My husband and I have significant equity in our home but our current mortgage company is holding us hostage. Let me explain. We have been trying since February to obtain a refinance on our mortgage to pay off debt and pay for repairs around our home. To make things more complicated, we were in bankruptcy until November 2023 when we paid the bankruptcy trustee in full and it was discharged. However, during our bankruptcy we went to court because Selene Finance was not allocating our previous payments correctly. We paid a lump sum to catch up in June of 2023 and the court and Selene agreed to a payment plan of $432 a month for 9 months which was completed in March. We started paying our normal payment on the 1st of the month and the additional payment on the 15th per the court order. However, Selene allocated the regular payments to the wrong month—even though we paid it on time----which caused it to appear on our payment history we had a rolling 30 day late. All three credit reports indicate no late payments but the refi company wants something from the mortgage explaining how they made an error in the allocation in July 2023. My broker, my attorney and I have been working for months with Selene to get the information that will match the credit card reports. I can never speak to anyone that can explain to me what is going on and we cannot refinance our home until this gets cleared up. It has been very frustrating. I called today and was disconnected once and then the second person I spoke to said someone would be calling me today to discuss my complaint. No lender will refinance our house without this cleared up. I am going to report them to the CFPB but I thought I would ask this group if they have any other ideas…I just want the equity to pay off debt but at this point even if I sold my house I would not be able to get approved by another mortgage company due to this discrepancy. I am being very dramatic, obviously something would need to occur or I have to wait until November to get MY money since by then July 2023 will not be an issue because the mortage company would only need 12 months of history. Any thoughts or other areas to pursue?
If you went through bankrupcy why do you have debt? Wasn’t everything discharged?
What interest rate do you currently have on your house and what interest rate will you be getting on the refi? My guess is you will be refinancing at a higher rate since rates are much higher than they were for the past 10 years. Also don’t refinance back into another 30 year mortgage. You will never get out of debt.
This seems like a bad idea. Get the payment issue straightened out but I would keep your current mortgage and get it paid off.
There are a few debts such as student loans that survive bankruptcy. Or something happened that put them right back into debt.
I would suggest rereading all your paperwork and checking all your payments dates and amounts owed to verify your position on due dates and amounts paid is correct. Then schedule a meeting with the finance company; in person if possible. If not possible, and they are not able to correct their records or explain why they are correct to your satisfaction, do file a complaint.
One thing to note is that the credit reporting agencies get their information from creditors. So if they are showing payments as on time, that is what this finance company is reporting to them.
Rather than a refinance, you might want to consider an equity loan. Or look into other options for paying off your remaining debt…additional jobs, sell things, downsize cars, etc. But at the same time, figure out how to change course so that you don’t end up back in the same place a few years down the road.