Real Estate and Home Mortgages - attempting refi - need advice

Hi - I just need a sounding board and hopefully some advice

4 years back I bought a house. My credit history looked great and my credit score was in the mid 800s. Now, I am attempting to refi and a little timeshare boondogle dating to just before I bought the home is coming back to haunt me. Short story is I got swindled by a timeshare operation in mexico who told me upfront I had 72 hours to reneg on the deal, but then when I came back to do so, they said an officer of the corp had to accept the cancellation in person, but no officers happened to be available to do so. I came home and contacted the american offices to see what could be arranged and they said I had to pay them in full for the contracted amount. I refused and they sent my account to collection. The agency pursued it for a while but then went quiet. Now it's becoming an issue again.

My credit score is still very good, but I have this blemish, and the word from my broker is that no one will underwrite a new loan with this fraudulent blemish on my history. Any advise or leads out there?

thanks

Sorry, I didn't quite understand the whole scenario. :o

So, you want to do a refinance and there's something "funky" on your credit that you claim is fraudulent that has nothing to do with the mortgage itself right? AND, you do not want to pay what you owe b/c it was fraudulent right? How is it becoming an issue again? They are coming after you or it's becoming an issue b/c you want to refinance and you think you have to do something about it? How much do you owe?

For some reason it sounds like that isn't the case but I can't tell until you provide further explanation.

Hey, thanks for the reply. The mortgage guy is telling me that all lenders are declining to fund a refi loan with this item from 2003 on my credit report. Even thought I have a perfect history on the existing loan and my credit score is still between 700 and 800 depending on the rating agency. I never really did anything about contesting this item before because it didn't seem to be causing me any pain.

So, now that this issue is coming back to bite me, just looking for advise on how I might go about getting the item off my history. Oh, the amount on the derogotory credit item is around 7k

Thanks

Yeah...7k is a lot of $$$. That's something you really need to take care of whether you're going to dispute it, have it removed somehow from your credit report or just pay it. All in all, I would dispute the item. Whomever you have to deal with (the creditor...the fraudulent company) sounds like they might not even be around anymore. Is it now a judgment? There might be a lien on your property that will pop up on the preliminary title report. If that's true, there's most likely no way they can fund that loan without it being taken care of. If it only appears on your credit report, you might want to look into taking care of it. I'd make a call to the "creditor" and see if they still exist. Otherwise, write a letter to the credit bureaus and say it doesn't belong to you and that you never received any service from them.

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't you entitled to add an explanation of any derogatory information in the report and the credit bureaus are required to include it? That may or may not solve the problem. Like 'addict, I'm thinking the original creditor may not even exist anymore and this is strictly a collections agency matter. The fact the original debtor may be gone would not relieve you from owing the amount to the collection agency.

There IS something you can add onto your credit report but there are specifics (I believe). I can't even remember. You can dispute an item and it should report as "item in dispute" or something or other but it doesn't really mean anything other than you acknowledged the fact that it's there and you're doing something about. Now if this is done, the mortgage company would probably like to see documentation or would want to know what the outcome is before proceeding or funding your loan. If it just hangs there "in dispute" who's to say what happened other than something's being done.

Another way to do it is to tell the credit bureaus in writing that you don't know who these people are, why you owe them or why they are reporting whatever it is on your credit report. <<<<----BUT, that might be lying and I would never encourage one to lie :D... They investigate -contact the source of info and try to have them verify the derogatory information. The creditor HAS to respond in 30 days. If the source of info (the creditor) states you owe it, the info stays on credit report. If the bureaus don't hear from them in 30 days they'll update your credit report and/or delete the information. You MUST inform them on what it is you want them to do. Just remember you must dispute to all 3 credit bureaus and/or just the bureau it's reporting under.