Dear Moneyist, Before I got married in 2001 I had a credit score of 780. My wife at the time turned out to be extremely deceitful and we ended up divorced after 3 years. We did have children together and I got shared custody once the divorce was final. (I have full custody now.) I agreed to purchase her a house that had a mortgage in my name. The terms stated that I was to pay her support and she was to make the house payment. At some point, about 7 years ago she was able to contact the mortgage company and change all of my contact information on the loan. Once that happened she stopped making payments and I did not know this until I was served a foreclosure notice. I made repeated attempts to contact the attorneys to use my right of redemption to get it corrected, but as they had a vested interest in tying it up (more charges with each passing week) they would not answer and then return messages via email. I hired my own attorney and gave up the house for a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Due to the missed payments, I had my first black mark added to my credit score. Also see: I earned $5 million in my lifetime—now my long-lost son keeps hitting me up for money[1] My ex-wife then went off the deep end, became addicted to prescription medications, opened up two credit cards in my name and acquired a payday loan. My score is now a dismal 694 and I have all of this negative information listed that I can’t remove. I have filed police reports and sent them to the collectors of those debts as well as filing with the credit agencies disputing these debts as not mine. I have resolved two of them, but the others will not budge (the payday loan, one credit card and the mortgage company). They all continue to say the debt is mine. I did not authorize these nor did I have knowledge she was committing this fraud. It makes it almost impossible to get a loan and, if I do, the interest rate is terrible. I earn around $120,000 a year and due to the credit challenges I only have $1,800 in monthly loan payments (auto and home) so it’s not like my debt-to-income ratio is the issue. I do not want to pay these off because giving someone $4,000 for something I didn’t do leaves me with a horrible taste in my mouth and it will not erase the credit history, just the collections. She is unemployed and the creditors have zero chance of getting any money from her. I believe that the oldest listed issue is 6 years and the most recent is 3 to 4 years. My place of residence is Kansas. What can I do? Ex-Husband Dear Ex,... My ex-wife stopped payments on our home and racked up credit-card debt in my name
- Category: Economics
Dear Moneyist, Before I got married in 2001 I had a credit score of 780. My wife at the time turned out to be extremely deceitful and we ended up divorced after 3 years. We did have children together and I got shared custody once the divorce was final. (I have full custody now.) I agreed to purchase her a house that had a mortgage in my name. The terms stated that I was to pay her support and she was to make the house payment. At some point, about 7 years ago she was able to contact the mortgage company and change all of my contact information on the loan. Once that happened she stopped making payments and I did not know this until I was served a foreclosure notice. I made repeated attempts to contact the attorneys to use my right of redemption to get it corrected, but as they had a vested interest in tying it up (more charges with each passing week) they would not answer and then return messages via email. I hired my own attorney and gave up the house for a deed in lieu of foreclosure. Due to the missed payments, I had my first black mark added to my credit score. Also see: I earned $5 million in my lifetime—now my long-lost son keeps hitting me up for money[1] My ex-wife then went off the deep end, became addicted to prescription medications, opened up two credit cards in my name and acquired a payday loan. My score is now a dismal 694 and I have all of this negative information listed that I can’t remove. I have filed police reports and sent them to the collectors of those debts as well as filing with the credit agencies disputing these debts as not mine. I have resolved two of them, but the others will not budge (the payday loan, one credit card and the mortgage company). They all continue to say the debt is mine. I did not authorize these nor did I have knowledge she was committing this fraud. It makes it almost impossible to get a loan and, if I do, the interest rate is terrible. I earn around $120,000 a year and due to the credit challenges I only have $1,800 in monthly loan payments (auto and home) so it’s not like my debt-to-income ratio is the issue. I do not want to pay these off because giving someone $4,000 for something I didn’t do leaves me with a horrible taste in my mouth and it will not erase the credit history, just the collections. She is unemployed and the creditors have zero chance of getting any money from her. I believe that the oldest listed issue is 6 years and the most recent is 3 to 4 years. My place of residence is Kansas. What can I do? Ex-Husband Dear Ex,...