Foreclosure and Credit

[reefungorio]

Hey folks, obviously a newbie here but have been reading a lot here. I have a question for the forum about foreclosure and credit rating.

My house was foreclosed and bought back by the lender (Nationwide) on 7/3/2010 so just over six months ago. I was laid off from my 20 year job and simply couldn't afford the mortgage payments. At the time I missed my first payment (Dec 2009) I had determined, good or bad, that if anything in my budget needed to go it was my house: an expensive and bad investment since the value was only about 3/4 of what I owed. I kept current on everything, credit debt low but using and paying off quickly, only real debt was my car, which has held its value pretty well imo.

I had free credit reports until October of 2010 and my score was still almost 800 although in the details of my mortgage it said I basically defaulted on the loan $200,000 +/-). In January I had my credit checked by an apartment and although the manager wouldn't tell me my score she said it was "really good".

Recently I have read stories where people's credit was totally destroyed by foreclosures or even mortgage adjustment programs. Is there a delay between when the foreclosure happened and when it affects your credit or did my efforts to maintain all other finances as good as possible pay off?

I was prepared for my credit to take a huge hit when I started missing payments but it's been a year and no contact from those extending me credit lines. Am I going to be OK or am I looking at Chase and Visa (and my car loan) to either jack my rates or close my accounts and demand any balances?

Thanks if anyone can shed any light, it would just be good to know.

Cheers
Ree

[JoeMurphy]

Ree,

Foreclosure is definitely detrimental to your credit. However, it appears that you have 20 years of consistent work and likely never had any late payments during that time. To put it into perspective, even if your Foreclosure cost you 125 points on your FICO score you likely would still be 650+ which easily clears you to rent an apartment. I will note that you made some tough and brave decisions by maintaining everything except for your home. If you have active lines of credit with Visa and Chase that have not had any issue then it is unlikely that they have even checked your credit to readjust rates or anything of that issue. However, if you were to apply for a new credit card or something of that matter you would probably find the experience different than you did in the past. Keep on keeping on and continue to do what's best for you!

Cheers,
Joe