They paid every trial-modification payment early. The credit reports said 90 days late
Two Michigan homeowners say they paid every trial payment on their loan modification on time - and their servicer reported them late anyway.
That is the heart of a Fair Credit Reporting Act lawsuit Joshua Begian and Kari Lewis filed June 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The suit names their servicer, Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, doing business as Mr. Cooper, alongside the three national credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax and Trans Union.
The story the filing tells is simple, which is part of why it stings. In 2025, hit by financial hardship, the couple entered a mortgage Trial Period Plan, the trial run that leads to a permanent loan modification. Correspondence dated March 31, 2025 set the terms: monthly payments of $1,214.55, due on or before May 1, 2025. The couple says they paid the first one early, on or about April 28, 2025, kept paying, and fully paid the mortgage on or about July 11, 2025. They were approved for the permanent modification, the suit says, and never missed or were late on a single trial payment.
Their credit reports told a different story. According to the filing, Nationstar/Mr. Cooper reported them 60 days late in May 2025 and 90 days late in June 2025 - the very months they were making their payments. There was no 30-day-late mark leading up to it. The delinquency reporting, the suit says, started straight at 60 days.
So they disputed it. On or about April 30, 2026, the couple says they wrote to all three bureaus and included the receipts: the trial-plan correspondence, a mortgage statement showing the payment amount, and proof of payment. In May 2026, the filing says, each bureau "verified the inaccurate reporting as accurate." Nationstar/Mr. Cooper, after the dispute notices reached it, did the same, according to the suit - even though, the couple alleges, it had its own record of the on-time payments.
The legal architecture runs through the FCRA. The couple alleges the bureaus failed to follow reasonable procedures to assure "maximum possible accuracy" under Section 1681e(b), and failed to reinvestigate reasonably under Section 1681i. Against the servicer, they bring a furnisher claim under Section 1681s-2(b).
For anyone running a servicing shop, the lesson here is the trial-period reporting trap. Coding a borrower as delinquent while they are current on a trial plan is a known compliance hazard, and the filing leans on existing case law to argue that doing so is "misleading at best." The stakes are concrete: the couple says a prospective lender told them the FHA handbook forces a two-year wait after a 90-day-late mortgage mark, which they say shut them out of buying a new home. Their rent, they add, is rising $500 a month.
There is also a corporate footnote for the deal watchers. The filing states Nationstar/Mr. Cooper "has surrendered its authority to transact business or conduct affairs in Michigan due to its acquisition by another lender," and names a Rocket legal team as registered agent.
The couple wants actual, statutory and punitive damages, plus costs and attorneys' fees, and has asked for a jury trial.
For now, these are allegations and nothing more. None has been tested in court. The servicer and the three bureaus have not yet responded, and no judge has ruled on any claim.
