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I am writing to make a complaint against Countrywide Home Loans, and the Bank of America, its owner. Countrywide is using a number of ploys to delay and avoid helping people in regard to the implementing the recently-announced federal program to assist its customers that need help.
Immediately on the announcement of this plan, I went to the Countrywide website which instructed me to collect and fax a list of information, which I did. That was in mid-March. I called a few days later to confirm that they had received my information. They confirmed its receipt, but when I asked about this new program, the Countrywide agent told me the only program they have to assist homeowners is for people with loans through Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae, which my loan is not. I told them that they were mistaken, there are two programs that were simultaneously announced, the Home Affordable Refinance Program, which is the program for Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae borrowers, and the Home Affordable Modification Program, which is for other borrowers. They told me that I was wrong. There is only one program, and they had no program to help me. When I tried to convince them that they were incorrect and giving their customers the wrong information, they hung up on me.
I have called them at least once a week since then, and have made no progress whatsoever—not only in regard to getting a modification, but even in getting someone who will rationally talk to me about doing so. All they do is demand immediate payment, which, of course, is impossible. If I had the money to made the payments, I would certainly do so and wouldn’t be calling them asking for assistance.
Last week when I called, after having been told the same story that there is no program available to help me, I requested to speak to a supervisor. After explaining this whole situation to her, I asked her to validate their receipt of my information. She said, yes, it was received on March 19th but no action has been taken on it. I asked why not. She had no answer, but just said no action had been taken. “It hasn’t been submitted yet.” I asked her to please submit it—I thought I was submitting it when I followed the instructions to collect and fax the information. She said she would request that it be submitted.
Today (April 21), I called, and got a different story. Yes, they have got my information, but there was no indication of its having been submitted. No, they don’t have a program available to help me. Regarding the federal program announced last month, they told me that the government hasn’t released the information to them to implement any such program. They told me to wait until mid-May when they might be able to start the program. Finally, they told me to call HUD. That was it. They have done nothing else to aid me in gaining the assistance that I desperately need.
I went to the United States Treasury website, and found the “Summary of Guidelines” document, which is dated March 4, 2009. In specific regard to the Home Affordable Modification Program, this guideline document states, “With the information now available, servicers can begin immediately to modify eligible mortgages under the modification program so that at-risk borrowers can better afford their payments.” (This text is boldfaced in the document.)
Thus, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury, mortgage loan servicers could immediately be implementing modification program as of March 4, 2009. However, according to Countrywide, they have not received the guidelines to implement any such program, are not offering any program currently, and don’t know when they might be able to implement such a program. They told me to check back in mid-May. The approach that Countrywide-Bank of America, in regard to me and my case, has been to lie to me, mislead me, and postpone undertaking positive action until I am so far behind that nothing can save me.
In my most recent call (week of May 11-15), the response of Countrywide-Bank of America now is to tell the customer to wait. The telephone representative (you have to speak to a different one each time you call) said that Countrywide was determining who qualified for the program (although they are still steadfastly refusing to admit the existence of the non-Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac “Home Affordable Modification Program”), and that they will mail out notifications to those who qualify. Their advice to me was, “Wait to see if you get a notification letter.” To the question, “How long might that take? How long will I have to wait?” There is no answer. “Just wait to see if you get a letter.” This is very like their advice to homeowners when they embark on the Countrywide internal modification program: “Don’t make any payments while this process is underway.” What they don’t tell you is that the process can take as much as three or four months—time enough without making payments (as you are advised) to become significantly behind in mortgage payments and past the 3-month threshold for qualification for foreclosure. Thus, the obvious plan by Countrywide-Bank of America is to cause the homeowner to fall so far behind in their payments as to make the situation insolvable—government plan or no government plan.
If the President, the Secretary of the Treasury, Senators and Representatives believe that this program they have originated is helping anyone out there who is a customer of Countrywide-Bank of America, they are sadly mistaken. These, hopefully, well-intentioned public officials are living in a dream world if they think that by placing the administration of this program in the hands of the very lenders who created the problem in the first place something significant is going to be done to help endangered homeowners, they are willingly fooling themselves. They have put the fox in charge of the chickens, and the chickens are disappearing, one by one. I wonder why?
The Bank of America, during the first tranche of the infamous $700 billion "bailout plan, " got $20 billion, which they apparently invested in their buyout of Merrill Lynch and bonuses for Merrill executives. Now, when not only have they received significant federal government money, supposedly to assist them in freeing up the credit markets, and now have available an additional federal program to assist needy homeowners, they are refusing to do so. I have talked to a few other people that I know how are also having financial problems and mortgages with Countrywide, and they are also getting nothing but refusals and postponements. It is impossible to find someone to rationally discuss one's financial problems with at Countrywide as they refuse to do so. Their response is nothing but to insist on immediately bringing accounts up to date or paying off the loan. There is a serious abrogation of responsibility involved here by a company that has taken federal money but refuses to assist taxpayers who are their customers. I have read that the CEO of Bank of America has now admitted that he is sorry that his firm took the money--probably most of all because, subsequently, he has come to realize that responsibility would be expected of them in return, and that they would be expected to do something for their customers. The Bank of America-Countrywide should be prosecuted for taking money under false pretenses.
I am seeking information from you regarding Countrywide. I would like to contact other Countrywide customers who have been having similar problems to get them to join with me in contacting our members of Congress, the President, and Secretary of the Treasury, to inform them of Countrywide-Bank of America's abuses of the use of federal funds, the public trust, and their customers.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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In May I contacted Countrywide/BofA about helping us with deferring a payment. That is all we needed was a deferrment of one payment. I was told that at the time they didn't have anything like that available but that I did qualify for their HASP program. I was told to fax in documents and somebody would be getting back in touch with me.
After a month I heard nothing from them so I called on June 12th to check the status I was told at that time they never received anything. I once again faxed all the information they requested the first time along with my letter detailing our hardship. As of today, June 23rd, I had not heard anything from them so I called. I was told that there was nothing they could do for us. All I asked for was one payment to be skipped because we are trying to get our finances straight. I just recently went back to work after being off for a year and a half. She once again said there was nothing they can do but this time the excuse was because this was an FHA loan. She then told me that she could transfer me to that dept. What she actually did was transfer me right back to the main switchboard which ultimately led me back to the exact same department. I told the guy who answered this time I was trying to reach the FHA dept and was told he would try to transfer me again. After this I was hung up on.
I am getting the same exact run around that all of you are from Countrywide-bank of america. I just called tonight and they told me that I do not qualify for any modification again because last year I got one but they upped my payment instead of lowering it and completely over extended me! Now I cannot make my payments and I don't qualify for the home affordable refinancing loan so they say but that I may qualify for some home retention thing.In the meantime, as I submit all my hardship information etc. they tell me not to make payments and now i am about 20k behind! if anyone, out there, can help me or wants to get together and try to get some help, please, please contact me @ dmancona@aol.com.Thank you so much! I desperate, I don't want to lose my home!
I contacted B of A about the making homes affordable refinancing and loan modification programs, after meeting all the requirements on the Government program site where it referred me to my lender.
B of A said I did not qualify when I called, but would not say why, even though my situation was eligible from what I head read ?
I can't help but think they don't want to implement the program and wish I knew of a more formal complaint procedure.
WOW!
This is a big problem, I have been lied to, cheated, screwed with and in the system for over 7mo. Now I find out that they have lost my file and are trying to blame the law firm I have hired to take care of this for us... 2nd time. This is now the 3rd. time B of A has stalled us.
I'm not going to let this happen and let B of A geat away with this so I have started a class action file with our law firm. We are sueing for damages, stress, and all we can get from these ###.
If anyone wishes to join in on this we ask you to do so right now as numbers talk...please send your story and contact info to me and I will make sure your case is part of our action.
Send to mikewcsd@yahoo.com I'm going to do all I can to make this public, TV, Radio, News etc. lets get together and keep our homes and stop B of A from doing this. We also take care of my 87yo mother inlaw, B of A took her home in 90 days.
This is your chance...is this AMERICA or not?
Mike & Linda
represented by the Lucas Law firm
I have a situation also with Country-Bank of America. I was not behind on any payments and in November 2008 was on the phone with a representative from Countrywide and they suggested I do a Loan Modification and it would lower my payments so I thought well what could it hurt to have lower payments so I agreed. They had me fax some information in and it took about 3 months before I received any paperwork from them concerning the Loan Modification. I was also instructed NOT to make any payments during this Loan Modification process or it would delay the entire process. I called at least twice a week to be sure I was to NOT make any payments and each time spoke with a different representative and was told NOT to make payments as it would only delay the process. Finally toward the end of March, 2009 I received the final papers for the modification and I signed them and returned them in the Federal Express Envelope they enclosed. My first payment was to begin April 1, 2009 with my payment reduced from $808 to $649 a month. I also subscribe to Equifax and TransUnion Credit Monitoring online and checked them about that time only to find out that now my loan was showing 30 days late for Nov, 08, 60 days late for Dec. 08, 90 days late for Jan. 09 and 120 days late for Feb. 09. Then March 09 was showing current. Hmmm I was thinking why would they be showing late when I was doing what I was told to do by the Mortgage Company. I have been calling Countrywide-Bank of America since March 2009 and keep getting different answers like no we would never tell you that and one Representative told me she would have it corrected on my credit reports. This has been an ongoing nightmare not to mention that the new payment of $649 is an interest only payment so it does not reduce the principle. I am going to file a lawsuit against them and also report to Attorney General and Secretary of State Banking and Finance Dept. They have now ruined my mortgage credit history as I had no late payments until I did the Modification. It is a joke but I am not giving up!
My wife and I currently live in AZ and were looking in to a modification on our loan.
Countrywide/BofA doesn't want to help anyone who is more the 10% negative in equity
on their homes. I read an article about a guy here who was just around 10% negative equity
and they barely passed his modification, he also had to come up with like $9, 000 to get his
modification done. The government doesn't want to help, neither do the banks. We are headed
to foreclosure, but I really don't give a ****. They have ruined our credit as we are now more than
8 months behind because they couldn't do anything to help us. Now looking into bankruptcy,
but not until those ***** take it in the ***.
Similar experience.
Since March I tried to get a loan modification from Countrywide-BOA. Two months ago I enlisted the capable help of a government loan counselor. They charged me nothing and their job is to work with the lender for modification to avoid foreclosure.
The counselor verified I meet ALL requirements for the modification - including income reduction leading to hardship and my loan is Freddie Mac. The counselor spent many hours on the phone with BOA - no result. They will do nothing to modify my loan. They will not consider a modification until I am in default.
We are in a modification trial period with BOA/Countrywide. A check from our bank was directly mailed to BOA on the 1st of May for their receipt by May 11th, as per BOA/Countrywide Trial Modification Papers we received in late April 2009. Well, on the 14th of May 2009, becoming concerned about this payments and not seeing it posted to our checking account, I called BOA/Countrywide Home Retention Dept. to find out WHY this 1st trial payment was not cashed yet. A cust. svce. rep checked and came back on the phone and said that it must have been lost in the mail. There was no record with the payment processing dept. of ever receiving. Give it a day or 2 and call back. On May 19th, I called again. Same response. Not received. I am told to put a stop pmt. on the check sent directly from our account. I did. Our bank graciously waived the fee for this service because they have a compassionate and understanding way of doing business. I was them told I could do a check by phone, at a cost of $9.00, and that it would be applied immediately. This should take care of the payment. I can relax. Not the case. The amount of the check was incorrect. BY .30 cents. modification pmt. amt. forus is $962.92, the check was entered as $962.62, thirty cents off.. can you believe it! But...they CASHED the $9.00 fee the next day! We were told because the Making Home Affordable Program is VERY STRICT. The payment MUST be for the specified amount or it VOIDS the trial period. Ok, so with that, we were told that since this ck. by phone was done wrong, (date entry mix-up) that ck. # 298 would not be cashed, the $9.00 fee be be refunded and they "Coded" our account so pmt. processing would NOT process this ck. by phone by accident. This was late Friday afternoon, NO way to withdraw the cash from our checking account and Memorial Day on Monday, we anxioxusly waited over the 3 day weekend to get his taken care of. We want to keep our home. Getting BOA thier payments is very important to us. Now I am panicking. We owe over $12, 000 in back pmts. and I'm thinking they will now cancel this trial period and begin foreclosing. then we were instructed on how to send a Western Union Quick Collect payment to BOA. So on Wednesday, May 27th, we did just that. Withdrew the cash plus a $13.00 fee to Western Union, and sent the money immediately. Now for the kicker...BOA/COUNTRYWIDE HAS PRESENTED THIS CK. BY PHONE TO OUR BANK FOR PAYMENT TWICE IN 4 DAYS...OUR MORTGAGE ACCOUNT HAS NUMEROUS NOTES AND CODES INSTRUCTING PAYMENT PROCESSING NOT TO CASH THIS CK. IN QUESTION. NOW WE HAVE BEEN ROBBED OF $100.00 BY BOA. Can these people be trusted? I don't think so. Like all others on this site, I have run into the very same customer service problems. What is the deal here? This problem is so emotionally draining sometime I wonder if it is really worth it. Are they doing this to us deliberately? Trying to make us back off and stop fighting for our home? Please, these issues need to be fixed. This is insane.
Countrywide/ Bank of America are accepting way too much applications... more than they can chew. They are making way too many mistakes even on document loans, appraisals (took forever to come in for inspection) incomplete and missing requirements for our loans.
They get annoyed when you correct the obvious errors created by them. Hey, we are paying for all the fees: from application: appraisal: they're own bank attorneys and many more... What's up with that? So much for reforming America's financial mess, it's getting worst. Empty Promises as usual.
Eva; I was also affected with this nonsense, and hurt, this has and still is a mess for my husband and I we don't know what to do, countrywide and BOA are companies that work together, I just find this out today, BOA told me that Countrywide was gone out of business and they could only work with me with what the got from Countrywide. I paid Kel attorney to help me I was not late with my payments and didn't need to refinance didn't need any extra money. they wanted me to refinance and told them I didn't want to but they kept calling and over and over, I heard about escrowing taxes and insurance with my house payment and I asked countrywide about it during one of the calls that was made to me and she said she could do it. she did the paper work through fax and I didn't like my balance on my house was over $20, 000. and I told her know that was to high and she said ok but started calling again and she told me the reason my bal. was higher was my insurance and taxes was added to it and I agreed with her but it was all a lie and a trick to mess up my loan. and it been getting worst every year. when I got my house it was only $150, 000.00. I been here from October 2004 till now and I am so hurt my balance is now over $217, 000.00 with these lower payment that i never need. why do people do each other so bad. am praying to God that all our situations by justified.
We are in the same boat. You might also want to share your story/complaint with the Center for Responsible Lending http://www.responsiblelending.org/take-action/share-your-story.html They are looking for experiences like ours.
Our frustration is so bad, we started a Twitter page http://twitter.com/cwrliars
We also have a blog http://cwrliars.blogspot.com/ with a list of all the government offices we're written to. Our blog also has updates as we receive responses from those offices.
Really! We need to let everyone know that Couuntrywide (BofA Home Loans) are STEALING our taxpayer monies!