Forbearance Workout Promised

[countrywidecustomer]

We just requested a 3 month Forbearance on our 1st and 2nd Home Loans through Countrywide. Our first Loan is $83,000 @ 7% Fixed rate, our second is an ARM @ 5.5% of $15,000. We have never been more than 30 days late on a Payment. A couple weeks ago we requested a Loan Mod, we were denied being told that they never received our Faxed Documents. I found this site (which is very helpful) and decided to try again....this time just requesting a 3 Month Forbearance Workout. I know if we had 3 months of no Payment, we could get back on track. I called the HOPE Program last night (to request the Forbearance) after letting them know I am a member of Loansafe.org and that I was not going to pay my Taxes which are due by Nov 30th, I was promised that we were "guaranteed" a forbearance as long as I overnighted the requested documents. I got the Reps name (Christine)....forgot to get her Exstension.

I overnighted the documents and Hardship Letter today, but because of the Holiday it will not arrive until Tuesday. I posted this in the Message Center on Countrywides' Website.

My question is, are they allowed to "Promise" and guarantee a Forbearance and then not follow through with it ? I don't want to get my hopes up.

Our first payment is $425.00 a month and our second is $90.00 (Flex) right now, and you would think since it is such a small payment, compared to alot of others I've seen posted here, that it would not be a big issue for Countrywide to let us "slide" for 3 months, but it seems to good to be true. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks for all the Helpful tips and advice on this site! I feel like it is my safe haven to run to when I'm stressed out about my Home Loans!

[Cat Damiano]

countrywidecustomer,

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

Just wanted to let you know one thing after reading the steps so far.........if you do not or can not pay the taxes that are due in Nov., Countrywide will have to pay them to avoid a lien being placed on the property and they will place an escrow on your loan payments, which will raise the payment.......


Please keep us posted on your progress with the modification.

[Andrew]

Yes please let us know.

[countrywidecustomer]

Thanks Cat & Andrew, The Documents should have arrived at Countrywide today but not posted online yet, I'll give them atleast a week before calling. I know they have their hands full. We will be paying our Taxes before they are due ( thanks for the tip)....we actually have until Dec. 31st before they become past due.

I wanted to make a correction...our first Loan is for $63,000.00 not $83,000.00, I had a typo there.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed but, not getting my hopes up! Thankyou =)

[countrywidecustomer]

Ok, I waited until Today to contact Countrywide, which was exactly one week from day they received my Documents. As stated above I had Faxed the Documents first but Countrywide swore they never received them. The rep said they were just showing up today, which beter late than never I guess. I received a message online saying this:
"We have documented your loan with the information you have provided. If you require further assistance with the Hope program, please contact (800) 669-6607."......I will wait another week before calling, since nothing is showing under my online account yet. I did let them know I was a member of Loansafe.org and that my story (good or bad) would go public on here. I also told them my Taxes are due, in hopes that this would help my situation. I'm hoping to get my 3 month Forebearance before Christmas! Or.....that new Stimulus Check they are talking about, lol....Hhhmmmm wonder which one will come first or if either of them will come at all!

[countrywidecustomer]

Update, Today I checked Countrywides' Website and it's finally showing the Documents I sent:

Processing Date	Workout Type	Document Type
10/22/2008	General	BANK STATEMENT
10/22/2008	General	LETTER OF EXPLANATION
10/22/2008	General	PAY STUB

[countrywidecustomer]

Update: Good News!

My Negotiator called on October 29th, 7 days after they claimed they received our Documents. He was very helpful, and "understandable" and is in the process of setting us up for a Forebearance! He's sending the Documents out this week for us to review and sign. We won't have any payment due from October to February! He told me in Feb he (or another Negotiator) will call and then help us determine which way we can pay it back. He said it will either be an extra $20.00 a month for the life of our loan, or an extra $150 a month for 12 months, or we can pay the total off (approx) $2,000 at that time. I'm still a little nervous, now that I got what I asked for...because of some of the horror stories I've read on here. I understand we will still owe late fees, which we pay now anyways since we usually pay after the 15 day grace period. Has anyone else ever gone through a Forebearance and had success ? I'm just nervous about February coming and them saying I owe $4,000 instead of $2,000 or something crazy like that! That can't do that though, right ? Whatever we sign on the documents is what we are going to owe. Plus we plan on paying the entire $2,000 off with our income Tax Return, so we won't have the extra monthly payments.....and now we can pay our Taxes! I know this would not have happend if it wasn't for Loansafe.org!

I would love to hear from anyone who has went through a Forebearance or anyone willing to offer me any advice about it!

Thankyou Loansafe members

[countrywidecustomer]

Ok, so here's my new question:

Do we have to show atleast $250 surplus or no more than $250 surplus to be able to have this workout resolved best for us ? I don't want to show too much surplus and them demand the back 3 months on the Forebearance all at once. We would rather pay the Forebearance off over the life of the loan. We still have to pay our taxes which are due by Dec 31st, we are planning on paying them on time. Thanks =)

[Cat Damiano]

financials are something that you would need to go over with CW.....there is definately not a one formula fits all scenarios.......each investor has a different criteria...........or you can go over financials with HOPE at 1-888-995-HOPE.

[countrywidecustomer]

That is who will be calling me, I believe it is the HOPE department. I read on here somewhere that you had to show $250 surplus. Didn't I ?

[Cat Damiano]

that is not in every case.............that is based on an average of some of the success stories.

[countrywidecustomer]

Oh ok....I will wait and see what they say tomorrow. They called Friday and left a message. Of course the Negotiator never answered the phone when I called back so I must wait for them to call again. If you talk to someone other than your negotiator, they have no clue what you are talking about and barely speak english. Thankyou for your replies =)

[countrywidecustomer]

My Forebearance Workout is still going good! We are due to be called on or after Feb. 5th, 2009 to either pay of those Forebearance months or add them to our monthly payments. At this time though, we have another Countrywide Delema! Ok.....we bought our home in June 2007 and purchased Flood Insurance as Countrywide stated we had to..... in June of 2008, we were getting ready to pay our FEMA Flood Insurance Policy again which was due in less than 2 weeks. We received a letter from Countrywide stating that FEMA had no longer required our home to need flood insurance and if we already paid (which we had not) to get a refund from FEMA. This was great news! It was $800.00, which we used for our vacation. Six months later, December 2008 (about 7 days ago) we received a letter from Countrywide asking us why we didnt renue our Flood Insurance (HA!) and if we didnt do so, they were going to charge us and pay FEMA themselves. We have 2 loans through Countrywide, and the 1st letter only had our HELOC Loan number on it, the 2nd letter only had our regular Home Loan number on it, which I believe is causing the confusion on their side. The second letter also said they sent our their own Private Contractor to check our land. So...I called Countrywide to SCREAM at them and they claim they have NO RECORD of either letter!!! They claim they need us to Fax them in for proof. As if we made up our own Countrywide letters! They are insane. Nobody knows what they are doing there. So, now we are forced to go through FEMA and file a Map Amendment clain which can take 30-60 days and Counttywide only gave us 30 days from the date the letter stated, which we received 2 weeks after it was dated (alittle fishy)....My question is, how can they do this ? The lady from FEMA said there is no way they can hire their own contractor to come out and survielance my land. When I say all this to Countrywide they keep saying they dont have the letter and without seeing it cannot comment on it!!! Ugghh!!! This is a nightmare right before Christmas!!!!

[countrywidecustomer]

One more thing.....Real estate Taxes are due by Dec 31st, if we cannot pay them by this date where do they go ? Will we get anotherc hance to pay them before Countrywide does ? Like in January? I already talked to the person in charge of our School taxes (after Dec 31st) and they said we will have until March to pay them without Countrywide knowing. Is this the same w/ teh Real estate Taxes, and if so who do I call ?

[Cat Damiano]

If you go online to your county assessors website the tax information should be located there.............they usually will tack on an interest fee at a certain percentage of the taxes for each month that you are late up until the point where the taxes would create a lien and force a tax sale, which you would need to find out from your county how long that takes in your state..........and then the county will send the info to CW and they are forced to pay the taxes on your behalf so as not to have a lien placed on the property, and to set up an escrow account to get that payment back from you along with escrowing for future taxes.