Loan officer at a Memphis branch said my credit report had 3 phantom collections, and chasing those first changed my whole home buying timeline

Olivia White · 2026-10-26T21:20:05.036808+00:00

I sat down with a loan officer back in February expecting to hear my score was too low, and instead she pulled up my report and pointed at three collections I had never seen before. Two were from a hospital bill I paid off in 2019 and one was a $212 cable charge from an old apartment in Memphis that wasn't even mine. She said flat out, "Don't let a lender run your file again until these are disputed, because every inquiry drags your score down while the junk is still sitting there." I had been shopping around with four different lenders like an idiot, so I stopped cold and sent dispute letters with the paid receipts attached. It took about 9 weeks, but all three came off and my score jumped 61 points. The part that stings is I almost signed with a different lender who quoted me a 7.4 percent rate without ever mentioning the errors. Has anyone else had a broker catch stuff like this, or did you have to find it yourself by pulling all three reports?

Vivisector

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Loan officer at a Memphis branch said my credit report had 3 phantom collections, and chasing those first changed my whole home buying timeline | Credit Repair Housing - Vivisector