Frustrated! (renting, condo, mortgage)

[DanielleNC]

My boyfriend is looking to buy his first house. He was originally going to go the SECU with a first time home buyers mortgage, but now that 30 yr rates are dropping he was going to look at other lenders (since SECU hasn’t dropped theirs). He has had great scores above 700 and was pre-approved this past summer. Well, he checked his scores again since he was going to check out other lenders and Sprint has reported him owing $200 from 2003! He NEVER even knew he owed money and they just now report it, and two out of three of his scores dropped below 700. Is it legal for Sprint to report to a credit agency 5 years later? Talk about bad timing! If he had known about it he could have easily paid it off and avoided this problem. Does anyone think this is disputable? If it is, how long do you think it would take for it to drop off? He plans on buying sometime this spring. If worse comes to worse, he can do the 5.25% 2 year ARM (no PMI) at the SECU or we’ll just keep renting. This is crazy and makes me mad.

[saturnfan]

You can dispute it with the bureaus if you feel it's wrong. You can also try Sprint to see if they can prove it is accurate or remove the info if wrong. Sprint is not known for great customer service, but give it a try.

SECU, of which I'm a member, will usually work with you once you find out if the debt is real and pay it if so.

The credit union tries hard to help members and is a great place to get a loan.

Remember that the cheapest provider's not always the best. SECU's worth a bit more.

[starla]

The bad debt has to be removed from his report after seven years by law. So if he doesn't pay it within two years, Sprint has to write it off and it will come off his report. He can use that as a bargaining chip. Most people wouldn't bother to pay it off when they're so close to having it fall off their report anyway. So I think your boyfriend should make them an offer: if he pays it back, they have to remove the incident from his credit report. If they accept that offer, make sure to get it in writing before you cut the check. He gains nothing by paying it off and not getting it removed from his credit report, so if they won't work with you, don't bother paying it back. I usually wouldn't condone not paying off your bad debts just from a moral standpoint, but in this case I think if Sprint isn't willing to work with him, they don't deserve his money. Give it a shot. He has nothing to lose.

Edit: Also, make sure it isn't a mistake. They may have reported it on the wrong person's social security number, or someone else may have used your boyfriends identity to open an account. That's actually the first thing you should do. All the stuff I posted above assumes it was in fact his debt.

[VickiR]

Originally Posted by DanielleNC

My boyfriend is looking to buy his first house. He was originally going to go the SECU with a first time home buyers mortgage, but now that 30 yr rates are dropping he was going to look at other lenders (since SECU hasn’t dropped theirs). He has had great scores above 700 and was pre-approved this past summer. Well, he checked his scores again since he was going to check out other lenders and Sprint has reported him owing $200 from 2003! He NEVER even knew he owed money and they just now report it, and two out of three of his scores dropped below 700. Is it legal for Sprint to report to a credit agency 5 years later? Talk about bad timing! If he had known about it he could have easily paid it off and avoided this problem. Does anyone think this is disputable? If it is, how long do you think it would take for it to drop off? He plans on buying sometime this spring. If worse comes to worse, he can do the 5.25% 2 year ARM (no PMI) at the SECU or we’ll just keep renting. This is crazy and makes me mad.

If he agrees that he owes the money, have him call Sprint and agree to pay the money IF they will give him something in writing stating that it is paid off and that they will contact the credit bureaus and have it show up as "paid in full".

Some lenders will take that documentation and ignore the fact that he DID owe Sprint the money since now it has been paid off.

Although this may take a few months to show up on his credit report, some lenders will understand that and all him to proceed with his mortgage now.

Vicki