As you know, if you’ve been reading my posts, our house is sold. We were thinking we would close the next day on the new home and move right in.
Silly us.
Now we are homeless, albeit temporarily. Oddly enough, our Volts are part of the reason we are in this predicament.
In order to get as low an interest rate as possible, we paid off the leases on our two Volts. This decreased our debt-to-income ratio and increased our credit scores. Well, it would have,em if I could get the leasing companies to cooperate/em. We leased at the dealership, using Ally Bank and US Bank. We retired both leases on October 4th, supposedly giving us ample time before our October 22nd home sale for the credit agencies to take note of the change.
When the big three credit agencies; Equifax, Experian and Transunion contacted the leasing banks, they were told I had to grant permission to the banks to release the information.
- I called the banks to authorize this.
- They each placed a note in my file.
The credit agencies tried again and failed. Again, they were told we had to grant access to the information.
- I called the banks (again) to authorize this.
- They each placed another note in my file.
The credit agencies tried again and failed. Again, they were told we had to grant access to the information.
- I called the banks (again) to authorize this.
They wanted to send me a form to fill out and have notarized, granting each individual who would call access to our files. It would take about a week for us to receive the forms. Then we’d have to sign them, have them notarized and send them back. I explained that it was too late to be doing this, that I needed better customer service. They asked if I knew the names, addresses and phone numbers of the people who would be calling. Really?!?!? These credit bureaus are huge, faceless corporations. An anonymous drone would be calling for the information, not someone I would know.
- They each placed another note in my file.
Finally, on October 22nd, we sold our home and checked in with the new mortgage company. The credit bureaus STILL had been unable to get the information required.
- I called the banks (again) to beg for their help.
I explained that, at this late point, I needed them to write a letter, on their letterhead stating our account number and the fact that our remaining balance was zero and fax it to my mortgage company. Ally said they would send within two hours. US Bank said it would be done within 24-48 hours. I asked to speak to a manager and he finally got it down to 24 hours.
The next day, my mortgage company said they had not received the faxes. I went out on the front porch and apparently, during the early morning hours, an overnight envelope was delivered. I opened it to find forms from US Bank, authorizing them to share my account balance information with any person I could name and provide a physical address and phone number.
- Of course, these forms would have to be notarized and returned.
I was stupefied.
I called the banks in a tizzy. Sitting in the driveway of what I hope will be our new home, I railed and pleaded. Once again, they both promised to fax the necessary documentation, only this time, THEY FINALLY FOLLOWED THROUGH!
On the day we had expected to close on the purchase of our new home, the mortgage company now had everything needed to proceed with getting our credit rating updated so we could get the best interest rate possible.
The next item on this stressful tale was a call from the moving company. They needed to know when we were planning on closing. Unfortunately, this was anyone’s guess at this point. They explained they could hold our items in the trailer for $200 per day. However, if they needed the trailer for other moving jobs, they would have to unload it, placing our items in their warehouse. The cost of unloading the truck, one month of storage, and reloading the truck for deliver to our home would be $2,600.
The stupid games played by the banks were going to cost us dearly:
- Hotel room: $75 per night.
- Kennel boarding for Koko: $25 per day.
- The additional stress we’re experiencing: Priceless.
By the end of the day Friday, the mortgage company had not received the credit score update, so the wait will continue into the next week. There’s a good chance we’ll move in on Halloween.
The horror…
**UPDATE**
On Monday, we learned that the letters we so arduously sought from the leasing companies are not sufficient for the purposes of the credit bureaus. This brings up the question:
Why in the hell were we trying all that time to get a document that would not be useful???
Instead, the bureaus will go about their work in their usual manner. This means we will not be closing this week either. It’s looking like a November close. Grrrrrrrr!!!!!!
