Steve
Corona,#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, February 23, 2006
I am a mortgage broker in California and we see this problem fairly frequently. Just because Homecomings is not reporting your mortgage history is not keeping you from refinancing. There are other ways to show your payment history however. Just for the record, a mortgage company(or other creditor) has no legal obligation to report your mortgage history to any of the credit bureaus. However, if they do report, it must be accurate. Here are some other ways that are totally acceptable to a new lender to prove your payments. Generally for a prime mortgage you need to prove the most recent 12 months, for a non-prime you need to prove 24 months. Your bank statements showing when the house payment checks were posted. Your new prospective mortgage company will be more than happy to order a V.O.M. form. That is a Verification of Mortgage form that all of the mortgage software has and I guarantee that your new lender knows how to get one of these to Homecomings. Your new lender can ask for a Credit Supplement to be performed. The credit reporting agency that your new lender uses will have a procedure similar to a "Rapid Rescore". The agency will contact all three bureaus; Experian, Equifax, and Transunion and require them to contact Homecomings to obtain a history and verify positive or derogatory history on your mortgage (or any other debt). The Fair Credit Reporting Act REQUIRES that when information is disputed that the creditor update the history. Your new lender is totally familiar with how to get this done. It is not tough. We probably use this type of service 8-10 times a month. It takes about 10 days or less.