West Asset - argh!

[IOBA]

Just found out that West Asset put a comment on one -- and only ONE -- CR that says the account is in dispute.    (The rest of the comment says submitted by subscriber.)

This company continues to be frustrating.   

1.   They never had the account.

2.   The hospital was paid in full.

3.   Which means that the CA never collected a dime.

4.   The CA never contacted me.

5.   They put the collection on the CR 2 yrs after the hosptial had been paid in full.

6.   I disputed with the CB  when I found out it was there.   The reporting information includes the name of the hospital, the date of service, stated it was unpaid.

7.   The dispute ended up with the CA updating to paid.    

8.   I contacted the CA to remove the account from CB becuase it was never theirs and they were violating HIPPA.   Mr. Jerk said no, they had every right to report it since the hospital bill was not paid in full within 10 days of surgery.   Uh, the insurance company hadn't even processed the bill 10 days after surgery!  And he said I had prove the HIPPA violation.   (I did - HIPPA says they can not reveal personal information that would violate privacy and having the name of the hospital on there does violate that.   There's another HIPPA violation in the way they are reporting that I would need to go back to my notes on.)

9.   Now the turds are reporting that it's a charge off!   It show a zero balance.    And says charge off!   It was NEVER a charge off!

So I called back my lender and asked about the dispute comment.  Will it kill the deal?    The lender said maybe, but who knows.  Well, ya know, I'd like to know cuz if you kill the deal over it I loose $350 plus $5k!  (Their fee that they charge if you back out of a loan or the loan doesn't go through.   Plus my ernest money cuz I can't be financed.)

The 2nd CB has the comment it's dipusted by consumer.

The 3rd CB doesn't list any personal information or dispute.

It looks like Mr. Jerk deliberately updated the file to reflect just one CB.

So...is the deal dead cuz of the dispute?

So..do I wait until the house deal either firms up or falls apart before filing my complaints with the BBB?

[Anonymous]

Don't you have "contingency" for getting Financing?

CA's can be a real pain in the but. I would try to talk with the OC and ask them since you made good on this if they will contact the CA. Don't forget that most all Company's listen to the request of their clients. 

[Tooliebell]

This is tough.  You can't really call the CB and say it is not in dispute because clearly it is.  Can you try the HIPPA letter program and see if you can't get it removed?

I had a dispute comment on an auto loan that is open.  If I couldn't have gotten it removed, it would have killed my deal.  Took about a week and it was gone and we were okay.  But the UW wasn't going to let anything go further until that comment was gone. 

My only other advice is to get an attorney who handles FDCPA issues and see if they can't help you quickly.  I had one for an account and I didn't have to pay anything.  He was amazing and fast.  Always worked quickly to help me out, anwered emails fast, was available by phone all the time or had a slew of great litigation attorneys who were ready to help. 

Sucks that this might hang you up.  Good luck!

[ReBuildingAgn]

So a collection that has 'In dispute' in the comments will affect your mortgage app? I was going to apply next month and I have 3 medical collections currently in dispute. Will I not be able to prequalify because of this?

[Anonymous]

Here's another thought.

I read somewhere on here someone having these comments that effected their mortgage app. They called the CRA and the rep removed it. Worth a try.

[YHWHUDAH]

Here is how mine went down.

I filled for a mortgage and no account was in dispute and then two weeks later an account magically had dispute comments. I never mentioned it to my LO/lender; to be honest I was afraid to.  My lender said my original credit report was good for 90 days. Therefore, they would only use the first report they requested to send it to underwriting. I closed 23 Dec and my credit was not repulled. I am not sure how your situation is, but if your credit was pulled then they will use the first report to send it to underwriting. They will not keep pulling reports because that cost money. They will or might just refresh your information as far as balances, etc.  It will not be cost effective if banks pull credit reports constantly and only charge the consumer 1 time for a credit report fee.

It depends how far along you are in the process. If you already had your credit report pulled by the lender before the dispute comment then you are good.  Your file should be good when they send it to underwriting because the first report does not have dispute comments, so the automated underwriting desktop system want kick your file back because you want have any active disputes or comments on that report. However, if they do pull another report and send that one through the automated system those dispute comments can be a deal breaker because it will reject/ spit out your file. 

[IOBA]

The OC was very unpleasant to deal with to begin with!  I called them to make payment arrangements because I didn't know how much my after insurance paid portion was going to be.   And I called BEFORE the insurance company had processed the claim.  I know, call it jumping the gun, but I take my financial responsibility seriously.

According to Mr. Jerk becuase I didn't pay the hospital bill within 10 days of surgery, like they demanded (which is a violation of the agreement between insurance company and hopsital), Mr. Jerk says that had every right to put the collection on the CR.   I still paid the hospital in full.   (They offered me a settlement if I paid in full within 10 days, but even at 5 days, they had no clue what my insurance company was going to pay and I told them that.   Turns out the hospital "guesses" and then "inflates" what they think they will be owed.)

I don't remember if I called the hospital after I learned it was on the report, but I might try that.  I think it is illegal for them to accept money on an account if they dont' own the account.   Which would logically translate to they owned the bill, accepted all money, and either 1) they let their in house CA look at the files or 2) sold a bogus debt to a CA or 3) they didn't go very good record keeping.  

I dont' think West Asset is an in house CA for them though...West Asset seems to be an independent company.  

Whatever their relationship is, West Asset was able to quote the date of surgery, the 10 day demand, and the 3 payments I made (date/amount).  Way too  much personal information for a company that was not directly involved in my health care!!!    AND one I didn't have a relationship with!!!

** I have heard that mortgage apps will be denied by UW for a "dispute" comment.    I do dispute the CA being on the CR since I never, ever dealt with them regardign the debt.   They showed up months AFTER the bill was paid in full to the hospital.   IMO they have no business reporting at all!   Does anyone agree with me?

** Unfortunately, the pre-approval letter stated 4.375% interest rate - their lowest.   Turns out I get 2.75% with a different lender.   The get out of the deal due to financing is only if the unresponsive first lender will write a letter stating I no longer qualify for the mortgage at that rate.   Which - is probably true since rates have gone up a tad bit, but then so have the FICO score (9 pts since Nov 2011).    My lower interest rate lender does not know if UW will stop the file or not becuase the CA now reports paid.   BUT it does say charge off of a "govt or insurance claim".

[IOBA]

YHWHUDAH -  thanks for sharing your experience.   The first lender, who provided the pre-approval letter, has been unresponsive to phone calls and to emails.   I had to really bug him to even get a GFE.   Once he sent the GFE via email, NEVER heard from him again.   (I called/left voicemail and emailed.  No response.)  That was in October 2011.  

At the end of October 2011, I found another lender who says I qualify for a lower rate.  I really want to put 20% down.  Lender #1 did NOT want that.  He wanted me to put 5% down.   Lender #1 pulled the credit back in October 2011 - and it's now January 2012.   Iffy if it's still good.  Before the deal would close, if it does, more than 90 days would pass.   So I am pretty sure the credit would be pulled again if I stuck with Lender #1.

Lender #2 has not pulled credit.   I dont' want him to until I know for sure about this deal.   The contract was written and accepted by the sellers in October 2011.   It's a short sale and the seller had more issues with their mortgage companies after the contract was signed.   The banks have not approved the sale yet.   Best case scenario, a close in February 2012, but more likely March 2012.  

My get out of the deal clause is only if Lender #1 won't finance me at 4.375% - the quoted rate in the pre-approval  letter.   They (the sellers) will expect to try to get that rate elsewhere.   I really don't want to when Lender #2 says based on the criteria I gave them, I qualify for 2.75% rate, with 20% down, no PMI.     

And I most certainly don't want to spend 1k on appraisal and inspections if I am going to be cancelled or have to pay a higher rate.   My budget is very tight and the difference in interest rate would be the difference between Top Ramen every day for the next 5 yrs or only having it 5 days a week.  (My youngest starts University and it's cash only.   The costs are MUCH higher than pre-budgeted due to a 300% increase in tuition.  Tuition tripled for 2012 over the school year 2011.)

So I am really stuck here.   Why waste 1k if it's going to be kicked back?   Is there enough time (2 wks) to get this resolved before app'ing again (this time with Lender #2)?

Edited to clarify who "they" were.

[ReBuildingAgn]

I haven't applied for a mortgage yet and I currently have medical collections in dispute. Should I wait until they clear?? That might take some time and I wanted to apply for preapproval next month.

[IOBA]

Yeah, you probably should.

In my case, the credit scores & income are high enough and the debt is low enough that the lenders provide great lip service.    The UW might not.   Pretty much everyone (but that doesn't mean EVERYONE) has had the UW kick back the file due to a "dispute" comment related to an account on the CR.

In my case, IMO, the CA had no business reporting whatsever and THEY added the comment that I dispute the account!  Uh yeah!

Clear the "dispute" comments from your account first before applying.    The loan officers taking your app will often provide great lip service and tell you its' a go...but the UW is the Goddess...and really rules the mortgage process kingdom.