A couple was one round of paperwork away from closing on a house when they spotted a missing zero in their mortgage documents. They stayed quiet

A post on Reddit’s r/confession has drawn thousands of upvotes after the poster said a missing zero on their mortgage paperwork turned an $807 car payment into $87. According to the post, the couple spotted the error one round of paperwork away from closing on a home. The typo understated their monthly debt by $720.

The poster wrote that the couple chose not to flag it, as they believed calling out the mistake would make the deal fall apart. The account is anonymous and unverified, and no lender or broker has been named or has commented. The poster also suggested someone may have lowered the figure while modeling the loan and never changed it back.

Lenders use debt-to-income ratio to judge how much mortgage a borrower can handle, and Fannie Mae guidelines generally count car loans when more than 10 payments remain. The Reddit user could not recall how many were left but said the lower figure helped secure a larger mortgage than they could comfortably afford. Other users split over how much the typo mattered.

Staying quiet about the missing zero is what has people arguing

Much of the debate centered on whether keeping silent amounted to mortgage fraud. Whether the silence carries any legal weight depends on which document held the error, what the couple told the lender earlier, and what the lender relied on during underwriting. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau tells borrowers to have errors in closing documents fixed before closing.

The poster said the couple paid for the decision, describing the first few years in the home as financially difficult. They had to tighten their budget and change their lifestyle to keep up with the mortgage payments, and the car itself later suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure and is no longer in their possession.

Some commenters say the typo may not have mattered at all

Several commenters with mortgage lending experience pointed out that lenders often pull debt information directly from credit reports and automated underwriting systems. If the credit report showed the real $807 payment, the lender may have used the correct number all along, even if one document carried the typo.

The typo could have been a clerical slip that never touched the approval, or it could have helped the couple qualify. However, without the actual loan file, there is no way to confirm which figure the lender saw.

The story joins a run of viral homebuying tales, including one about a family that left a newly bought home over a snake infestation.