Someone screwed up our credit!!

[juliet065]

What is the name of your state? Illinois

My husband and I prequalified for a mortgage about a month ago. We found our house last Friday and our bid was accepted. We called the woman at the mortgage company to let her know all the info. She re-ran our credit (not sure why) and said we no longer could qualify because my husbands credit rating had dropped dramatically. When we looked at the copy she gave us, we saw that Capital One (who we have never done any business with) ran my husbands credit 37 times within five days, and that everytime your credit is checked it takes points away from your credit rating. What can we do, legally? Since we prequalified, should this have an impact on us getting the mortgage? And what recourse do we have against Capital One? Thanks in advance!

 

[bigun]

Juliet,
Expect your credit to be checked several times between now and closing as lenders do not want an nasty surprise. For darn sure, don't you 2 go on a furniture shopping spree or whatever until the keys are in your hand.

As to the Cap 1 problem. There is an easy way to deal with it if Cap 1 is agreeable. Call them and get someone in there legal dept. and tell them of the 37 inquires and, your husband never applied for credit or employment with them and they HAVE NO PERMISSIBLE PURPOSE to pull your credit as per the FCRA {Fair Credit Reporting Act}. Ask them to delete the inquiries as it has impacted your chances at a mortgage. If they agree, get a fax number and address and send a followup communiction just so you have something in writting. I'd send the letter overnight with a RRR. Then, take the fax where they agree to the deletions to your lender and ask them to rescore it. They should be able to do that for you.

If for some reason Cap 1 won't cooperate, you can sue for a bunch of money. Take the problem to lawyer. No way I'd waste more than 48 hours doing it myself.

Also, post this over at www.creditnet.com. Inquires has been a hot topic of late. There is also a thread concerning a class action lawsuit. A member has an appointment next week with a lawyer about a class action suit over inquries.

 

[juliet065]

Thanks! I'll definitely have to check out that site!