So I've come across a situation which apparently doesn't happen to many people with their credit reports. I've had multiple mortgages on my report from several years back. Recently, I noticed they weren't coming up on my credit report anymore, which tends to lower your score for two factors. One (and I do not hold myself out to be a credit expert, just sharing what I've picked up along the way), with the missing proof of old mortgage tradelines, it shortens the age of my credit accounts to 2 years, 4 months. To anyone pulling my report right now, I look like a student just getting out of college. Two, as I understand it, without a co-signer willing to add you to established accounts, you have to "work your way up" with credit, meaning first you get a small credit card, then maybe furniture on credit, then a car, then you can be trusted with a mortgage. And of course I understand there are other factors such as income and debt ratios but I'm staying focused on one leg of the subject. As a matter of fact, I remember being told when I began attempting to apply for mortgages that my score would have been stronger if I had financed a car first.
At any rate, no one in my circle had ever heard of that happening. The first information I received is that the issue might be that I have the same name as my father and grandfather, but trying that didn't yield any results. The next thing I was able to come up with is that after 10 years, the bureaus can omit positive information about you. I tried contacting the bureaus first, to which i just got either bland or nasty responses that didn't really address the issue of how do I get my report corrected.
The next move was to locate and contact the old lenders. Since the Recession, some lenders have gone out of business and sold their files to other lenders. It was a bit time consuming, but I was able to get through to three of the new servicers. Suprisingly, only one gave me some run around before giving the information to their research department. One lender wasn't quite sure who I needed to talk to, but at least they were receptive to help until they found the right department. Another lender actually knew right off the bat who I needed o contact and what information to send. It put me at ease that at least I'm not the only one who's been in this situation. They informed me it doesn't happen often, but just enough that they knew who to send me to.
I drafted inquiry letters with a request to research and re-report the missing information. It was helpful to have old credit reports on hand, and necessary that I saved some documentation like closing statements, escrow instructions and copies of the mortgage notes. I sent the written requests and documentation off by certified mail; now we wait to see the outcome.
