I am trying to figure something out but I have been unable to locate any resources to answer this question. I am hoping someone here can offer me some information.
About 8 months ago my wife and I purchased a new home. We used a 'piggyback' mortgage to finance part of the purchase price. The piggyback loan was a product offered by my bank called a 'Loan in a Line', and it offered a better interest rate than their traditional fixed-term 2nd mortgages. So, I opened the line and immediately used it to secure a fixed-term, fixed rate loan which I am currently repaying.
Today I looked at my file with each of the three credit bureaus, and there seems to be some inconsistent information which I beleive is hurting my credit scores. This would normally not be an issue but I am moving to a new city as part of a job transfer and I will need to purchase another home (we are selling our current home).
The issue is that two of the three bureaus (Experian being one of them) have the home-equity loan listed as a 'Credit Line Secured, Revolving' whereas the Equifax report I viewed has it listed as a real estate account. I see a sizeable difference in my credit scores between the three bureaus and this is the only piece of information that is different. On Experian the statement of factors that are negatively impacting my score states the following:
"At least one or more of your accounts has a balance that is close to your credit limit, which may be lowering your score...The HELOC loan is the only account other than an auto loan and mortgage for which I have a balance, so I am assuming that this is the reason for the statement. Equifax does not list this as a factor which is hurting my score, which reinforces my suspicion.
I have a few questions about this:
1. Which method of reporting is correct? I understand that this is technically a revolving account even though the terms are set as if it were a normal 2nd mortgage, but I would assume it would report the same way on all three reports.
2. If Equifax has this information listed correctly, will the defined dispute process help me correct the way the accounts are listed?
3. If I am selling the house soon and the balance is paid-in-full, will I see an immediate impact (within reason) on my credit scores?
Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to offer. I appreciate it.