Mortgage Lender

Q: My husband and I are big fans of yours. My question for you today is our mortgage company is not reporting our payments to the three credit reporting bureaus.

About six months after our mortgage was sold to them, my husband checked our credit report and discovered our on-time payments were not being reported. We contacted the company, and the representative advised us that this information will be reported.

It’s now a year later, and the company has only reported six months worth of data. Each time we contact their credit department, we’re told that it will be done. But it’s not.

Do you have any advice on what we can do to get this company to report our on-time payments? And, by not reporting the information, can that have a negative impact on our credit?

A: Creditors that do not report payment data are trying keep other lenders from cherry-picking their customers. They want you, and the interest you’re paying, all to themselves.

It's a lousy, anti-consumer practice with the end result that your on-time mortgage payments will do nothing to increase your credit score. You can be certain, however, that your mortgage lender will immediately report any delinquencies.

Lenders that promise to report credit data and fail to do it get a big black "X" in my book. Go back to your lender and insist that they report your on-time payments each month, as promised. (Hopefully, you have it in writing.) If they do not, you can report them to the Attorney General's office, the department or commission in your state that regulates lenders, the Better Business Bureau, and the Federal Trade Commission.

Since the Federal Government is looking hard at unfair consumer practices in the mortgage industry, you might also write a letter to your state senators and congressional representatives.

If that doesn't light a fire, you may have to refinance with a lender that has higher levels of customer service (check out JDPower.com for the company’s top-rated mortgage companies based on levels of service provided). This company clearly doesn't care about you as much you as it does about its own bottom line – which is insanely short-sighted, particularly in the current economic and political climate.

NOTE: Ilyce R. Glink's latest ebooks are "Credit Scoring Secrets" and "How to Find a Great Real Estate Agent," which are available at her website, www.thinkglink.com.If you have questions, you can call her radio show toll-free (800-972-8255) any Sunday, from 11a-1p EST. You can also write to Real Estate Matters Syndicate, PO Box 366, Glencoe, IL 60022 or contact her through her website, www.thinkglink.com © 2007 by Ilyce R. Glink. Distributed by Tribune Media Services