hospital first! I hope this help and you get it figured out 😊

3. I don’t know how to advise you besides suggesting you to call the hospital itself and check. Dont be afraid. Stay calm and solve the problem directly with the hospital. Should be okay otherwise. I never saw this kind of letter before so I would not know.

4. I am not entirely certain, but I am leaning towards this being fishy. The reason being is that hospitals do not generally send bills to collections, since they can foreclose on medical debt outright.

   I would look up Svea’s phone number on their website and give them a call.

5. The invoice details instructions on how to contact them in case you either have questions or object to the charge.

   (1) Call or email them and ask what the charges are for. You say you have paid all your bills already. Pull out your record and be prepared to compare their record and yours one by one.

   (2) If the charges are indeed correct, tell them you can’t pay it all at once, but would like to arrange a payment plan so you can pay in installments.

   See that late payment interest?
   That thing is going to get bigger the longer you put this off.
   I suggest you get dialing or writing.

6. The hospital might have mistakenly sold your “unpaid” bills to Svea. Svea has sent you this bill, that’s why it looks different. Svea customer service number on their website is 09 4242 3050 ma–pe 8:00–18:00. I suggest calling them first and then the hospitals billing.

7. Also, dig out the number to the hospital online, not directly from the invoice that could be to a scammers phone.

8. Seems legit. Depending on where you are from and your status in the country if the sum is correct.

   You have probably paid the “normal” costs for the visit, and the remainder is the “full cost”. Often there are two different processes for these as most often the full cost is covered by the hyvinvointialue.

9. You said that you already paid, mention this when you contact the hospital as it might be that they charged but did not mark it as paid.

10. I would like to know what “some diseases” means, plus what a bill from “erityistason palvelut, Lifecare” means.

    What is more fishy in my opinion is what health issues they have had to deal with.

11. Looks legit. Being or getting sick in Finland is no joke. Did you get medication there? Which kind of hospital fees? The bed? The nights you stayed there? Medication? All that needs to be paid.

12. I Actually think, that amount is possible correct. If you are strictly foreign people and you don’t have kind of “home municipality” here in Finland. Then those hospitals working just like in “America” and because there is no tax-base, they billing everything from customer itself. Even if Europe mainly have very free or very low cost to the customer, even here still be the tax-base, where hospital billing everything “after customer fee”. So if you are not European citizen, or you don’t have health insurance (even here in Europe), then they billing everything from you. But if you are registered home municipality, then that is mistake and you must clear that out with customer service (That lower phone number starting 044… is hospital customer service itself) can help you. Upper number is just collection agency.

13. Hmm, it’s a bit weird that it’s not itemized

14. Call directly to hyvinvointialue.
    Do not use any phone numbers of emails used in those letters as they can be scammers.

15. You need to stay on top of this and call tomorrow.

    This is governmental agency debt which the debt company Svea you got this reminder from will send to Ulosotto National Enforcement Authority as soon as it is possible. Timeframe is shorter than for private company debt and you’ve already defaulted on this reminder.

    Also call the welfare area / hospital if you are unsure about what this is. If it’s a mistake you need to sort it out now before it goes to enforcement.

16. Did you ever receive the original bill and the price didn’t surprise you then? Now you should ask Satakunnan hyvinvointialue for more details.

    Don’t be too worried because if you’re broke, you obviously won’t be able to pay the bill anyway.

    Also it’s interesting that you haven’t been informed of the cost. There is not any kind of insurance which could have covered it?

    It’s also mandatory to have insurance from YTHS for student visa alone but special care is not included- means that you need to have your own insurance for it. So you don’t have insurance, you get a huge bill for special care.

17. Never received SVEA invoice in English. That’s fishy and I tried look their customer service number and it never matched. You should cross check it from their original customer service

18. First please call the number listed there and ask them about it. If it turns out to be legit and you can’t solve the issue, contact: https://www.kkv.fi/en/consumer-affairs/debt-collection-and-payment-arrangements/complaining-about-an-invoice-or-debt-collection/

19. Call the debt collector listed there. Tell them you never received originals. They will check in their system and tell you dates they were sent, or send new originals if you actually never got them.

    They should all be itemised bills, so might help you figure out what’s wrong.

    Also, 4k does seem quite a lot. Like multiple weeks stay at the hospital a lot.

    If you want to, you could try to argue you weren’t told the full costs to try to not pay it. Unlikely to work, but you never know.

20. Call the hospital. Do not call any numbers on this invoice.

    It might be legit depending on what happened but it is impossible for reddit to know.

21. It happened to me also. Thankfully I had swiss care health insurance which paid for everything.
    You will have to pay it then claim it from your health care provider.

    When you have applied for a student permit here there is a mandatory need for health insurance. Reach out to that company.

    But unfortunately this will have to be paid else they’ll cut it from your bank account.

22. The Satakunnan hyvinvointialue contact information is all legit, and the Svea collection customer service number on their website is 09 4242 3050, so very similar. I’m guessing it’s real, but definitely call either Satakunnan hyvinvointialue or the Svea number on the website to make sure. If it’s not a scam or a mistake, it’s possible to set up a payment plan so you don’t have to pay all of it at once.

23. I made a Fonecta phone number search. The mobile phone subscription beginning with 044 is indeed owned by Satakunnan hyvinvointialue, and the person registered as its holder has a LinkedIn profile stating that they are an Invoicing Secretary at Satakunnan hyvinvointialue.

    If this is a scam, it would be unusually elaborate and skilled.

    I would personally consider this legit and would call the number. I would also contact the debt collection agency and explain that I have not received any invoice prior to this payment reminder.

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