@Anonymous wrote:
@Subexistence wrote:Ok so I guess the key to preventing baddies is to check everything every month right?
Absolutely. The thing of it though is that many people, me being a perfect example, don't see a need to start monitoring these things until something bad happens. Sort if "if it aint broke, don't fix it." Unless you are monitoring your reports though, you don't know if it's "broke."
In my case on all 4 of my negative accounts I was completely unaware that late payments were being reported. Had I been using a monitoring service, I would have caught all of them much sooner, definitely no later than a 30 day late being reported and I could have reacted so that the severity of the lates never exceeded 30 days. Also with a monitoring service you'd be able to see a balance decreasing on an account that you co-signed of. For example, if the monthly payment is $200, you see the balance on say the 10th of the month (assuming the payment is made by the primary) go down... ~$2000, ~$1800, ~$1600, etc. If the 10th comes and goes and the balance never drops after that creditor reports for the month, you know that the primary did not make the payment... but you are catching this way before the 30 day late mark would hit and can react accordingly by making the payment yourself, threatening the primary with a weapon, etc.
What type of monitoring service do you recommend? I don't want to pay for a monitoring service but I want to be safe. From your experience, would google calendars and iOS notifications be good enough or do I need an actual service? CK gives me email alerts.
Starting Score: Ex08-732,Eq08-713,Tu08-717
Up until a couple of months ago Experian listed a "mortgage" (HELOC) as foreclosed - which is was NOT. EX scores ran 30-35 points behind EQ ans 50+ points behind TU.
Back story, I had a 40k low interest rate HELOC opened in 1992 with a 10 year term meaning it had to re renewed every 10 years - I pretty much used this as a revolving credit asset for my business for buying inventory. Zero lates or problems renewed same terms in 2002, zero lates or issues going forward to 2012 except the bank "canceled" the HELOC and demanded the loan go from a fixed 1-2% interest to a 7% fixed payment installment loan - I said NO and continued to make regular payments, stating in September the bank returned our payments so we went to a branch and paid the required amount, then in November they refused to take our payment at a branch. In December 1 week before Christmas they scheduled an "foreclosure auction at the courthouse" on our property.
The property was never auctioned, the loan was converted to a second mortgage, I have never missed a payment but was reported - the old and the new loan - to the CRA's. I disputed the reporting of a foreclosure with all 3 CRA's, TU and EQ removed the old file right away, EX refused several disputes, BBB complain, CFPB complain, etc they simply refused to actually look at the issue and continued to report the account as "other 180 days late was foreclosure".
In early May 2017 the file discription changed to "unknown" and dropped the foreclosure but still reports 180 staring in June 2012 and "on time" as of December 2012 - this is the old listing, the new listing shows paid as agreed 12/12 through 6/17. Recently my EX score is 8 points behind EQ (see below).
Is mint free?