Too many details here would be too much, but I’ll say enough that you get the gist.
Today I read the blog of a woman I’ve known virtually for a long time, Rock and Drool. She opens with a sentence that I could have written.
“It’s the same old story, heard from thousands of families across the country.”
In fact, I did write something similar to that just last week when I was flip-flopping over whether or not to write about what Bank of America is doing with my loan. A loan that, I might add, I did not get through them. They bought it from someplace else. I should have expected that it would be bought since I went through a mortgage company to buy a home during a crushing divorce where my ex-husband won our house and all the contents. But I won’t get into all that.
This was my first house that I bought all by myself. Of that, I am extremely proud. I started working for the school district in my town 17 years ago and have not only made a steady income but I have done everything possible to earn more money each year by jumping through the pay scale hoops of getting another degree. But I won’t get into all that, either.
Photo credit David Shankbone
When I bought the house I did what I was supposed to do and get homeowner’s insurance. A few months ago, out of the blue, Bank of America told me that I didn’t have it so I called my insurance agent to have him send the appropriate paperwork. After that, BofA placed forced lender insurance on me and since that raised the cost of my monthly payment so much I had to pay it until I couldn’t pay it anymore as I waited for them to fix it. According to the bank, if you can’t pay it in full, then you don’t bother paying at all. Which means more fees are racked up on top of that.
I was told this, word for word: “We don’t accept partial payments.”
Even if it’s the bank’s fault, even if I have homeowner’s insurance, even if the fees piled on top of the original mortgage payment shouldn’t have been added on. They don’t accept any money at all. Can you imagine what this does to people who don’t have any savings? To people who have lost their jobs? To families who are trying to renegotiate their loans as the bank refuses?
They become the 99%.
Rather, they become aware that they’re the 99%. And they can’t get loans elsewhere because, by the time it’s all said and done, families can’t move their loans because their credit score has dropped. Bank of America knows this and as the King of Foreclosures they can do whatever it is they want to their customers.
I get why people are so angry at seeing Christmas commercials and why petitions are starting left and right and why regular, educated, hard-working Americans are taking to the streets to occupy and lend their voices to the movement.
These people are normal. They have kids and dogs and jobs that they’ve held for 17 years. They work in the lowest-paid but highest-required degree social institutions and donate money to social injustice to help other people. They take care of their sick parents. They help other people when they can by sending them to community organizations or by just paying a light bill. They do the best they know how to do. They never think they were going to end up here.
At least I didn’t think I would.
Find a local consumer investigative reporter. A couple of stories here have caused banks to fix things after reporters get involved. Or maybe your state consumer affairs/attorney general’s office? I really wish you well, hope you can get it taken care of.
Hi Kerry, unfortunately, this is not something that just needs to get taken care of for Melissa. I am utterly amazed at how closely Melisa’s story matches ours. And, I fear, there are literally hundreds of thousands of other families in the same boat.
Our story: We had a modification in place with Countrywide, had been making payments, were never late, and when Bank of America took over Countrywide, they NULLIFIED THE LOAN!!
It’s also been three years for us as well battling this injustice (we also bought our home in 2004-just an interesting side note that matches Melissa’s story). I’ve been to local news, attorney generals, senators, and for those of you who automatically think we’re just trying to get out of a mortgage, I’ve been paying attorney fees that double my upside down mortgage for 2 years for the principal of not letting a bank just come in and walk off with our house.
I finally went pro per to stop a foreclosure submitting over 300 pages of evidence. The court ruled in my favor.
Your comment is the first I have responded to on this blog (12/22/2011). I will be submitting our complete story as well as copies of court rulings.
Banks are making BIG money on the FDIC Loss Share Agreements that encourage foreclosures. Our country is suffering at the hands of a greedy few.
Just read your post and all of the comments after. I had no idea this kind of thing was happening. I’m Canadian, and after reading this.. so thankful that I am.
Dana
This is such a brave and important post. Get it out there. Send it to your local paper. Send it to online news media sites. Maybe look at what this guy did and go the same route:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/08/brendon-mendoza-bank-of-america_n_1082489.html
This makes my heart hurt, Kelly. Sending you the love and strength you need to get through this. So brave of you to post this….Keep yelling….your voice is being heard and is helping so many others stand up too. With you in spirit.
So heartbreaking and so unbelievably FRUSTRATING! It is just terrible that this is happening to people!!! Thank you for sharing your story!!!
This is so scary because it can happen to any of us. We’ve had our own issues with banks and lenders and it really does seem like nobody wants to help. It’s insane what is going on with jobs, housing and salaries. People (really good, hardworking people) are being sold out. So unfair.
I have/had excellent credit and went to refinance my B of A mortgage (formerly Countrywide) with B of A. It would significantly lower my payments. I had enough income, great property value to loan value. In short, I was a shoe in to get the loan. B of A took 4 full months and a few days to process the loan, which was supposed to be guaranteed to be a 60 day process.
There was no refund of the extra money paid during the last 120 days of the loan process. There was no apology that my loan paperwork sat untouched for nearly 100 days because they were too busy processing “new” loans. My loan agents should have been fired. The whole loan division are a bunch of bottom feeders who should be ashamed to work for such a low life corporation. Unfortunately they need jobs like the rest of us.
Anything I can do, Kelly. Just say the word.
Oh my God. I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. Unbelievable.
Ugh….banks are evil. Just horrible horrible evilness. I’m sorry you are at the losing end of their big hammer fists.
And Dana in Canada…I used to work in Real Estate law…and it did happen to ‘us’ too sadly…just on a smaller scale. Alot of the mortgages I registered in 2008….by mid-2009 I was dealing with the bankruptcy sales and back monies owing to the banks on.
And then I lost my house when my ex and I split…because neither one of us could afford the hiked interest.
Canadian banks are better…but not by much. And the US banks gave out mortgages in Canada as well (Wells Fargo, etc).
Nightmare.
Former Countrywide customer bought out by Bank of America. Dealing with the exact same thing here. Any payments I made that didn’t reach the full mortgage monthly payment amount were put in what they call a “partial account” and until that account reaches the exact to the penny amount of a monthly payment it won’t get applied to anything racking up fees and interest. I spent a year trying to get an answer to my second modification request, the first they just kept losing paperwork, the second they said that if you don’t call them weekly that they will disregard the modification application, called weekly for a year to have them tell it is under review while continuing to send foreclosure notices and calls. Finally complained to better business bureau in Sept. and got a call within 3 days that supposedly the modification is denied in July, why? they won’t tell me and when I called weekly all their staff and records showed modification was still under review no decision made. Two days later they call and leave me a voicemail saying modification is in review should have an answer soon, one person says it is denied, next it is in review, next it was decided in July, no one knows anything. Now they assigned me a customer rep that has yet to return a numerous phone calls and messages left over the past 3 weeks. Her supervisor also has failed to return any phone calls. I don’t believe for one second that they grant anyone a modification.
BofA tries their hardest to not grant a modification to anyone. We are currently in legal negotiations with them in order to save our home. They conpletely screwed up our mortgage when they bought out Countrywide. So, on top of the fees, we have paid over $3000 in legal fees. What BofA is doing is illegal. I advise you to consult with a lawer.
My heart goes out to you, as a blogger who has written about my own downward financial journey and subsequent bankruptcy I know how hard it is to write a post like this. That said I think we are at the point, we almost have to do it. People need to know it’s not “those” people or others who are struggling and are the 99%. It’s people just like them, who work hard, played the game the way we were supposed to and are learning that it’s rigged.
Best wishes to you!
My first loan got put in default once when I made the payment on the last day of the month for the next month. They put it in escrow or something and then said I’d never paid the mortgage when in fact I paid it a day too early. I thought I was going to lose the house. Mortgages are so scary. I’m sorry this is happening to you.
I’m so sorry to hear of this Kelly, you do everything right as best you can and you still get screwed. My heart aches for you. Wish I could stop by with a bottle of wine.
Jaysus. I don’t even know what to say. Canada’s banking system is so very different than America’s. I can’t even believe shit like this is allowed to happen. It’s a travesty.
Let me know what I can do to help. I am all yours. Anything you need my lovely friend.
Hi – I found your blog thorugh a link on Twitter. Glutenfreegirl retweeted this. I work at Bank of America and I may be able to help you. Please email me at the address I’ve provided. I will get some information from you and see what I can do.
Thanks.
We had a similar thing happen with flood insurance for my house. Couldn’t afford the mandated amount for high risk AND couldn’t afford to have the hydrology survey done to prove that we weren’t high risk. The weight falls on those unwilling to forfeit their homes, lifestyles and dreams. Those clipping coupons to make sure they pay as much as they can on time every single month. How has our nation come to this? We no longer protect those who work hard. It is a Darwinian survival of the greediest – and that is what is going to define my generation — GREED. Disgusting.
This happened to us. Almost word for word. Except it wasn’t bank of America. It was Wells Fargo. These banks will do everything within their power to screw people, and those who disagree with the Occupy movements and say they are lazy and don’t want to work like real people are fooling themselves. Just wait until something as asinine as this happens to them.
I’m sadly not surprised. We had a situation with a credit card company that was very similar. Went from having excellent credit to nearly losing our house. Deregulation created an atmosphere of greed that has continued unabated for 20the years…I hope your action (live tweeting your customer service experience ) gets the results you deserve.
What a lot of crap. I’m renting an interim house after selling my family home (after a divorce) and buying my first by-myself house. I dread having to deal with mortgage companies/banks again. I don’t have any debt right now and I love it. But I also want a house of my own and I sure can’t pay cash.
I wish you luck getting this worked out. There’s a reason the 99% are rising out of our complacency. The revolution is coming.
All this is just outrageous! It has to end,
I am so sorry to hear about this Kelly. I know how exciting it was for you to buy that place.
I am so up-side down on my loan that I wonder if it is even worth the effort to keep up on the payments. You see all these big wigs, like Trump, declare bankrupcies and move on like it was no big deal. I wish it was that easy.
I know this all sucks, but you’ll be fine. You have fought through tougher things.
Tom
I am outraged by these stories. and I still know so many people who do not realized why people are protesting, or how close they are to having something like this happen to them even thought they “did everything right.” I’m currently thinking of defriending some people on FB who I have known for years because of the hateful and inaccurate things they are saying about the 99% movement. I switched to a credit union this year and refuse to deal with big banks ever again. My heart goes out to everyone dealing with this crap, I wish I could help. All I can do right now, I guess, is to keep sharing the stories and try to educate people about what is really going on in our country.
You and your family are in my thoughts, not that that does you much good. I just don’t understand what these companies are thinking when they behave in such cruel way. I seriously can’t wrap my brain around it. Things will get better.
I am fighting to keep my home and not displace my kids too, but not because of a bank. Rather, it is from a loser ex-husband. I am 99% b/c of the debt I inherited from my marriage. I have $25K in credit card debt and a $95K home equity loan against my house which was used to purchase my ex’s business, which he has lost.
Until he lost the business b/c he doesn’t actually like to sell insurance and would rather play golf, crazy for an insurance agent…I know, I was keeping up with the debt. Now, he has lost the business and instead of taking a cut in his lifestyle, he’s passing that loss and other debt on to me and his children. I can’t afford the debt I was given as my part of the equitable distribution of assets/debt now that his situation has changed. I’ve tried to negotiate before I actually default on payment, but the lenders won’t work with me because my accounts are current. They want me to default on payments and get so in over my head that I will have to file bankruptcy before I see relief. All I want is to pay my debt, but I need some relief for a few months until I can replace the income lost from what my ex was providing. I don’t want to ruin my credit. I don’t want to declare bankruptcy. I want to pay my debt. But the creditors all tell me my only option is to ruin my credit and go to collections and work out a plan to pay off the debt for less than I owe. What? WTF? We are in the decline of a civilization.
I wish I could blog about the whole thing like you can, but my kids read my blog and I will not bad mouth their loser father like that. His idea of living paycheck to paycheck are expensive ski trips to Colorado, to the Caribbean and designer jeans. God forbid he go without all that.
Oh, this is chilling. And it’s the story of America these days.