Countrywide/BofA

[countrybofa72009]

Hello everyone, I have been reading quite a few posts with people having the same issues that we are having with CW/BofA. In November 2008 my wife and I received a letter from (then Countrwide) stating that our loan was a candidate for a new program that they were offering for struggling homeowners. Also in November our ARM went into effect and our new payment was now approx. $350 more per month. When we received this letter it just seemed like the right thing to do. We called Countrywide and applied for the program and over the phone they said we qualified and that they would work out a loan modification and send a copy to us. In December, via Fed Ex, we received a loan modification agreement. The agreement drop us to a fixed rate of 5.75% for five year and then fix for 6.75% for the remaining term of the 30 yr loan. It also put what we had past due, (became past due in December 2008), to the principal of the loan. We agreed to this new mod since it was approx. $700 less then what we we currently paying, notarized and Fed Ex'd the paperwork back to them at the end of December 2008. In January 2009 we had not heard anything from them but I would log onto my account online and it showed active processing and that they received or docs. I periodically would go online and check status as it said not to call them until Feb. 23 2009 if we had not heard anything from them. On Jan 25 2009 I went online again and the loan modifiction had changed from active processing to approved. So I call CW and the women who answered in there workout dept. said that indeed it was approved and that it would take two to three months before the paperwork was finished reflecting the approval. So I asked when do I start making payment and to what address do I send it? She gave me that information and I did send the paymento for the new amount and have every month since to the present. Being myself I would periodically go online to their website (now BofA) and check the status. I also called in March and April several times to BofA and they said everything was fine just keep doing whw\at I was doing and they acount would eventually refect the new mod. In the first part of May I went online again and this time it said to my shock that the loan mod was canceled as of May 4th 2009. I called them right away and after talking to a different person over the next three days got the answer we did not qualify because or income was only $1000 per month and that the mortgage was $2060 (new amount) per month. I said how can this be and they said they did not have the finacial docs form us to support our income amount. This was came as a complet shock to me as I know they did get the complete docs and that we did qualify and that we were approved. So now I tried to get them to review the mod and they said they would send it to upper manangement for review and I also sent them our financial info again. Well July 1 2009 we received a Fed-Ex letter with a new mod at a 3% higher rate that was not fixed and a pament amount $650 more than the original an also receive a certified letter of Intent to Accelerate because we we now several month behind. I called them again and asked what happen to the orgianl mod that was approved and now up for review. The woman there finally said at the end of our conversation, after putting me on hold, that she was advised to tell me not to call them back until after three weeks had passed and that they will not call me and that I must call them after three weeks. Well in three weeks the new mod will expire and the notice of intent to accelerate will expire. I do not know what to do. I hac\ve always contacted them and they have not once called me during this entire process to date I am afriad that we are going to lose our home even the I was follwong their instructions. Is there anyone with any thought on this?

[dthom]

Contact NACA. Let them know you have already received a notice of intent to accelerate. You can find them at www.naca.com.
The process with them is slow, we are still waiting, but many here have had great success with them.

[countrybofa72009]

I just feel that now that B of A has completed the CW transaction and that they have billions of taxpayers' money at their disposal, that they are trying to clear their balance sheet of any negative mortgages. Why would they cancel our original agreement and then give us a new one that they know we cannot afford along with an ultimatum?

[CW California]

I think it might be a good idea to email the Office of the President with your story. They have been cleaning up a lot of these messes.

[countrybofa72009]

Sorry for all the miss-spellings. I have not slept in three days. I work full time and I am currently going to college full time at night. My wife is unemployed and out of town visiting her ailing mother along with our daughter. We were hit hard financially when the automobile dealership we were working at closed at the end of 2007. I had been there 13 years and my wife 9 years. I have since found work, however my wife has been job hunting for the last 12 months. I did call HUD and they have referred me to a counseling service. I very helpful counselor walked me through having them contact B of A on my behalf with a proposal. They are a non-profit org. The counselor was not allowed to give me legal advice, but in a few words he said I should keep all my legal avenues open. I have also been to that I should file a complaint with the FTC and was given their number by someone from HUD. The woman from HUD said I should contact them, (she was not supposed to give me that number unless I had asked for it first), but she let it slip out when she realized how dire the situation was. I will be done with college on July 10th (Degree in Computer Science) and I also hold some computer related certificates. I was supposed to be looking into a new career in technology, however I must now focus all my attention on this because we want to save our home of ten years in the Sacramento area. I will report any progress as I have it. Thank you all.

[countrybofa72009]

I logged into my account with B of A today and now the link to my loan Note no longer works??? What is happening???

[jlynsmom]

You should also contact the president's office and have them review your original modification documents. They have been especially helpful at restoring mods that have been "cancelled" by mistake. The contact info is barbara.j.desoer@bankofamerica.com.

Good Luck!

[countrybofa72009]

Just an update. I did call B of A again today just to see if anything had changed and this time was able to get a woman on that explained in more detail why the original agreement was cancelled. She said it was cancelled in May 2009 because the dollar amount we gave them over the phone did not exactly match the income on our income proof we had faxed in. She said it had to match dollar for dollar. I then asked why it took them more than five months to let us assume everything was ok and let us continue to make the lower payment that they said they had approved. In fact, still do this day, we have not once received a call from CW/B of A. I found out myself online that it was cancelled on May 4th. 2009. Her response to my question of why they have not called us was because we had a bankruptcy and that they were not allowed to call us. It is true that we filed for bankruptcy in July 2007 and it was discharged (chapter 7) on Nov. 13th 2007. However, Countrywide was not included in the bankruptcy because we wanted to keep our home. fficeffice" />>>
Is it true what she said about not being able to call us even though they were not included in the bankruptcy and also the fact that it was already discharged long before we started the mod in Dec. 2008? I feel they are just giving us the run around hoping we will accept their new mod that will cost us several thousand more per year. We are now much further behind because we made the payments according to what they stipulated and approved in Jan. 2009 and that they never informed us by phone or by letter or any other means that we were cancelled and now falling further behind. I am a very optimistic, forgiving person, but I now feel that they are to blame as to why we are now much further behind. Am I wrong?
I am working on a letter to email the office of the President, but I am still unsure as to the wording to use. Thank you again for letting me post.>>

[countrybofa72009]

Maybe we should send them an IOU for the past due balance since the state we live in (California) will soon be sending that to my wife for her unemployment benefits.

[sandyh]

My opinion is that it is not so much that BoA is giving a run-around, but that the majority of people that are making calls and answering calls really have no idea what they are saying and one of the main problems is that they say things with such authority and conviction it makes you doubt what you know to be true or right.

The other main problem is that those that don't know what they are doing could very well be the same ones inputing data into the system at times. You really have to be very persistant, non-emotional if you can, and just don't stop until you finally get someone that does know what they are doing and does have the ability to influence "the system."

If you want to stay in your home and you can afford to stay in your home if reasonable terms were given to you, then continue to fight until you get a hold of someone that will take your case on. And even then, you will continue to have to deal with those - I am sorry but I have to say this - idiots that are answering the phones or making the calls. The reason I use such a strong word is that so many times we have spoken to someone and they have caused us such stress and anxiety not because they didn't know the real answer or truth, but b/c they insisted that they DID know. Just today, we received a collection call from BoA. If you go online to our account, it says modification approved, all collection stopped. If you call the customer service number and enter our accounts, it says modification approved, all collection stopped. We spent an hour on the phone with our negotiator yesterday (who is in the office of the president) and we KNOW that everything is approved and collections have stopped. So anyway, this person today tells me collection hasn't stopped even though yes, she sees that a modification has been approved. I told her that our negotiator in the office of the president said collections had stopped and no negative reporting would be done. She then said "well, anytime you are late, collections will occur and we will call you and report you." I torted back - "well, actually we are 6 months late with our first and you have never called us and never reported us." To that, she just got off the phone quickly.

The fact is, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing and you just need to keep fighting until you finally get someone who DOES know what they are doing and then only ONLY listen to that person. Even yesterday morning, when we couldn't get a hold of our negotiator, we spoke to someone else that was supposively in the same dept but I KNOW they transferred me to the regular modification dept. I could tell with the different background sounds (more like a call center). Anyway, we get some - ok here I go again - idiot that tells us that our modification for our equity was P&I even though we were looking at our paperwork and had our notes from our negotiator that it was Interest only. So, despite that I was pretty sure I was talking to the wrong person, I went into a tail spin and couldn't rest until we spoke to our negotiator later that day and she confirmed both on the phone and in email that it was interest only.

Again, I wouldn't be so harsh on these reps if it wasn't their unbashful attitude that what they are saying is true and that they are the be-all-end-all...I just wish they had some "gee, I'm not sure but this is what I think" attitude. That way we wouldn't all have to keep going into these tail spins....

So long winded way to say - it is hard to know if the reason is truly that the Dollar amounts didn't match up exactly. The reason it was denied in some ways is irrelevant - the very reason why you might be denied for one type of modification might be the reason you can be approved for another. Just keep fighting, keep on course, keep your eye on what you can truly afford and what you can't afford (exit strategies should always be on your radar), and remember...in the end, it is a business decision for all involved.

Hang in there.

And good luck.

[countrybofa72009]

Thank your for the reply sandyh, I know I feel like I've been ranting a little in these posts sometimes, but it is so frustrating to be told one thing only to learn something completely different. I will not give up on this because that is just not me. For the past three years I have been going to school at night full time and working during the day full time as well. I am married to a wonderful woman with two great kids with one of them just now starting college. We grow our own vegetables and have some chickens too for fresh eggs. I have been through many difficult times as a child and I just want a better life for my family. I am by no means perfect, but can't a company today be ethical at the same time it is profitable in this great country of ours? I just want them to honor the agreement that CW original had with us and approved. If there was no offer and they chose not to help then I would have no problem with that. It is just that we based what we did over the past six month on the agreement that was approved in January and now we are much further behind because of it. We kept our part of the agreement. Please step up to the plate B of A and do the right thing.

[CW California]

countrybofa
Have you tried sending a letter to the office of the president?

[rozuki]

countrybofa,

Many of us have had the wonderful experience of talking to airheads at CW/BofA. Make sure you
contact barbara.j.desoer@bankofamerica.com and in your email explain your situation as you did here in the forum.

Someone from her office will contact you quickly and should be able to get things straightened out.
I agree it is unbelievable what goes on first trying to even get a loan mod and then when you think everything is going along fine...wham! Keep on top of them and good luck!!