researchnerd

I don't know for sure, but I think they aggregate data from the Big 3 and sell it to mortgage initiators. From their website: Company History: 1970 Innovis began as ACB Services - founded by Associated Credit Bureaus (ACB). 1989 ACB Services was purchased and renamed Consumers Credit Associates (CCA). 1997 First Data Corporation purchased CCA and renamed it Innovis, Inc. 1999 CBC Companies purchased Innovis, Inc. CBC Companies has been providing consumer credit information through its credit bureau organization for more than 55 years. As a subsidiary of CBC Companies, Innovis continues to develop unique tools for customer relationship management.

TrueCredit notified me today that I had a credit pull (Equifax) by CBC Innovis in Pittsburgh, PA. I don't know anything more about this except that the field named End User Text is populated with "224 UNITED GUARANTY C". I did a little research and learned that CBC Innovis is a tri-credit aggregator primarily used by the mortgage industry, and United Guaranty Corp is an arm of AIG that does mortgage risk management and PMI. So -- if I had recently applied for a mortgage I might expect this, but I haven't. In fact I haven't applied for any credit since my corporate Amex back in June. I can think of a couple of housing-related possibilities - should either of these result in a hard credit pull from Innovis at this time? 1) We included our mortgage in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy that was discharged a year ago. We are no longer living in the home, but the foreclosure still hasn't happened - we've gotten half a dozen foreclosure notices complete with a date and time...and then each time, it's been postponed at the last minute. I wondered if maybe the lender wants to sell the debt, but they have done that twice already, and neither time resulted in a credit pull. When I applied for my mortgage originally, I am pretty sure I didn't give the lender permission to give someone else permission to pull my credit at any time in the future. 2) We applied to rent another house about 2 months ago, and they did a credit pull at that time, which is fine. I have no idea why they would, but is it legal for them to do a second pull 60 days later? Thoughts on this? Should I dispute in any way?

Wow - so many great responses here! Thank you, everyone. This probably wasn't clear in my post, but DH is not avoiding the OC. He has spoken to them numerous times and continues to do so. I am not avoiding my own OC (my acct with BOA is in good standing), and I see no reason to talk to them about someone else's debt. I cannot help DH or BOA with this issue so there is nothing to discuss. I've certainly gone three months without using this card before without having it closed. I truly do think there is something else going on here, whether it's spite or risk management or both. If this is necessary, it's incredibly lame. It just costs the lender more money to administer...which of course they pass on to us. DH is indeed considering BK to discharge his debts - he really does not want to go this route, but at this point he doesn't have a lot of choice. He can't pay any of them with zero income. Yep, this is the question. By calling BOA with my cell, did that give them permission to use that number to call me...in regard to someone else's debt? That's the thing...I did not give them this number. IMO, the fact that they had it in their database from me calling in is not the same as me giving it to them. It also makes me hesitant to call any of my creditors with it ever again -- or to log into my online account, for that matter. Who knows what information they collect, and what they will use it for? Now that I know this is the way they are going to play, I have some direction. I'm not calling them back, but if they call again I will begin by asking them not to call this number again regarding DH's debt. We will see what happens. If that doesn't work I have no problem putting it in writing.

Back story: My DH was laid off about two years ago and despite his valiant efforts, hasn't been able to find a job. We've been living on my income alone, and getting by with the help of unemployment and our meager savings. We've been making his car payment so he can continue to use it to look for work, but we haven't been able to afford to pay his credit card bills for about six months. His unemployment has ended and our savings is gone, so our mortgage is now 30-60 days past due, but that's a whole other story. The mortgage is joint debt but otherwise we keep our personal bills completely separate, so all of my bills (CCs, car loan) are current. DH feels awful about not contributing and wanted it to impact me as little as possible. A couple of weeks ago Bank of America stepped up their CC collection efforts with DH. He has explained to them countless times that he is very sorry, that his income is zero, and he cannot afford to make any payments until he finds a job. They weren't too happy about that so they started calling me on my cellphone. I do not give my number out and I have no idea how they got it. The first time they called, they asked for DH and I told them they had the wrong number and I couldn't help them. I was at work and didn't have time to talk to them. Five minutes later the rep called back, saying they KNOW I am DH's wife because I also have a BofA credit card, their computer system shows that we have the same address and last name, and that I called them about my own account from my cell number a few months ago. I maintained that I couldn't help them with someone else's account (as PsychDoc says, always tell the TRUTH) and hung up. They have called me numerous times since then, but now I screen their calls (it's a Delaware phone number). Yesterday the same person called and left a voicemail saying mysteriously, "I have some information I am SURE you will want to know." Whatever. Today, I got an alert from TruCredit that there had been a change on my report. Apparently, my BofA CC was closed yesterday by the lender. EXP says "Closed due to inactivity" but that is BS - I just used it in December for a holiday gift. WTF? I've never even been late on a payment, and they haven't pulled my credit or even done a soft inquiry in the past 2 years. I suspect it's the BofA rep's way of being spiteful because I won't talk to her. BofA continues to harass DH on a daily basis and is starting to get nasty and make threats. If they are going to behave this way I am happy to take my business elsewhere, so I don't care too much about losing my BofA CC. What I do care about is the calls to my cell phone (we've cut way back on our minutes to help save $$), and I want to make them stop. Is it even legal for them to contact me repeatedly, using a phone number I didn't give them, about someone else's account? We are not co-signers on either of the CCs. Does the FDCPA loophole in section 805-d make it OK?

OK, so it looks like an attempt at a short sale is a good next step. I'm sure this is a n00b question, but I haven't done this before: Do I need to talk to the lender ahead of time and/or enroll in a short sale program or status first? Or do I just put my house on the market independently?

DH was laid off 2 years ago, and despite his incredible persistence, has been unable to find any work. I'm still working, but we can't afford the mortgage + all our other bills on my income alone. We were squeaking by while he had unemployment, but things were incredibly tight, and without that it's just impossible. Last fall we applied for mortgage modification. Citimortgage told us we didn't qualify, but didn't say why, and suggested we apply for a refi. Predictably, on one income we didn't qualify for that either. In December we ran some numbers and realized that anything short of a 50% modification wouldn't help anyway...and the likelihood of that happening was zero. So DH and I made the very difficult decision to walk away from our home and our mortgage. We stopped paying the mortgage right away. We were able to find a nice rental house (slightly smaller but newer) in the same school district for less than half what we were paying on the mortgage. We used the money we saved by not-paying the mortgage for moving expenses, and we moved a few weeks ago. It totally sucked, we had to find new homes for some pets and it was very emotional...but we are settling into our new house and we are incredibly relieved economically. I'm already sleeping better than I have in more than a year. I had no idea that the underlying stress was so bad until it started to feel better. So...we are now about 3 months past due on the mortgage. Now that most of the work is done and we've wrapped our heads around the fact that the house is essentially gone, we aren't sure what to do next. I can think of a few options: - We mail them the keys and say, here you go. I've heard the term "jingle mail" but don't know if people actually do that or what it accomplishes. - Wait for them to figure it out and then let us know what the next step is. That seems to leave us hanging indefinitely. - Call Citi and tell them proactively, outright, that we cannot make any more payments, ever - and make a plan to transition the property over to them. I'm not sure this would accomplish anything. We've had a few phone calls asking when we will be making a payment, and they are all the same. DH explains the situation and says we can't pay, so they ask if we've considered modification. DH says we've tried that and didn't qualify, and they hang up. A few days later, they call again and have exactly the same conversation. WTF? - Try to sell or short-sell. After reading the horror stories here about short sales, it hardly seems worth the effort, and the market here for a regular sale doesn't make me optimistic either. I guess it wouldn't hurt to put up a FSBO sign, and there's a slim possibility it could avert foreclosure. - Is it worth even asking for a DIL? - Are there options here I haven't thought of? If I had my way, we'd get this over with as soon as possible so we can move on emotionally and start rebuilding our credit. Waiting for Citimortgage to figure out what's going on seems like it will take forever. Is it wise to try to accelerate the process, or are there good reasons to wait it out? Is there even a way to make it happen faster?

Sorry, Chrome hiccuped and created a double post.

This is true in my experience too - and I've been divorced twice. The only way to get the co-borrower's name off the mortgage is to refinance in one person's name only. Even if the divorce documents state that he is the only person responsible for the mortgage and she can't gain anything from the sale, it's not legally binding on the original mortgage contract. Lenders do this because it provides them more security - if one person defaults, they can go after the other. I'm sorry to hear about your relative's illness. You may want to contact the lender directly and let them know, but I'm not sure it will make any difference. I believe (not sure) that foreclosure sales normally happen whether the owner is present or not.

I'm so sorry you are going through this, and I can't even begin to imagine what it's like to lose a child. Stress and beaurocracy are the last things you need right now, on top of depression and grief. The prospect of losing our home was a very emotional thing at first, and we were in denial for months -- maybe even a year after DH lost his job -- before becoming realistic about what has to happen. Neither of us wanted foreclosure or bankruptcy, it feels like a massive failure (especially as parents in our 40s), but the reality is that we're headed to both of those places right now, thanks to the economy. After a hard look at the numbers and numerous heart-to-heart discussions, we have finally gained the ability to take one step of the process at a time, and not get too freaked out about all the unknowns...but it didn't happen overnight. What helped me the most was realizing that we had to make a business decision. Nothing more, nothing less. When a big business makes an investment it can no longer afford due to a change in circumstances, it terminates the agreement and doesn't feel guilty about it...so why should families? There are thousands of people out there in similar economic situations. We can't change what's happened, all we can do is move forward in the best possible way for the long term. For the sake of our own sanity, we had to let go of the fears around failure, going back to renting, and messed-up credit, because...really, none of it matters. All of that emotional stuff wasn't serving anyone, and it wasn't helping us get out of the situation. It's awful giving up our beloved home, but it's also a relief in some ways, and our friends and family have been nothing but supportive. Wishing you the peace and clarity you need to see your best path forward.

Great blog post! I'm getting really sick of hearing mortgage execs, politicians, even some people here on CB talking about how immoral and shameful it is to be involved in foreclosure, and how bad it is for the community and the economy. While I'm sure that there are people who intentionally bought property they couldn't afford, I believe the vast majority of homeowners had good intentions when they purchased their family homes and ordinarily would never have considered foreclosure. Some are now seriously underwater, some have had incomes cut by the crappy economy, some have high debt due to medical bills, some are dealing with all of the above and more -- and simply can't afford what they used to be able to. These people will not come out ahead after all is said and done, they aren't taking advantage of the lender, they aren't gaining anything, they are just trying to get by. Writing down principal would be one way to help huge numbers of homeowners. How is that immoral?

It sounds like you are. However, I'd recommend calling a real estate attorney just to be sure.

According to this site: http://www.foreclosurelaw.org/Nevada_Foreclosure_Law.htm ...it looks like you could have 15-35 days from that notice on your door until foreclosure, depending on what it says in your specific closing documents. As for eviction, I couldn't find any reference to this, but you may want to find out what the law is in your state. For example, in my state (GA) the lender doesn't have to go through the eviction process but can simply get a court order requiring the former owner to move. There's no waiting period, so theoretically they could do it on the same day as foreclosure if they want to be nasty about it. If they are backlogged they may not be in that much of a hurry, but it would be a good idea to find out what the worst-case scenario might be. As DH always tells me, "Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

Good move. If I were the renter, I wouldn't be comfortable moving in until the mortgage was all caught up and everything was resolved. At 8 months behind they could hit you with a foreclosure at any time. Hope you can work everything out!

This is depressing, but not unsurprising to many of us: NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Only a tiny percentage of troubled homeowners have received permanent modifications under President Obama's foreclosure prevention plan, raising concerns about the effectiveness of the $75 billion effort. Fewer than 5% of the trial modifications on loans owned or guaranteed by Freddie Mac were converted to long-term adjustments as of Sept. 30, according to the mortgage finance giant. Looking more broadly, the figures are even lower. As of Sept. 1, only 1.26% of all trial adjustments were made permanent after three months, reported the Congressional Oversight Panel, which monitors the government's use of bailout funds. More: http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/19/news/econo...e_fix/index.htm

Yes, it sounds like vultures. No reason to be afraid, they probably just got your name from a list of foreclosures back in February. In some places this info is publicly available online. Did you ask the guy where he got his information?