Countrywide HOPE Department

[4boyzmomma]

I lucked upon this site after googling "HOPE Department". I have found a wealth of knowledge and can't wait to spend more time diving into it. I thought since you wanted HOPE stories I would let you all follow my story as it unfolds here.

Background:

May 2005 father-in-law purchased us this home for $300k. We had the home free and clear.

In July 2005 we took out a $60k mortgage on the home in my husband's name to pay off all our existing debt and have the intrest for tax purposes. Our intrest rate was 7%. (My husband has bad credit, mine is even worse. We were young and dumb and now look back sadly at the mess we created.)

July 2006, we found ourselves in a pinch and decided to pull out more money. We refinanced and now have a $90k mortgage on our home at a 8.5% intrest rate.

So as it is, we owe $90k on a home that last appraised for $325k.

This past year my husband has had ups and downs at work and it seems they just continue to take advantage of him. He's an automotive service technician (glorified mechanic). They promise things will get better, move him around to different departments, different dealerships. It's been a roller coaster to say the least. So our income is never the same, and has been really low because work has been really slow due to the economy.

I stay home with our four children. I do work on contract with the state and make a small monthly check.

We got behind Nov 2007 or so. And I have made a payment as I can, but it's always about 30 days late. In February we used our tax refund to catch up. But struggle with our April payment. Made it May 19th. So now it's May 31st and we owe May's payment.

Last week we received a letter from CW with options and what would happen info. It still showed us owing for April, so we had since made a payment.

I called CW on Tuesday to talk to them however they would not talk to me because I'm not on the loan and the authorization had expired. Husband called Wednesday to authorize me. He was told it was done and I could call. I called Friday and they refused to speak with me because he was actually suppose to fax something in - they did not tell him this. So when he got home he called again. They then spoke with me since I was right there.

We did not qualify for a repayment plan - I suppose I recent income was too low. We however have no expenses outside of living (gas, food, utilities) And they offered for us to contact HOPE. He explained this as "you can skip one or two payments and then begin a repayment process". I tried to get clarification, however he was redundantly very vague and told me HOPE would discuss the terms with me. I had 24-48 hours to fax in 3 months bank statements, paystubs (which I could not get him to tell me how many so I sent two), and a hardship letter.

As soon as we hung up I got this info together and sent it in. I also sent in the fax to the number suggested for the authorization for me to access account information. I have done my part, now, will they do theirs?

As of today we owe our May 1, 2008 payment. And I have sent in the information advised by Countrywide Loan Retention CSR to the HOPE Department. Stay tuned to follow our progress.

[Cat Damiano]

Hi 4boyzmomma,

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

At this point when you do the household income versus the household expenses do you show a surplus of $100-$250 at the end of the month?

[4boyzmomma]

Thanks for the welcome.

I don't think with the quick run down I did with him off the top of my head did leave any overage, and I know that's wrong because we're struggling but we are getting by, right? I need to write it all down looking back at my accounts and have a true account of the comings and goings of money.

I also forgot to add that we have the home listed with a realtor for $283k, we listed May 1st. I probably need to let Countrywide know this as well, huh?

[Andrew]

FYI most lenders now a days wont take shortages in monthly income vs. expenses.

[4boyzmomma]

Here's an update.

I called Friday, 6/6/08 to check to see if my paperwork was recieve. The CSR was very friendly and was very easy to understand (I usually get someone with a thick accent I have a hard time understanding). Anyway, she did not show any notes from the previous conversation I wrote about. She did however now have my account authorization - funny they were sent in at the same time as directed by the same previous CSR. SO we went through the whole shabang again, this time I had all my numbers together.

Option #1 (which she tried to go directly to without telling me about the others, upon my prodding she provided 3 options) Any #1 was a type of 2nd mortgage for the amount past due. Now we're talking less than $2k - May & June payments plus late fees for May. I asked about the % rate and she said it was an outside source so I would have to ask when they contacted me. This didn't sound like something I wanted to do.

Option #2 Repayment Plan. We didn't get into this one much. because she went almost immediatley into Option #3 the HOPE department.

SO once again I faxed in all my info to them and now I wait. She said call back weekly if I do not hear from a negotiator. She did put notes in and submit the negotiator request - or so she says.

I belive this CSR was new b/c she sounded like she was reading everything she said straight off paper. And she kept placing me on hold when I asked questions, as if to verify the answer before replying (once she didn't hit hold right away and this is where I gathered what she was doing).

SO here we are a week later with no progress as of yet.

We should regardless be making our May payment plus late fees in the next two weeks, so at least we're not too far behind. Treading water here, but barely it feels like.



Oh and I was told they cannot give out a number for the HOPE department.

[Cat Damiano]

Thank you for the update............let us know how it goes with the HOPE Dept.

[4boyzmomma]

just an update:

i called and got an automated message about being in the "review" stage earlier this week. came here tonight and found the handy information about seeing the process on my account profile on their site. here's what it said:

Documents Received
Processing Date Workout Type Document Type
06/06/2008 General Workout Bank Statements
06/06/2008 General Workout Other
06/06/2008 General Workout Proof of Income
06/06/2008 General Workout Other
06/02/2008 General Workout Proof of Income
06/02/2008 General Workout Other
06/02/2008 General Workout RFD

The above list is real-time and reflects the documents processed to date for this account. We may have received additional documents recently sent to us that have not been processed and therefore do not appear in the list. Please do not call us to check the status of a document not showing in the list as our representatives will not be able to provide any additional information than what is shown here. Thank you for your patience.


Current Workout Status
Loan Modification View the Details Hide the Details


Workout Status Details: Your request for assistance is under review. During the review process, a thorough examination and analysis of your loan will be completed. During this time, we may or may not need additional information from you. It is common that you will not hear anything from us during the review period, but please be advised that all collections activities have been temporarily suspended during this review period. We expect more information to be available on 07/02/2008. If your status remains unchanged after the 07/02/2008, please call and speak to a customer service representative. Please do not call back before 07/02/2008 as that will delay the process. Please respond promptly to any calls or requests that you may receive from us during this period. Lack of response will cause your workout to be delayed or cancelled. Thank you.
Information as of: 06/11/2008
Workout Stage: Processing
Phase/Sub-Phase: Active Processing

i have the may payment, but now i wonder should i pay it or wait until the 2nd to see if i can find anything out before making that one payment.

[4boyzmomma]

well today is 7/2/08 and there was not an update, so i called. on the other end was a very nice lady named Erica. she said my negotiator's name is rick. he tried to call me on 6/16/08 to find out how much we had in upfront funds but i did not answer, he left no message. so she got the info. i told her i had $1,000. she verified all my info was current and tried to get rick on the line. he was unavailable. i asked her if i should hold that money or make my may payment. she said it was not yet being analyzed (whatever that means specifically) and it was up to me if i wanted to make the payment. i am going to use checkfree to go ahead and make that may payment tonight, at least then i will only owe june 1st and july 1st. she said rick will be in touch if he needs anything else. so for now, it's more waiting.....