I have a mortgage loan with an ex-boyfriend (and he is still on it simply because I cannot refinance due to his negligence). I was paying him half of the monthly mortgage payment, trusting that he was paying the bill on time every month. When I attempted to get a new car loan and the dealer ran my credit report, the salesperson informed me that I was 5 months in arrears with my mortgage. My initial reaction was that they ran the wrong credit report, because I pay (so I thought) my mortgage on time. My boyfriend had not been paying it and wasn't telling me. My problem with this is (other than the obvious reasons) I was never notified by the lender that the payments were late. He was the primary borrower on the loan and when I called the lender to question why they never reached out to me, their response was "We aren't required to." and they refused to repair the damage it caused. My question is, aren't they required by FCRA laws to notify me when they are going to report something negative on my credit report?
Ouch...this is a really bad situation. Sufficient notice was probably provided in the monthly statement, which likely went to the primary account holder's address and email on the account. I don't believe they would be required to send anything else specifically to you. Did you not have access to the account online so you could at least check to make sure full payments were being made?
Foolishly, I did not, but in my defense, said ex-boyfriend never gave me any reason to think he wasn't paying it, thus me not monitoring the loan's status. Do you think there is any chance in getting the lender to remove the account from my credit report with a goodwill letter? I had never been late on a mortgage payment with any other lender and after I found out about it, I paid it in full to bring it current and was never late again.
It never hurts to try since you've obviously taken care of the situation as soon as you found out about it, but they don't really have to do anything. Who knows, maybe you'll get lucky. I know you've already learned your lesson, but for anyone else reading this - never cosign a loan (which generally isn't a good idea in the first place) unless you're going to treat it like your own. That means even if you're not the one physically submitting the payments, you should still be checking in on it each and every month to make sure it's paid on time and managed wisely.
Good advice Josh. I'm the co-signer on a student loan for my nephew. If he is 3 days late with payment the lender starts calling him. At the same time they start calling me, sending me letters and leaving voicemail. I'm surprise the lender didn't start foreclosure proceedings after 4 months late on this mortgage.
