Does adding an explanatory statement to your credit report really do anything?

[Anonymous]

Is there any real benefit to including a personal statement on your credit report? One of the factors impacting my score is that my mortgage is not reporting on any credit bureau. My ex husband was still listed on the loan when he filed bankruptcy and he did not reaffirm the mortgage (We are coborrowers on the mortgage, The house is mine in the divorce decree from 9 years ago and I have been solely paying the mortgage ever since). Because of his Ch13 and his name is on the mortgage, FNMA is suppressing the credit reporting of the mortgage for both of us. If I added a statement explaining this would it make a difference?  My score is currently 591.

[silver_idle]

From personal experience, its only useful for creditors who review the report manually, which may be useful for those who went through a divorce, job loss, id theft, etc., to add a personal statement to explain what happen. It does nothing to help your score, and in many cases doesnt always help get one approve, though there are other factors that plays into the decision so ymmv. 

[RobertEG]

The FCRA provides for explanatory statements only after a dispute has been resolved and the consumer still disagrees with the outcome.

It does not provide a general right to add an explantory statement for other purposes, such as lack of reporting by a creditor.

What the explantory statement then does is advise of the prior formal dispute of accuracy or completeness, the fact that the dispute has been resolved by the CRA, and that the consumer still disagrees.  The consumer has a right to inform others of that disagreement, but only after conclusion of the formal dispute process, and not generally for any statement they wish to post.

FCRA 611(a)(6)(B)(iv) and FCRA 611(b) and (c) provides the consumer the right to place a statement in their credit file disputing the accuracy or completeness of information in their credit file after the CRA has completed their reinvestigation of a dispute under FCRA 611(a) and the consumer still disagrees with the finding in the dispute.

It does not provide a consumer with the right to  add a statement to their consumer file that contests any information in their file that has not been subject to a concluded dispute.

In the posted scenario, the creditor has apparently made the decision to delete prior reporting and discontinue any future reporting on the account for their own business reason.

Credit reporting is voluntary, and a decision to delete prior reporting is not an inaccuracy or incompleteness of reported information, it is the absence of any reporting.

Thus, a dispute of accuracy or completeness of information that is not being reported can be dismissed as frivolous or irrelevant.

The post additionally does not refer to any prior dispute filed with the CRA, and thus the right to add a consumer statement provision of the FCRA would not apply.

It would thus appear that there is no basis in the posted scenario permitting the addition of a statement by the consumer relating to the lack of reporting by the furnisher.

As such, it does not appear that there is any basis for the CRA to include a statement from the consumer in any credit reports they issue.

Can you clarify the basis for requiring the CRA to add any statement to your credit file/reports?