Walk this Way (in CA)

[Submersible]

After a year of dithering, we've finally decided to walk on our house in Oakland, CA. It's worth half of what we owe on it, and the neighborhood is deteriorating. We are scheduling a consultation with an attorney, so I'm sure a lot will become clear after that appointment.

First question: I've got a HELOC for $123K, all applied 100% to purchasing the home. No refi. In order to qualify for the craptacular interest rate of 6.5%, I had to agree to have payments deducted from my bank account. How do I shut this off? I can always open a new bank account before things go south, but if it's safe to leave money in my existing account, I'd rather not deal with the hassle.

I'm sure that when I call to shut off direct payment and volunteer to take the higher interest rate, WFB will figure out what's going on.

[knownick]

Originally Posted by Submersible

First question: I've got a HELOC for $123K, all applied 100% to purchasing the home. No refi. In order to qualify for the craptacular interest rate of 6.5%, I had to agree to have payments deducted from my bank account. How do I shut this off? I can always open a new bank account before things go south, but if it's safe to leave money in my existing account, I'd rather not deal with the hassle.

I'm sure that when I call to shut off direct payment and volunteer to take the higher interest rate, WFB will figure out what's going on.

We had the same craptastic loan with the same craptastic bank it sounds like, except our craptacular interest rate was even higher.

I called and asked how to stop the automatic payments. They said they don't take requests over the phone and gave me an address to send in a written statement. I sent it in, they stopped the automatic draw. Simple as that.

Actually, here's the letter I sent them and the address they gave me. They have multiple servicing centers and this was nearly a year ago though, so you might want to confirm the address before sending something in.

Me
My Address
My City, CA
November 1, 2008

Wells Fargo Bank NA
PO Box 4233
Portland, OR 97208-4233
(866) 801-7382

RE: Equity Line #(my account)

To Whom It May Concern:

Please immediately cease automatic payment withdraw on the above home equity line of credit. At this time I wish to submit payments manually.

Regards,


Me

As for switching banks, if your checking/savings is also with WFB, I'd strongly recommend it. When the collections calls started for us they would make statements like "well, you have $XXXX in your checking account right now, what's stopping you from making a payment?"

You'd be best to sever all ties with them as quickly as possible. You just don't want them having any information on you that they don't need to have.

[homesweethome]

Good for you, Its time we starting using the same loopholes as the banks, Loansafe unite........

[Submersible]

Originally Posted by knownick

We had the same craptastic loan with the same craptastic bank it sounds like, except our craptacular interest rate was even higher.

I called and asked how to stop the automatic payments. They said they don't take requests over the phone and gave me an address to send in a written statement. I sent it in, they stopped the automatic draw. Simple as that.

Thanks for the advice, I will give that a try. Oh, and I mistyped in my original post--the interest rate is more like 9%.