My Story My credit reporting nightmare began with a seemingly innocuous mortgage coupon book that I used to make my monthly payments. I had decided to make extra principal payments each month. The problem was this: because I paid with a coupon book, there were no monthly statements. And it wasn’t until I applied for another loan that I realized that many payments were misapplied and my extra payments had not been credited. Many amortization schedules later, it became quite apparent that the lender’s continual errors had grown to the point where correcting the miscalculations and illegally charged fees had become impossible. The lender ended up discharging my mortgage, but eventually reported the discharge to the credit bureaus as a "mortgage write off" -- even though it was paid in full and never late. It took a Federal Lawsuit to stop the abuse. I testified before the Massachusetts Banking Committee and sponsored a Bill with Senator Stan Rosenberg (S16) which would mandate monthly statements. Due to heavy consumer pressure and media involvement, the remaining banks not utilizing monthly statements in Massachusetts opted to voluntarily send out monthly statements. I was thankful that I would never see coupon books again. Wishful thinking. Years later, I find myself back at square one with a new home in another state that came with a new mortgage company that uses ‘Guess What? -- coupon books! Here we go again….