My Story

I was born and raised in New England, where I worked for many years as a real estate paralegal handling mortgage closings and all the complexities that come with buying, selling and refinancing homes. I once held the belief that if I paid my mortgage on time, just as I did my other bills, my credit rating would paint a true and accurate picture of which I was -a hardworking ordinary person who always paid her bills on time.

I would soon learn that belief was just a myth.

I also believed that if there were errors on my credit report, all I had to do was provide proof that a debt was paid, or not owed, whichever the case may be, and it would be cleared up.

That belief was soon shattered.

I also came to realize that I wasn't alone--it just felt that way. My countless attempts to correct my erroneous credit reports were futile and I was forced to turn to the judicial system for remediation and to other victims for the support and strength to wage this battle.

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 and noted the additional monies on the check and in the appropriate place with my "payment coupon" stub.

The problem was this: because I paid with a coupon book, there were no monthly statements -and no way track and verify that payments were applied accurately. And it wasn't until I applied for another loan that I realized that many payments were erroneously applied and some -not at all.

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. Long--long story short--it took a Federal Lawsuit to stop the abuse and correct THEIR errors.

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 need to utilize "coupon payment books" again--rather, I would have access to a monthly statement that would allow me to track and verify how my payments were applied. See petition.

Having already endured a decade of mortgage accounting errors and erroneous credit reporting, I trusted my troubles were behind me. That belief would turn out to be yet another myth.

I was encouraged by consumers and advocates to share my story to illustrate the steep price families pay -when they find themselves up against corporate Goliath's, a broken credit reporting system, unregulated mortgage industry, illegal debt collection practices, identity theft and weak and eroding consumer protection laws. I never really understood the importance of doing so--until now. I hope that by sharing my story, it humanizes, validates and inspires others to share their own.

Today, more and more people are making significant inroads to ensure corporate wrongs are exposed.  They're writing letters, launching websites, creating blogs, and founding their own support groups and non-profit organizations--all in an effort to humanize their situation and share the repercussions that someone else's actions had on their lives.  Traumatic events in our lives leave scars--visible or not, they are there for a lifetime. And those scars serve as a constant reminder of pain suffered at the hands of someone else.  Sharing the story behind them helps right a wrong and lessen the pain.

A few news clippings demonstrating my fight to urge lawmakers to mandate mortgage servicing companies provide borrowers a monthly mortgage statement;

• "Greenfield woman battles the big banks"
• "Legislators back locally proposed loan statement law"
• "New regulation: state defers to federal mortgage statement efforts"
• "To Your Credit: Going to court over bad credit reports"

Articles and Documents

"When Banks Merge, Be Wary and Reassess Your Banker" (Bankrate.com) Read article

"Consumers Suing to Correct Bad Credit Reports" (Bankrate.com) Read article

"7 Steps to Fixing Your Credit Report" (Bankrate.com) Read article

"Who's Policing the Credit Cops?" (Businessweek.com) Read article

Richardson v Fleet, et al Read document

Update January 2010:

Learn about my latest identity theft here:

What I learned about First Premier Bank...Read article