Two things in your favor right away on any claimed deficiency are that this depressed economy has made property values go down so that (1) you have the right to argue that the fair market value of your property sank below the balance left owing on the mortgage, or at least sank so low that there wasn't that much of a deficiency left, and (2) that newly enacted federal anti-foreclosure laws provide protections for owners like yourself who, through no fault of their own, have either been laid off from their jobs or sustained recession-caused financial hardship, so that it would be unconscionable for a bank or collection agency to harass you for a deficiency, when recovering the balance owing would be impossible in this depressed real estate market.

As for collection agencies, if completely ignored, whether letters or phone messages may come, those agencies know when the one-year statute has run, and usually halt all further contact after than point.

As for the bank, how do you know that they didn't just conduct a hasty sale and sell to the first and easiest buyer they could find? How do you know that they made a good effort to get a price that would satisfy the mortgage balance?

The federal government has provided incentives to banks to avoid drastic measures such as foreclosure, in sympathy for property owners who are losing their homes and properties all across America due simply to the recession. Were you offered opportunities to avoid foreclosure, which the bank by law had to offer you?

As for your credit rating, the normal procedure is not to complain yourself, but to have the creditor (bank) write to the rating agencies and demand, not just request, that your credit be reinstated on grounds of the recession being unavoidable, and your having excellent credit in all other regards.