I've looked and looked on any message boards I can find, and I've never seen anyone else dealing with my situation before...Hope ONE of you can offer some advice. ...Declared Bankruptcy in December 2002. Had mortgage through Principal Residential. Wanted to keep the house. Was not required by Principal to "reaffirm". Made payments, never late, never appeared as "deragatory" on credit report. A few months ago, loan was sold to Citimortgage. Suddenly, credit score drops 30 points. Citimorgtage is reporting the mortgage as "included in bankruptcy". Called Citi to straighten things out. They said the only way they will not report it this way is to "reaffirm". We say okay, we'll sign whatever they want, just take this off our credit. They say debt can only be reaffirmed before bankruptcy is discharged; and it was discharged over 3 years ago. There's nothing we can do. Oh, and to help matters more, our old Principal Mortgage account is now (for the first time ever in its' history) showing up as being included in bankruptcy. So, now credit report reflects us having gone bankrupt on 2 mortgages. Not to mention the fact that Citi mistakenly has us on our credit report as owing 10 million (vs. 100-thousand) on our home because they've put a decimal in the wrong place! Ok, I've asked for validation and the debt has come back validated (I owe 10 million on a house I could only sell for 150k)...HOW? How did they validate this debt and what can I do about the fact that our original mortgage lender didn't require us to reaffirm? Are we to be punished because our lender sold our loan? HELP?
I'm very sorry to say that this has happened to me. I had a mortgage and a home equity loan. Both were re-affirmed, both reported monthly that my payments were on-time, everything was great -- UNTIL I re-financed and paid them off. Then the status was changed to IIB and charged off. I believe I've tried every possible approach and have contacted an attorney to begin a lawsuit in Federal Court. While it's true that I filed bankruptcy, it is not true that my loan was charged off as a bad debt, and it is not true that I filed bankruptcy on the date I paid these in full. My position is that this is a willful, egregious, error. (yup -- I want some punitive damages). Assuming you've sent your first round of letters to Citi and the CRA by certified mail (yes?) the next step is to write to the CRA and ask them for a description of the procedures they followed when they investigated this erroneous tradeline. They'll respond to you with a form letter that says something inane about how hard they try. Keep it in your file. I waited a few months and went through this whole process one more time and got the mortgage company to send me a letter agreeing with me, that the entry was incorrect, and telling me they'd have it fixed right away. That was 8 months ago. Courthouse, here I come! Kat
Thanks Kat. I've contacted an attorney (the attorney we used when filing for bankruptcy) and the only advice he said he could offer was to refinance and get a completely new loan. Needless to say, though, it is virtually impossible to refi with two mortgages shown as "in bankrutptcy". While he assured us it IS possible to do this, I really resent having to lose my 5% interest rate in order to get a 8.5% on a loan I've always kept in excellent standing. I've gotten the usual form letters from the TU, EX, and EQ saying that the debt is validated, but (stupid of me, I'm just learning) I never sent anything to Citi or the Credit Bureaus via certified mail. Is my only recourse to NOW resend letters certified? Good luck with your legal pursuits. The more and more I hear of people taking these things to court, the more and more I think about doing it. I really hesitate about doing this, though, because the story of my life is that I would somehow end up being screwed in the process. I AM getting closer to that point, however. Once again, good luck, and I'll take any advice you ever have to offer!
Re: Re: Citimortgage Reporting BK lawyers shouldn't speak about things they know nothing about. I did re-finance and the "charged off in BK" appeared on the date of the payoff, not the date of the BK. That's why I'm so hopeful about getting this corrected -- eventually. *Someone* who works for one of these places will eventually figure out that I didn't file for Chapter 7 twice in 2 years. You're already screwed. Time to pucker up for the kiss, that's what I think! Oh, and to answer your question -- yes, start over with certified mail return receipt requested (CMRRR). You'll need that proof if you eventually wind up in Court. Kat
