Of interest to divorced folk

This could be a consideration if you're thinking of buying a house:

My bf is purchasing an investment property (small rental house) and closing end of month.

Hi s credit is nearly impeccable (hey! opposites attract, don't ya know!! tee-hee!)

The lender was mainly curious about a Chase Shell Platinum account in his name (His ex wife was an AU), with a $10k credit limit that is showing closed, but with an $8,800 balance.

Reason is that was how the court split up the marital debt to make it equitable, The ex-wife is paying it off (minimum payments only, but no misses or lates), but until she pays it off entirely, it shows on HIS credit report (not hers) as an 88% usage closed account at something like 22.9%.

Whe my bf told the lender the story, the lender asked for a copy of the divorce decree, then sent a note to underwriting that the borrower's credit report would be "re-aged" via the CRAs to remove all accounts that were not my boyfriend's.

Once the appraisal came in ($20k higher than our negotiated sale price **hey! can I cook or can I cook!! It ain't braggin' if you can really dot i!!**), we pulled his credit reports again for the heck of it.

TU and Equifax are no longer showing that Chase account!! I'll caheck Experian again next week.

Mind you, he'd called Chase 3 months ago to ask nicely about taking that account off his credit report and the rep woman was so nasty to him, he hung up on her.

So I guess the short story is, if you've got a decree that says the ex is totally responsible for that debt from now on, and you're trying to get a mortgage, and you've got "stuff" on your report that a judge put in a decree is your ex's, ask your lender if HE/SHE can talk to the creditor/CRA's. It seems to carry much more weight.

 

Point is, creditors (such as Chase or whomever) have discretion is taking into consideration the dynamics of a request about how or if to report an account to the CRA's.

witness as we've all read here incident's of Cap1 or MBNA or AMEX, etc. CHOOSING to remove accurate, albeit damaging infodue to a review of the circumstances.

In my boyfriend's case, he knew it was a long shot months ago when he asked Chase to take the divorce decree into consideration and remove the account (heretofore sterling, BTW) from his credit report. His angst was in the way they spoke to him, not in feeling that they were required to do so.

Now along comes a mortgage broker who give Chase hundreds of millions of dollars each year when selling the original loan. And they put it to Chase thus, "hey buddy, this guy's credit is great and he's been a good customer to you --heck, so have we for that matter. What say you have a look at this lit ole divorce decree, check your records and see that it HAS continued to be paid as agreed -- and honor the letter and spirit of the decree. Thank you very much. Signed, "Bigshot mortgage lender to whom you owe your first born and all your NASDAQ success. Hmmmm?"

Know what I mean, Vern?