Expert: Terry Leeders - 2/9/2010

Question
In 2004, my exhusband and I had filed Chapter 13 on some debt and then changed it to Chapter 7 and it was discharged.  This process did not include the home we had which we continued to make the required payments.  The house was foreclosed on in Dec 2006.  This passed year, I decided I was going to try to purchase a home and pulled up my credit report in Nov 2009.  When I did this, I had found several errors that I have spent these past few months repairing and have done well with it.  My question for you is, in Nov when I pulled the original report, the old house came up as foreclosure/bad debt.  I pulled another report recently and it shows reaffirmation of debt on 2 of the reporting agencies.  I have not called the mortgage company in fear that I will not know what I am talking about and they will come after me for any monies owed.  I would like to get advice before calling them.

Answer
If you walked away from the home, then it is correctly reported as foreclosure.  If there are inaccuracies, you need to notify the credit bureaus and they will correct them in about 30 days and give you a clean report. Since you did not reaffirm them, it shouldn't say you have.