Will not modify loan if less than 8%, is this true?

[Texhold]

Every time I call CW's workout dept I get the run around. We had a 3yr fixed that is going up in July to 7.8%. We were told a few times "You qualify". So we faxed in our hardship letter, pay stubs,and bank statements. We did our house expense vs. house income, we meet the surplus. We haven't even been assigned a negotiator. Today we talked to Tanya and was told if our interest rate is under 8% our case will not even get reviewed!! She said it was a new policy that came out in April 2008. She said there were too many loan modification cases going on so they had to draw the line at 8%. Is this true?
She also told us it's better to refi. Well, if I could of qualified for a refi, which we tried last month, I wouldn't be trying to do a rate reduction. We have never missed or been late on our mortgage payment. We just faxed in the info to them last week and they already froze our online payment option. When I asked why, they told me it wasn't frozen. It clearly was! Does this mean if I send a check they won't process it? Because from what I've been reading on this forum and what I have been dealing with I just don't trust CW.

[Cat Damiano]

Texhold,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining...........

This could be true as far as the rates go because the investors on the loans are changing the modification parameters all of the time..........a member that has a 30 year fixed loan was just told the same thing today........
Unfortunately the investors on these loans can modify or not......it is up to them.............which sucks for us.......

For the payment.........there is a way to make them using Check Free, there is a thread at the top of this section on that called "making payments online while going through a mod"

[Texhold]

Thank You Cat. Any help, suggestions, and prayers would be helpful.
Can anyone at CW see which investor owns your loan?
In the beginning of May I was put on State Disability Insurance for my illness which eventually I will be put on permanent disability, which I told the hardship dept. The remainder on my loan is $309k. My payments will jump to $2667 P & I including escrow. In my Hardship letter I stated if they could freeze my payments at $2091/mo (which I was paying for the past 3yrs) for 5yrs, until I get financially stable again.
I also talked to the cust. serv. dept about my escrow being taken off? They told me they would take it off my payments and send me a check of what I put into escrow. It will take 5-7 days to receive. I hope so or did I just screw myself ? Has anyone else done this during a mod process?
I did this to by me some time. I can barely afford $2310(w/out escrow) on $3k a month. I know I haven't been assigned a negotiator yet but, I just don't see how I don't qualify.

[Cat Damiano]

For a modification what they look for to qualify is that when you put together your household income versus your household expense you would need to have a surplus of $100-$250 left at the end of the month..........
If this is the case then they would begin the process.........but it would depend on the investor on the loan........
What happens with that is
three out of every four mortgages are packaged together and then sold to another lender, which often repackages and resells these mortgages to a variety of investors that include Wall Street banks, mutual funds, pension funds, even foreign investors.

This means that for millions of homeowners, the company they mail their monthly payments to is not their original lender but merely a business that services and processes their loan. Sometimes that service company is authorized by the lender to modify the loan, and sometimes it's not.