Adding Statements to Reports

[brokeinok]

Does it do anything for your credit scores or ability to get credit when you add a statement about an account??

Review Experian online now and just curious.... I was going to add that one about "assigned to ex-spouse in divorce" but didn't know if it would do any good for me. It's three charge offs and they are coming after me since it wasn't paid by the ex.

[Ahntara]

Adding a statement is your right under the FCRA. It's also universally agreed to be a bad idea.

Here, we get encouragement and encourage others to work towards a clean CR, which is free of anything you would allude to in a statement.

BTW, divorce has no bearing on financial liability. Creditors and anyone else viewing your CR know that, so your specific statement would be a moot point anyway.

[refiman1]

I would take great exception with the last post regarding divorce and financial liability. Having originated mortgages for several years and having had access to rapid rescore, I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you are now divorced and send a copy of your divorce decree to the credit bureaus challenging the accounts on your report on the grounds that they were assigned to your ex-spouse solely as part of the divorce settlement that they will be deleted. A divorce decree will supersede any credit contract when it comes to liablilty. However, the creditors may still attempt to come after you, hoping you may be unaware of this fact. I have personally helped dozens of former clients with rapid rescore to get the FICO up for refi and/or purchase who have been in this situation.

[Amerikaner83]

I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you are now divorced and send a copy of your divorce decree to the credit bureaus challenging the accounts on your report on the grounds that they were assigned to your ex-spouse solely as part of the divorce settlement that they will be deleted. A divorce decree will supersede any credit contract when it comes to liablilty.

Where in the FCRA or FDCPA does it say that? I'm not buying.

[Ahntara]

"...divorce decree will supercede..."

"Where...does it say that..."

No where. But we need to look closer at this comment. refiman1 is a mortgage loan originator. He is relating recent experience with Rapid Rescore. My comments come from my experience, which was explicit in the direct opposite. In fact, during my time at Equifax, that statement, "...a divorce contract does NOT supercede any other contract..." was handed out to us to use as a quote of policy. I can also tell you that during a standard written, or online, dispute, using the 'divorce' reason gets only a statement regarding liability regardless of marital status along with the typical 'verified' update. The results from RR can't be compared to standard dispute-result dribble. Actual human involvement and other miracles actually occur with Rapid Rescore, a recalculating product that most consumers are not aware of.

refiman1 may be informing us of possible recent/future trends. The fact that he's been able to get reports corrected using RR and a divorce decree is exciting, even if it's totally contrary to our experience...

Please share more. I only used the service twice with wonderful results both times.

[refiman1]

"Where in the FCRA or FDCPA does it say that? I'm not buying"

Amerikaner, I can't really answer that question because I dont know where the statute lies, nor am I a lawyer. But I want to clarify, it works when and only when the debt has been assigned by the judge solely to the opposite party and clearly states so in the decree, not just that fact you had a divorce.

Ahntara, you mentioned working at Equifax. It was their Expedited Credit Dispute Process (ECDP) that I used to update the bureaus. For those that dont know that's Equifax's in house version of Rapid Rescore. Again, I have done that successfully on more than a dozen occasions since summer of 2004 for all three bureaus so it is certainly nothing new to Equifax.

[brokeinok]

Boy..... rapid re-score?.... what the heck are you guys talking about.

[Ahntara]

Both the CRA's and re-sellers of CR's are constantly looking for other 'products' to diversify their businesses and find new streams of income. RR is such an information product offered by 3rd-party CR vendors to their clients, used mainly by mortgage professionals. When suppled DOCMENTATION, the vendor contacts an actual Human Being at the CRA's who corrects CR entries in 3 - 5 business days. The score is then re-calculated. This can be a god-send for consumers with documentation looking to improve their score for a mortgage loan in a short amount of time.

In my experience with RR, the cost was $35 per TL/item, per bureau, plus the cost of a new CR. So, it could really hurt your wallet if you have multiple TL's to fix.

ECDP is apparently the same type of service offered directly by EQ itself, but the process is the same: Consumer supplies valid documentation of an inaccuracy, real live person assesses it and corrects CR.

Results from RR and ECDP can NOT be compared to what happens when a consumer disputes through standard processes. I stand by my original comment, because that's what my experience has proven repeatedly. But it would be foolish to ignore refiman1's experiences.

[refiman1]

Oh I agree. It was 35.00 per tradeline per bureau. And as a plus for the consumer, the cost CANNOT be passed down to the consumer. That is the agreement between the lender and the bureau. The mortgage company must absorb that cost, so if anyone is buying or refinancing in the near future and has some credit errors, it might be wise to see if your lender/broker offers rapid rescoring.

[myscoresawful]

Oh I agree. It was 35.00 per tradeline per bureau. And as a plus for the consumer, the cost CANNOT be passed down to the consumer. That is the agreement between the lender and the bureau. The mortgage company must absorb that cost, so if anyone is buying or refinancing in the near future and has some credit errors, it might be wise to see if your lender/broker offers rapid rescoring.

Let me see if I understand all of this....

1- It has to be a debt that was court ordered by a judge for another party to take? (originally in husband and wife's name, judge gives it soley to one of them in the divorce, releasing the second)

2- Consumer's can't just do this, (no, we would get letters back from the CRAs stating they could not accept our documentation), so it would have to be someone from some sort of financial institution, such as mortgage/bank, etc?, that contacts the CRAs and say's "It's TRUE, the judge ordered it, can we get their score recalculated asap?"

I'm not trying to be silly here, but anyone as a consumer who has tried to submit documentation to the CRAs, will understand what I'm trying to say here.

(and sorry, I clicked on the wrong quote, but you are the poster I was addressing =))

[refiman1]

That's correct. However, the one thing I forgot to mention before is that the court documents MUST BE A CERTIFIED AND TRUE COPY!!!!

[refiman1]

That's correct. I cannot say whether this will work through the normal consumer dispute process as I have never attempted it. Also, the court documents MUST BE CERTIFIED AND TRUE COPIES.

[brokeinok]

That's correct. However, the one thing I forgot to mention before is that the court documents MUST BE A CERTIFIED AND TRUE COPY!!!!

Does each individual credit card need to be listed in the decree? Mine doesn't itemize them, it simply says "all cards listed in XXXX's name as primary holder will be paid by that person". So he ended up with about half the cards, some I was only an authorized user and I ended up with the ones that I was primary on.

I know they can't come after me with the authorized user status and I've had most of those removed from my CR by stating "not mine", but there are still two that I was the cosignor on but he was supposed to pay and didn't.

My problem is that I need to refi my ARM on my house. I can afford it now, but I have another jump due in four months and another six months later and that last one will put the payment beyond my current income and budget.

These cards that I'm referring to are listed as charge offs on my report and one of them has filed in court (I checked the internet but I haven't actually been served any papers yet). My score is tanked because of this and getting behind on my mortgage last year. I'm just looking for ways to fix it up so I can get the refi to a fixed rate mortgage.

Oddly, I have over 25 perfect tradelines on my report from before the divorce, many which I was the primary. Why doesn't that balance out the three really bad things on my report? Doesn't make sense....

[Amerikaner83]

I was not familiar with the RR process...I stand corrected. I thought you were blowing smoke refiman

[refiman1]

No prob Amerikaner. Hope that clears up the confusion.

"all cards listed in XXXX's name as primary holder will be paid by that person".

Well unless you typed this wrong, it appears the judge stated that the primary accountholders are responsible for their own debt, ergo you owe for your ards and your ex owes for their debts, is that correct?

Regarding your ARM, as I see it with the Fed cutting the funds and the 10 year rates, your ARM should not rise that much, if at all... UNLESS YOU ARE ON AN OPTION ARM. In that case, I have nothing but sympathy. But a traditional ARM should not adjust much if at all.

[brokeinok]

No prob Amerikaner. Hope that clears up the confusion.

"all cards listed in XXXX's name as primary holder will be paid by that person".

Well unless you typed this wrong, it appears the judge stated that the primary accountholders are responsible for their own debt, ergo you owe for your ards and your ex owes for their debts, is that correct?

Yes that is correct.

Regarding your ARM, as I see it with the Fed cutting the funds and the 10 year rates, your ARM should not rise that much, if at all... UNLESS YOU ARE ON AN OPTION ARM. In that case, I have nothing but sympathy. But a traditional ARM should not adjust much if at all.

I have my settlement papers from that mortgage in my desk at work. Specifically what do I look for to determine which type of ARM I have? I knew this was a mistake but the mortgage broker talked me into it and kept saying ...you'll be able to refinance to a fixed in three years, well before it starts adjusting... don't worry. Desperate for cash = stupid

**hitting head against wall***

[refiman1]

If he told you three years, youre probably on a 3/27 which means you have a fixed rate for a period of three years. Again if that is the case with the indices reductions you should be ok.

Regarding your decree, if it is worded that way then you are responsible for your debt and not your ex, meaning your decree wouldnt do you a bit of good as it just affirms the credit contract. Sorry.

[brokeinok]

If he told you three years, youre probably on a 3/27 which means you have a fixed rate for a period of three years. Again if that is the case with the indices reductions you should be ok.

Yes the payment was level for three years then started going up. So I'll just concern myself with cleaning up the report and try refi again next year.

Regarding your decree, if it is worded that way then you are responsible for your debt and not your ex, meaning your decree wouldnt do you a bit of good as it just affirms the credit contract. Sorry.

I'm sorry, I wasn't clear. The charge offs that are on my credit report are the accounts that were assigned to the ex as primary. My assigned cards are all paid off or current which means to the CA's... ohhh look, the other one is paying her bills-- lets get her to pay these too!

[refiman1]

If it states it that way, then yes I have had them removed several times through ECDP.

[jetscarbie]

I have gotten so frustrated with Experian that I finally tried to add a statement to my report.

Online dispute....this is what I wrote: Experian is nothing but a bunch of money loving scum. They don't care about any body's credit or it being error free. They violate the law over and over again and the law does nothing to them. SCUM

It was on there one day and the next...gone. Then my accounts with Privacy Matter and Truecredit got suspended. Now another hard fraud alert on my file. And by hard, I mean you can't pull Experian at all. They won't even let me dispute anything. They just send me gibberish letters.

[sgip2000]

I have gotten so frustrated with Experian that I finally tried to add a statement to my report.

Online dispute....this is what I wrote: Experian is nothing but a bunch of money loving scum. They don't care about any body's credit or it being error free. They violate the law over and over again and the law does nothing to them. SCUM

It was on there one day and the next...gone. Then my accounts with Privacy Matter and Truecredit got suspended. Now another hard fraud alert on my file. And by hard, I mean you can't pull Experian at all. They won't even let me dispute anything. They just send me gibberish letters.

Sucks that they don't have a sense of humor. Funny that you pi$$ed them off though.