Cleaning up our Credit Report

Today has been one of the longest and most frustrating days that I have experienced in a long time.  As part of our new more responsible outlook at life, we have decided that it would be more prudent and responsible for us to try and purchase a home, instead of wasting money renting. 

I am currently in Chapter 13 bankruptcy — partly from a previous marriage, partly from stupidity of my youth, and partly because I went into business for myself without being prepared both mentally and financially.  I tell you this, because as I was trying to get a pre-qualified for a loan, I learned that I  have good credit but that some things that were supposed to be taken care of were not taken care of.  The same thing applies to my husband.  While he was not on my bankruptcy — I claimed bankruptcy before we got married, we found out that any creditor can put anything that he or she or they want on a credit report and unless you check it, you will never know that it is there.

So today, we found out that liens had been placed on both my husband and I.  My husband’s lien was placed there from an old IRS tax bill and had been paid over 4 years ago.  They have never released it, be that as it may, it was over 13 years old and should have been taken off the credit report over 7 years ago.  That one is an easy fix — we are writing to the credit bureau and disputing it and pointing out that it is over 7 years old and has to be removed.  Also, we are going to our local IRS office and requesting that they release the lien. 

My liens, on the other hand, were supposed to be taken care of with my bankruptcy.  The payments were supposed to be top priority on the bankruptcy list, but instead have been being paid at the most minimal payment, stretching the secured debt out the total length of my payments.  If the majority of my payment had gone to the liens, they would have been paid out last year.  Not quite an easy fix, but my bankruptcy attorney is working to find out why my Trustee did not apply the payments correctly. 

To make matters worse, my husband authorizes Transunion to talk to me about signing onto his online account.  The credit representative started asking me all these verification questions, which I would have answered when I signed on.  Her reasoning was that she was saving me time by asking me all these questions.  It didn’t feel that way to me — felt more like she was invading our privacy.  So she starts asking about email addresses, after she tells me that she could have given me the sign-in information a long time ago.  I start answering the questions and then she says “Well we don’t show his email on this account.”  To which, I replied “you are holding his information hostage, and I’ll write to you with all the complaints that we have about his report, whether we can actually see them or not.”  And I hung up. Yeah sure, maybe I shouldn’t have got upset, but it has been one more day of hitting my head against every brick wall with creditors.

So the moral to this whole blog, while being frugal and saving money is a priority — it should also be a priority to get all your business in order.  Make sure that your credit information is correct.  I know that credit is supposed to be a no-no in the frugal lifestyle, but we pay our credit cards off every month and only use them for necessary items.  That’s another post at another time. 

Be responsible — check your credit report monthly!!!