I couldn't for the life of me find the answer anywhere, so please forgive me if this has been answered a bazillion times before (and if it's in the wrong forum, I wasn't sure where to put it).
I'm in the process of buying a home (the closing is a couple of weeks off yet), and I'm wondering if the inquiries from the mortgage company (or from anybody really - they were hard pulls) show to other lenders when they pull my report? The reason I'm asking is that this is the second time that I've gone through the whole mortgage thing (the first time was a year ago and my scores were horrible, so this time everything should work out - *crosses fingers*), and both times a collection agency's, collection agency's, collection agency (the ones who dwell under the bottom of the barrel) popped a new inquiry and a collection account on my report. In both instances, the accounts they're trying to collect on are old (the one last year was something that I never remember having, but has been taken care of, this most recent one is one that I remember, but it's within a year of hitting that magic 7-year mark). I would just dismiss it as a coincedence if it didn't happen within a couple of weeks of the mortgage company's inquiry showing up on my credit reports both times.
Am I just being paranoid, or is this an actual practice these businesses partake in? I just got the letter from this particular collection agency a week or so back, and I fired off a request for verification of the debt and mailed it this week (I have to double-check, but I think I'm within the first 30 days from the date on the notice), so I'm going to double-check all my stuff and start the dispute process immediately, but I'm just wondering if this is something I might have to start looking out for in the coming couple of weeks?
These forums have been a Godsend, and I thank everybody in advance for the answers I'm likely to see.
Up until today, I'd have dismissed that talk as crazy conspiracy theory, but I think you might be on to something. If nothing else, it is a HELL of a coincidence if there WEREN'T any shenanigans going on there. I think it's downright deceitful to lie in wait until you *know* that the consumer will be up against a wall to pounce. In this case, it seems like they knew waiting the full 30 days would put me in the clear for the mortgage, so they sprung early. It'd be nice if I had confidence that the law were actually on my side, and saying I have 30 days to dispute or request validation meant that I had 30 days before any other action were taken, but I don't. What's sad is that as far as credit reporting goes, consumers have more protection than we've pretty much *ever* had in the US. Or maybe a bit less, but certainly way better than 1977 (when I was born).
Shew, I do go off on rants, don't I? Sorry about that.
I hit a bump in the road because I realized that I may have sent the validation request to the wrong address. They tell you waaaaay up at the top of the letter to "...address all future correspondence and payments concerning this account to this address...", and then draw a highlighted box around a PO Box in Newark, NJ, but then in the Wall 'o Text (tm) near the bottom of the page, they say "All dispute correspondence should be mailed to:..." then give a physical address in Bethlehem, PA. Personally, I think that's more than a little misleading because anybody with a half a brain cell would read "all future correspondence" to also mean disputes and requests for validation, though I'm sure there's at least one court of law out there who would disagree. Anywho, I printed off a new letter to mail to the dispute address, so hopefully my bases are covered.
Does anybody think I have a snowball's chance of getting this taken care of before the closing, or will the bank see the accounts as one in the same (maybe) and let me squeak by, or am I just going to have to squeeze that turnip a little more and hope there's a few drops left?
*sigh* And things were going so swimmingly so far with this...
Shew, I do go off on rants, don't I? Sorry about that.
I hit a bump in the road because I realized that I may have sent the validation request to the wrong address. They tell you waaaaay up at the top of the letter to "...address all future correspondence and payments concerning this account to this address...", and then draw a highlighted box around a PO Box in Newark, NJ, but then in the Wall 'o Text (tm) near the bottom of the page, they say "All dispute correspondence should be mailed to:..." then give a physical address in Bethlehem, PA. Personally, I think that's more than a little misleading because anybody with a half a brain cell would read "all future correspondence" to also mean disputes and requests for validation, though I'm sure there's at least one court of law out there who would disagree. Anywho, I printed off a new letter to mail to the dispute address, so hopefully my bases are covered.
Does anybody think I have a snowball's chance of getting this taken care of before the closing, or will the bank see the accounts as one in the same (maybe) and let me squeak by, or am I just going to have to squeeze that turnip a little more and hope there's a few drops left?
*sigh* And things were going so swimmingly so far with this...