Dell Cutting Off Credit to All Mortgage Firms?

Personal computer giant Dell Inc. has cut off credit to a small mortgage banking firm in New Jersey, citing what it calls "the overall creditworthiness of the mortgage lending industry."Fred Catelli provided MortgageWire with a copy of a letter sent to him by Dell Financial Services, the financing arm of the computer firm. Mr. Catelli, who runs a small net-branch mortgage firm called Diamond Mortgage Services, told MortgageWire that, "We had a $35,000 credit limit with them. We had it for years." He said his firm currently owes Dell nothing. He said when Dell Financial sent him a letter about cutting off credit, he called Dell in disbelief. "They confirmed that they have suspended issuing credit to all companies listed by Dunn and Bradstreet as a mortgage company," he told MW. At deadline time, a Dell spokesman could not be reached for comment. (See the actual Dell letter by visiting: http://www.nationalmortgagenews.com/documents/dell2diamond.html.)