Bank of America review: late fee rip-off! 47

Countywide along with SRI (whom actually processed the loan) is riping my husband and me off big time with late fees right now they refuse to take payments from me while he was sick because I was not on the loan but they sure made me sign a paper saying that I know there is a loan on the house also before long the will change the interest rate and there is a balloon payment that has to be made in one payment of $115,512.97 at the end. The total of payments will cost us $696,402.40 just for financing $154,288.50 the finance charges are $542,113.90. Our home is not worth $696,402.40!

We are to having problems with countrywide home loans. A few years ago we had to file bankruptcy in order to keep our home well, we paid out of it early and got discharge papers. A few months later they decide to take lawyer fees out of june and july payment. Our lawyer contacted them and told them that the trustee had sent them the remainder of the money and they better give us credit for both months. 3 weeks later and they still haven't done nothing. my point is we can call them all day but you get the run around. So this is what i done i wrote the attorney general of NC told him the situation i haven't heard back so now I'm going to contact our congressman then I'm reporting to the better business bureau. I feel like nobody is listening and everything on tv right now is that countrywide is going bankrupt and were does that leave us that haven't straighten out our problems with them if anyone else has any ideas please let me know this is unreal with all these people complaining on them why is nothing being done to me everything they are dong is illegal. O think my husband and i are going to contact a lawyer and see what we can do. I'm not giving up and please anyone else keep posting and write your attorney general and call local tv stations. If anyone on here knows what we should do different let me know.

Does anyone know how we can start an investigation on Countrywide? Who can you report them to? It's like they're a Monopoly!

Plz advise smb!

The year 2002 and 2003 I received checks in the amount of $1015.00. I called both years and spoke with three different people and they all informed me that they overpaid my escrow for taxes and the money was mine to keep. In 2004 I received a letter informing me my escrow balance was in the negative $2030.00. I was told my house payment would go up $350.00 dollars for 18 months to make the difference. I was not able to pay that amount for 18 months so I decided to file chapter 13 bankruptcy to be able to keep my house and pay there mistake out at a longer period of time. You might ask, why not sell your home and move? My answer would be that I financed with a great interest rate and I have a son. I searched around a realize that my house payment, when it is normal, is way less than any liveable apartment and I didnt have the money to put down on a new home. So in the best interest of me and my son I decided to take the action I took. Now a few years later in 2007 I received another letter stating that my escrow was in the negative $8000.00 for the past three years of taxes. How is this possible? I have been paying $1836.00 a year in taxes. So I called my city and spoke to the tax assessors office and they informed me my taxes did in fact go up but just to the amount of $2200.00 and that is understandable. Where does Country Wide Home Loans get there figures and why have they paid the difference and allowed my escrow to stay in the negative for this long. I would have been ok with my payment going up twenty to thirty dollars a month to make up the difference. Also my insurance on the home went down from $1015.00 to $863.00 a year, I have not seen any of that. Where is it going? They are telling me starting in July my payments will double for 18 months to cover the $8000.00 negative. Where do they get $8000.00 are they charging me a outrageous amount in fees for there tardiness in telling me of the situation? Can they do this? I cant afford my payment to increase $700.00 a month for 18 months. There has to be something I can do. This company is the root of me filing chapter 13. I pride myself in great credit and now im having to rebuild it. Anyone have suggestions?

Agree. Countrywide is crooked. It is hard to believe that a corporation with such size and political power is nothing but a street crook, but that is the only way to describe their conduct. The borrower is extorted and robbed, just as surely as if he were accosted on the street by a bunch of street thugs.

Countrywide cannot be trusted in anything. It appears they run several databases for different purposes. The result is that the customer service representatives who contact you have only limited information and really believe the limited information they have only their computer screens. Countrywide takes payments, negotiates them, then fails to credit payments, and later lie, denying receipt of payment. When you present evidence of receipt, they say the payment "was returned." When queried as to where the check was returned, they cannot tell you. When queried as to why the check was returned, they say because it was insufficient funds. When you present evidence that the payment was in certified funds, they then admit the check was received, that they still have it in "suspense," even though earlier in the call they tell you it was returned to some unknown entity 3 weeks prior.

If you have equity in your home, beware. They fail to credit payments, or credit them late to generate unjustified late fees. They sometimes hold checks, sometimes return them long after the fact. They sometimes hold checks and apply them long after the fact. They provide no accounting of payments received, only of those payments they choose to apply. They apply some, not others, trying to create a picture of borrower irresponsibility or erratic payment. They manipulate escrow. They vary fixed rate payments as much as $40-175 per month without valid explanation. They send statements late, adding bogus fees or rejecting the borrower's payment because it is "the wrong amount." If the borrower calls and finds someone that agrees there is an error or agrees to accept a certain amount, they will never confirm anything in writing and then reject the payment borrower sends in compliance with the agreement. The telephone contacts numbers provided in the body of "default letters" requiring immediate response are incorrect. If you have mailed a timely payment, they hold it in suspense for lengthy periods of time, depriving you from the use of the funds, but failing to credit it, using various excuses, i.e. "wrong amount," (even when you are paying the contracted fixed payment), "not certified funds" (even when it is a certified check)", or "bad check" (even when was certified funds). They file wrongful foreclosures.

In this case, even when the borrower paid more than $20,000 to "cure" a non-existent default, Countrywide still failed to credit the payment, alleging the borrower sent the payment to the wrong place. In fact the borrower followed the lenders written instructions precisely. It took Countrywide nearly 3 weeks to credit the payment. After borrower, to save his equity and home, paid the demand, Countrywide still shows him as a month in default. He has paid every payment in certified funds with signed delivery receipt since January 2006; additionally, he paid duplicate payments and unwarranted fees, costs, attorney's fees. He made more than his contractual obligation in 2006 and in the first quarter of 2007 paid more than his 2007 contractual obligation. Yet Countrywide says he has "never made a payment since they assumed the servicing of the loan in June 2005."

This borrower did not choose Countrywide; he had excellent credit. His loan was sold and the assuming lender sold the servicing rights to Countrywide. The services do not make much profit on the simple servicing. It is in their interest to manipulate accounts to generate fees and increase the service's profit. They cannot lose. They either strip equity by application of unwarranted fees, fraudulent foreclosure fees, or take the home and the equity therein. The borrower cannot win. He either pays the unwarranted fees or loses his home. Countrywide ruins his credit so that he cannot refinance elsewhere. The hedge fund and investors don't care. The only recourse a borrower has is to redeem his home through foreclosure and sue Countrywide.

Do not believe Countrywide will treat your valid complaints in good faith. Send every payment in certified funds by a third party who verifies receipt by requiring signature on delivery. Seek legal counsel and attack your problems aggressively. Otherwise they will eventually take your home. If they don't do it the first time, they will continue with additional wrongful foreclosure actions until they succeed. Most of all, if you can get rid of them do so. Refinance and make sure the contract has conditions in it that prevents sale of the loan or servicing to Countrywide. Report to the attorney general, district attorney, state and federal consumer protection agencies. Unless the defrauded borrowers speak out, this outrage will continue.

I have also had a terrible experience dealing with Countrywide Home Loans. (1) My mortgage payment increased from $890.00 per mo. to 1080.00 without proper notice within 18 months of my initial loan, I received a bogus excuse that, " I didn't have enough funds in my escrow account and (2) My mortgage insurance had increased because THEY decided to changed insurance companies, " (3) My annual interest on my 1099 tax statement also seems questionable. Needless to say, I am in the process of consulting an attorney because I feel as though I've been ripped off. Stay away from them, they're CROOKS!

I too have my home loan with Countrywide and they we charging me $207 more for my homeowners insurance which I have through Allstate but I have my taxes and my insurance all rolled into my mortgage payment cause that works best for me. So when I got my statement from Allstate for the new year, is when I noticed they were overcharging me so I called my Allstate guy to take care of it for me.His reaction indicated total surprise that they were actually doing such a thing. I'll be sure to let you know the outcome as soon as Allstate gets back with me.