Consumer complaint received 2016-03-11
Company: AMERICAN EQUITY MORTGAGE
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Credit decision / Underwriting

Complaint:
I was purchasing a home and decided to use American Equity Mortgage as my lender. I was approved for the loan on XXXX XXXX and started to receive interest rates from the lender. At this point the rates were based on my credit score of XXXX. The rates they were quoting seemed higher than the average, but on XXXX XXXX I decided to lock a rate of 4 % with a .375 % credit ( {$750.00} ). The credit was worth the rate. Everything was going through fine until I was notified on XXXX XXXX that the lender did a soft pull on my credit and a collections for XXXX XXXX Florida showed up on my report. I immediately informed them that this was not mine. It was not there on the initial report they pulled in XXXX, which gave me a credit score of XXXX, with the collections it pulled my score down to XXXX and the lender was going to increase my interest rate and remove my credit. I was a victim of identity theft in 2014 and apparently this account with XXXX XXXX was opened fraudulently during that time. I immediately filed a claim with the FTC and filed a police report that same day. I contacted the collections company and told them this was fraudulent. They told me to send them the police and FTC report. I faxed the collections company the information on XX/XX/XXXX. I contacted them on XX/XX/XXXX to asked if they had received my fax and they told me yes and they had removed the collections and notified XXXX XXXX of the fraud. I asked them to fax a letter to the lender and they did so immediately. The lender forwarded the fax to XXXX to get my credit rescored. On XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX claimed they could n't except the fax for some reason, so I was able to email a copy of a letter from the collections to the lender at XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX is claiming they did n't receive that letter until the evening of XXXX. The lender told me in an email that they should have time to get this done. I was originally told by the collections company that it would take 30 days, so the lender at least put my interest rate back to 4 %, but I was not getting my {$750.00} credit. This was nice of the lender, but based on this being a fraudulent collections the full rate lock agreement should be honored. At this point, I am thinking that the lender will honor my original rate lock agreement because I was able to get them everything they needed to get this fraudulent collections removed in time for closing on XXXX XXXX. On XXXX, I received my loan disclosure paperwork and I noticed my credit of {$750.00} is missing. I contacted the lender and I am told that they were n't able to get this done in time. XXXX of the bureaus completed the rescore, but not the other XXXX. I 'm disappointed at this point, so I ask if the rescore is done by Monday XX/XX/XXXX if I will receive my credit and I am told by the lender that I needed to sign the loan disclosure, without the {$750.00} credit, now or risk losing my deposit. So, I signed. Closing happened on XXXX XXXX, without the credit, so I contacted the lender to ask them why they did n't honor the rate lock because they knew the collections was from fraud and they said there was nothing they could do everything goes based on credit score. Even with that being the case, as of Monday XX/XX/XXXX, day before my closing, the fraudulent collections was removed from all bureaus and my credit score was back to the original amount. I really feel like the lender should have honored the full rate lock deal based on the extenuating circumstances. They knew my credit score before the fraud showed up and I gave them everything as quick as possible to correct it. I feel like the lender owes me {$750.00}.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief