Add credit scores to the list of things destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.
Allison, a Staten Island homeowner in her 40s who asked that her last name not be used, had a 700+ credit score and her dream home before the storm hit. Disabled by Cushing’s disease, she cannot work. But she had bought a home within her means before becoming disabled, and had never missed a mortgage payment.
Last October, Sandy swept away her belongings, her records and her belief that her bank would treat her fairly. Displaced and unable to pay her mortgage in full because of skyrocketing storm-related expenses, she asked for a grace period.
Instead, Provident Bank demanded documents she could not gather, piled on late fees and called her repeatedly about her debt. In desperation, Allison filed a complaint about Provident with the New York State Department of Financial Services.
But what galls her the most, she says, was discovering that Provident reported her mortgage delinquent in December while she was paying most of her loan balance and trying to work out a deal. Now she cannot refinance, and fears foreclosure.
“All I needed was a few months of hurricane forbearance to catch up from the $14,000 I’d already paid without reimbursement,” she said. “[But] they reported me in the middle of a federally declared disaster, when my house was in ruins and I was homeless.”
She brought her mortgage up to date using insurance money for replacement belongings. Aided by a pro-bono attorney, she then worked out a deal with Provident in early February to waive late fees and fix her credit report.
But despite several written assurances to Allison’s attorney, at press time Provident had not corrected it.
A Provident spokeswoman claimed the bank has “spared no effort to help” Allison and would correct a delinquency if she gave it a copy of her report.
But as The Post reported last week, banks and credit bureaus hold all the aces when it comes to consumer credit reports. And banks often fail to fix their mistakes.