Help-1st with BOA, 2nd with GMAC

[RIJulie]

Hi. New to post to the forum, hopefully someone can point me in the right direction...We bought our house 4 years ago and got an 80/20 loan-100% financing. The 1st was sold to Countrywide (now BOA) and the 2nd was sold to Homecomings (now GMAC). Our house now valued at about what we owe on the 1st, so refinancing is not an option. Neither loan is Fannie or Freddie backed. We were fine until my husbands company closed and relocated. He was out of work for almost 1 year and finally got a job taking home almost $500 per month less than his previous job. I have been making the payments (we are not currently in default on any debt) but I am just about at the end of the rope.

1st mtg. - I used this forum and got info to apply for a BOA mod by emailing the chairman's office - that was back in August. I received a call in 24 hrs and within 48 hours was assigned a negotiator. Long and the short of it is now I am getting a runaround. Once I finally got him on the phone, he said my file was with someone else. I got her on the phone and she went over all the paperwork and assured me they had everything and I would hear something soon. That was 2 weeks ago. I spent the better part of today leaving her messages and sending her faxes. No response. Now, it is the beginning of another month and my mortgage payment is once again due. Oh, also, they locked my account and I can no longer make payments online!

Question 1. Should I email the chairman's office again? What should be my next step with these people?

2nd mtg. - I submitted a loan mod request to GMAC by fax on June 30th. I waited and waited. After calling and being bounced around from dept. to dept. (you can't actually speak to anyone is loss mitigation) I was told that it takes 60 days. I called again after 60 days and after being bounced around was told that it was denied because I didn't make enough money to make the payments. Turns out that they were using my weekly income as my monthly income - they had paystubs and tax returns, but apparently no one bothered to verify the figures. After a painful 2 hrs. I got someone of some intelligence to tell me that they can't just "fix it' and that I had to resubit the whole package again with a cover sheet saying that it was being resubmitted due to corrections to income and that they would review it within 15 days. I did that on Sept. 15. I called today and was told that it was denied again because now they feel that I can still afford to make the payments. You can't actually speak to anyone in the actual dept. who makes these decisions, so I don't know who to call now.

Question 2. Does anyone have an actual phone # for the loss mitigation dept. or an email address for someone with some authority?

I can qualify for a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, which would "cram down" the entire 2nd mortgage. As I stated earlier, I am not currently in default, but I will be soon. I was hoping to get all this settled so that I could save my good credit, but it seems that the lenders don't want that to happen. I'm not looking to reduce the principal, just reduce the interest rate, which in turn will reduce the payment. There is no arrearage- you would think this would be a no brainer! Since I've managed to make the payments up to this point, then why on earth wouldn't I be able to make lower payments?!?

Question 3. Am I just wasting time? Should I just go ahead and file the 13?

Any thoughts or new info would be greatly appreciated. This forum is so great, it's probably the only thing saving people from completely losing their minds.