Anyone had experience with ING Direct?

[georgiaraf]

Hello!

Have only seen a couple of posts regarding folks working with ING Direct and would greatly appreciate hearing any experiences or words of wisdom from people if you're out there?

I have my 1st mortgage with ING & a Home Equity with Chase. So far, they've been very difficult to work with. I was advised that since ING did not participate in the Bail-Out program, they are not obligated to offer any modifications per the Obama plan and that they will do so only on a case by case basis and never will they lock in an interest rate for the remaining life of the loan.

First the gal said they could only offer a 3yr interest lock at a lower rate, then later she said a 5yr...I feel as though I keep getting the run around. Now she says the property taxes must be paid before the application can even be considered which would have been nice to know at the onset. Then she must have been using some sorta new math, as her calculations left me with 800 income left over at the end of the month which is completely not the case.

Very frustrating. Hoping others have had greater success and would greatly appreciate hearing!

Thanks for all your help and wisdom!
Georgia

[Evan Bedard]

Hi Georgiaraf welcome and thank you for joining.

First the gal said they could only offer a 3yr interest lock at a lower rate, then later she said a 5yr...I feel as though I keep getting the run around. Now she says the property taxes must be paid before the application can even be considered which would have been nice to know at the onset. Then she must have been using some sorta new math, as her calculations left me with 800 income left over at the end of the month which is completely not the case.

Very frustrating. Hoping others have had greater success and would greatly appreciate hearing!

What department have you been calling at ING Direct?

[inmyview]

I just finished a short sale with ING and they have been very difficult to work with. One of the supervisors there is Aniello Maglione. His cell is 302-897-1857 direct line is 302-255-3378. I also found the name Sean Kriner of the home retention department on the final approval letter.

email aniello at amaglione@ingdirect.com or aniello.maglione@ingdirect.com

Good luck!

[georgiaraf]

I have been dealing with a Nancy Larsen in the "Home Retention" Department...I would not recommend her, as she's been unhelpful to say the least.

Thank you for the support and helpful contact info! I really appreciate all your help!!!

Good luck to everyone!

[Evan Bedard]

Good luck and please keep us posted!

[georgiaraf]

FYI---Finally received modification approval with ING. I was approved for an interest rate of 4.24% as opposed to the 6.25% I had, reducing the monthly payments from $1,282.66 to $870.16 p/month for only 18 months time.

They say they won't approve anything for a longer time period b/c they are not participating in the Obama bail-out and are therefore, not required to make any modifications at all.

The payment reductions helps significantly...I'm just concerned that 18mos is not enough time to dig out of all this arrears/debt from the reduction in income in less than 2yrs time and of course, with all the late payments and how this has damaged my credit, clearly there'd be no option of refinancing in 18 mos time". In the time being, I'm grateful for anything I could get and will hope to pay down the credit card and property assessment and taxes with arrears which have accumulated over these months.

The company that put me into the loan did however "claim" that ING has been adjusting mortgage rates to the current APR percentage for 5-7yrs with the fee of one month's mortgage payment, however, no one at ING supposedly has heard of this, so I fear this is something the mortgage broker is saying merely as a relief of conscience regarding the situation.

Would still love to hear any other folk's experience with ING in the meanwhile. Thank you all so very much for all your wisdom and support!

[MALIZNA]

I have to agree they are horrible to work with as well. They don't return calls, and I consider them useless. ..... Good luck to anyone who has to deal with them

[davephx]

They are based in the Netherlands and got a Dutch bailout. But since not (and could not) get TARP funds, since not U.S. they have no obligation to participate in HAMP.

Sadly we are at their mercy. On the other hand they I believe are also the investor on all their loans so unlike U.S. servicers they have a bigger stake in avoiding foreclosures.

[kitster100]

I have a loan with them, but have been unemployed for several months and my "lifeboat" of savings is running low. I'm thinking of applying for assistance in reducing my payment. I am NOT underwater and paying an interest rate of 4.75%. Can anyone clue me in as to what to expect from ING Direct? Many thanks. This forum is just what I have been looking for.

[red-circles]

I have attempted to work with ING Direct, trying to get a loan modification from them since last spring.

Last spring it took over 2 months of of waiting and followups on my part until the day I called and my loan-officer picked up the phone and said, "Oh, yeah, uh -- we denied you, sorry about that". No followup questions, no alerts, no explanation -- nothing, just denied just like that.

As a self-employed individual, my situation continued to worsen over the summer and I realized the sheer necessity of me trying to work with them again to do everything I could to reduce my payments, even if only temporarily. In my first phone call to them in my 2nd attempt back in November, I was met with a simple, "Sorry, we already rejected you." -- and I had to quickly explain that I was rejected because the first fellow didn't understand my numbers and how my business and me are 2 entities yet the same thing at the same time.

ING Direct finally (and relunctantly) consented to re-review my loan renegotiation situation

Just like one of the commenters above, I am currently working with Nancy Larsen at ING Direct. I would go further than that commenter and say she is beyond unhelpful. She was completely unresponsive for 2 months and only after I began calling and leaving voicemails every single day did she begin actually looking at my paperwork.

This past week she has been calling me in the middle of the day with questions such as, "I'm looking at a bank statement of yours from September -- is the deposit made on the 14th income? Or what is that?" and "I'm calling because I see a bank transfer here in October so can you tell me what that is?" I'm have no idea how she expects me to answer questions like these when she calls up out of the blue and I'm in the middle of work with no warning and no documentation in front of me.

Nancy Larsen has been rude, intimidating, and uncaring during every single communication. Half of the time when I begin explaining or answering her questions she abruptly cuts me off and refuses to let me finish. Even worse, she has no patience for actually understanding my situation--she simply wants exact answers to questions that don't relate to a self-employed person. Speaking on the phone with her is an extremely unpleasant, extremely draining experience.

The root problem causing many of my difficulties with ING Direct is the fact that I am self-employed; ING simply wants information presented as if I get a paycheck every 2 weeks and as if my income is the same from month to month.

When I try to explain my not-your-average-employee situation, I am met with "This is too complicated for me to understand so I need you to send me an email with an explanation written out in 2 sentences so I can get it". If my situation were that simple I would have already explained it in a simple fashion. But it's not and ING Direct/Nancy have zero patience/tolerance for situations that don't fit neatly into their spreadsheets.

I spent *weeks* preparing my financial information and documentation for ING in the most clear, organized manner possible. I had an outside loan counselor review my documents who stated "It can't get any clearer than that -- send everything in to them." I reviewed every bank statement from 2009, organized details into spreadsheets, provided explanations on how being self-employed means there is no income consistency from month to month, etc. Despite all of these extremely-time consuming efforts on my end, ING is now phoning me after 2 months of non-responsiveness, asking me basic questions to which I already provided clear answers on their 1-page income sheet.

Only yesterday I was being asked how much I expected to make moving forward over the next 6 or so months so they could plug in that one number into their equation to see if I qualify. As if I could see into the future and know how much my company is going to make each month for the next half year!!

Lastly, unlike the vast majority of all other mortgage companies, ING bans you from having an attorney, family member, loan counselor or anyone else from being on the phone with you during your conversations with them. I truly believe this is so that they can try to catch you in a corner without having any outside assistance. In fact, my loan counselor said he had never heard of another mortgage company refusing to let a loan counselor be on the line during conversations.

If you are considering trying to work with ING Direct to try and renegotiate your loan, I have 3 simple pieces of advice for you:

1. Do everything you can to *not* get Nancy Larsen as your contact point
2. Prepare yourself for some unpleasant phone calls with terse responses
3. Do everything you can to organize your information as succinctly as possible and write it out as if you were preparing it for a 4th grader -- any complexity in your information will only decrease their patience with your situation and reduce the likelihood of them being able to understand whether you truly qualify or not.

Good luck!!!!

[kitster100]

I was afraid of that. From all the feedback on this site, it sounds like just skipping payments and making them respond to you is the best way to get their attention, unfortunately. Thanks again.

[kitster100]

Well, today's news regarding new rules which push lenders to seek solutions for stressed out homeowners was pretty encouraging. However, it's already been stated here that ING Direct, as a HAMP non-participant, does not have to work with their homeowners and the government. So will today's news change anything?

[justheassistant]

I have my own ING Direct/Nancy Larsen Saga. I dont know if it will bring any resolution but after months of her incompetence,I sent the following to every email address I could get my hands on in her upline.

Dear ING board members and supervisors,

I believe the situation described below is about to cost ING Direct well over $150,000 in loss. I know that is a small amount when your entire portfolio is considered, but if my experience with your representatives is reflective of the level of training and comprehension all of your negotiators have, I am certain you are losing millions of dollars each month, and that it could be avoided.

I know you are all busy people, and I will try to make my point quickly. For nearly a year, I have been working with a client to complete a short sale where ING Direct is the first lien holder. I work on one of the top teams in the Puget Sound Region of Washington State, and we have a lot of experience with this process. We have successfully closed short sales with dozens of lenders the last few years. Although we represent the seller, we ultimately- in many ways- also represent ING Direct, in that we end up negotiating with the buyer’s agent to bring the price up to the highest reasonable level.

It’s been my experience and understanding that lending institutions all view foreclosure as the worst possible outcome when dealing with a distressed property. Aside from the legal costs of foreclosure, the maintenance and repair costs and the unfortunate fact that REO properties sell for significantly less than “normal” sales- there’s the fact that it also brings down the value of other homes in the neighborhood- leading to still more borrowers defaulting.

At this point, it’s somewhat useless to point fingers and try to blame someone for the current crisis. Buyers should have known what they were getting into, lenders should have never loaned many of these folks the amount they did…it’s all moot, because we all have to recover together.

It’s for the above reasons that I am compelled to bring this file to your attention.

Our mutual client is a Federal Judge. In March of 2008, he was negotiating for a job in the private sector, and it was nearly finalized when he purchased the property for $1,850,000 which is now in default. The home he purchased is located in an exclusive enclave of high end homes that were part of the “Street of Dreams”. His contract fell though, and unable to support the house payments, he rented the house out on a lease purchase agreement to an acquaintance who promised to “make improvements” on the property until he could re-sell the home. At that time, he had total liens on the property in the amount of $1,572,500, and he had an independent appraisal in hand showing this home was worth $1,850,000. Although he was not happy with the debt load, he felt he had the equity available to support a sale.

As an aside, there are two red flags regarding the history of this file that have come to my attention in the last 48 hours. For one, Mr CLIENT actually demanded that the escrow company NOT allow this loan to fund on the day it closed because the papers available for him to sign did not match the terms he had previously agreed to. I have copies of that letter. In addition, there is strong evidence that ING should have rights to full recovery of any deficiency on this file from the company that originated it- Countrywide/BAC due to either inadequate underwriting or outright fraud. Please let me know if you would like more information on this matter.

The renter began to default almost immediately on his monthly payments, and the “work” he completed on the interior was not of the quality one would expect in a home of this caliber. In many instances, what would be considered “apartment grade” products were used- effectively decreasing the value of the property even more. After several month of non-payment,. Mr. CLIENT was able to get the home vacated and was able to lease it to another family of means that expressed an interest in a lease purchase as well. This time, Mr. CLIENT did his due diligence, got references and even collects first and final month’s rent from the tenant. Unfortunately, that tenants car dealerships began to experience financial distress and he too has been irregular in any rent payments to Mr. CLIENT. In fact, we are currently in the middle of a messy eviction with this tenant. He has made it extraordinarily difficult for anyone to show the house as we have tried to market it.

Last Spring, after Mr. CLIENT realized he could not support this mortgage any longer, we did a comprehensive market analysis on the property to determine value. It’s a difficult property to value, as there are only 17 homes in the enclave and only 2 (My CLIENT’s included) had changed hands in several years. In fact, most owners are original with very little still owing on their homes. We began marketing the property at 1.2 million, and gathering information for a short sale. After a half dozen showings, the comments were all the same- there is a lot of deferred maintenance, the flooring needs to be completely replaced (over 5000 square feet) etc. It was clear that there was no way we were going to get anywhere close to $1.2.

Around this time, ING Direct did their own appraisal, and it’s my understanding that it came in around one million. That is when I started working with Nancy Larsen, your negotiator. From the first correspondence between her and I, her tone has been less than civil. I am aware that the experience level of the reps I talk with in loss mitigation can vary, so at first I truly tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. I expressed to her that the only offers we had received were in the low $900k range. She encouraged me to go ahead and submit the offers we had. I submitted the offer ($925k) along with that buyers independent appraisal, a bid for the necessary roof replacement in the amount of $75k and documentation regarding the costs detailed on the HUD1 statement- past due taxes, HOA liens etc.

This is the point where most negotiators come back with a price they are willing to accept- a traditional counter offer- based on their own valuations and estimate of costs they will incur. Nancy did not do that. Instead she gave me a list of items that she wanted changed on the HUD. I took it as a counter offer, to some degree and responded to her questions. The main points were that ING direct would pay liens that weren’t on title, and she let me know the commission would be a max of $35,000 to be split between both agents. I let her know that both liens were on title (supplied her with a copy of the title) and asked if ING would negotiate on commissions, as we were under contract to pay the Buyers agent $23,100.

She responded with this:

“Since you express concern for how much ING will be losing on this transaction, it would seem that you would understand that we need to keep our costs down for a short sale as we are the ones losing money on this and not you.”

Realizing she had taken my question in an adversarial way, I responded with the following:

It was not my intent to be insulting. I realize you deal with a lot of these and everyone has a reason to want things ‘their way’. I am personally astounded at the loss on this file. Since neither you nor I are responsible for the price this was financed at, I think we are on the same team. I work for XXXXXXXX, and she is one of the few agents willing to actually do her homework before promising a homeowner she can complete a short sale on their property. Many agents are not willing to effectively work on these files because of the reduced commissions. XXXXX is very ethical, and feels that even on files where she takes a loss, short sales are still a better option than a foreclosure for all parties involved. Anyway, although I understand it doesn’t make a difference, the point I was trying to make was that if this deal falls apart because we can’t bring a commission to the table to satisfy the BUYERS agent, the losses would escalate for everyone.

Out of curiosity- in case we do future short sales with ING, is the cap always $35k, or is it based on the sale price. Would a 400k property be able to get a 5 or 6% commission? That will help in knowing what to commit to for the buyer’s agent in the future.

Her response to me?

.


I don’t negotiate with realtor assistants. I have over 100 files in my pipeline and need to have 1 person to negotiate with.


After letting her know that I was a licensed broker, and had 3rd party authorization from the seller, and that I was the one she should be speaking with, she sent me the following:

If she is too busy to negotiate with me, then I will terminate mitigation on the file.

Realizing this had now escalated, I called her directly, and she hung up on me when I told her who I was. I called back, and asked for her supervisor, but was connected directly to her again. I asked to please hear me out and let her know I was capable and could get her whatever she needed on this file. She asked me to get a lien release for the second (BECU) in the amount of $5,000. I told her that I could not get that until I had an approved price from her and she told me “Then we will just foreclose!” I tried not to laugh at the ridiculous nature of that comment and explain that I can never get approval from the second unless I have approval on the first. She hung up on me again.

I called BECU and explained the difficulties I was having with ING Direct. The loss mitigation team there has done their own BPO and determined that since ING was going to be shorted no matter what, they would give me an email stating that they would take $3000 on this file. FYI- $3,000 was the number I started with, although Nancy had said to give them $5k. I received the email indicating their acceptance of the terms and forwarded that to her. At that point, she asked me for the updated HUD and financials.

After we provided those, Nancy came back again with the following requests (her questions in blue, my answers are in red):

Line 407: county taxes $2085.45 needs to be removed. We as the seller won’t pay taxes on a property that we no longer own. This is for 1st ½ 2010 that run from 1/1/2010 to 7/1/2010 ~ line 1304 $6088.10. ING is receiving a credit on line #407 for 4/30 to 7/1 in the amount above.
Line 508 Seller Paid Owners & Tax, $1969.91, what is this fee? Since the new HUD came out in January the buyer is charged for the Owner’s Coverage which normally is a buyers cost. (Based on what the majority of the US charges). In Washington this fee is paid for by the seller so we have to show the buyer paying for it and then a credit back to the buyer on the 1st page.
Line 513, HOA dues, $146.71, this is not on title. Buyer needs to pay or it needs to be removed There is delinquent HOA dues that we are paying but that is for 2009. 2010 will also be due and owing so they need to pay from 1/1/2010 to closing.
Line 1206, Excise tax $16470.00. If this is a property tax, I need the bill. Excise tax is the Transfer Tax that the county charges on all sales.. 1.78% of the sales price
Line 1302 property taxes $24,414.72, I need the title run to show this is the actual amount..See attached
Line 1303 HOA dues $2985.48, HOA fee on title is $1107.00, this will be the amount ING will pay. That is the amount of the lien when it was filed 10/10/08. It continues to accrue every month. The new amount would cover all of 2009 plus delinquency.
Line 1304 $6088.10 property tax. I need the title to show this amount. **I have attached this with the delinquent taxes for 2008 and 2009.


By this time it was clear that Nancy did not understand how an amount showing on title when a lien is filed could have increased and continued to accrue, as this was literally the 6th time I had explained it. After my explanation she responded with:

With the amount of delinquent taxes, plus HOA fees due and those projected, plus the borrower unwilling to bring in any money to offset our losses, our best option is to foreclose on the property.

A foreclosure date has been set.

No counter offer- just “we are going to foreclose”. I sent her the following:

Nancy,

Does that mean that ING is unwilling to counter at a higher price? We have already prepared the buyer for this possibility.

Her response:

If you get an offer for a higher price then send over a copy of the contract and the HUD and we can take a look at it. As it stands, the short sale is declined and we are going to FC.

I responded with:

Nancy,

If the offer is raised enough to cover the $50k plus in past due taxes, HOA etc, would that be adequate? I just need a price to start with for the other agent. This is the same position we were in before. If ING sets a price they will consider (not guarantee) I can tell the buyer’s agent that.

I am looking for something in the million dollar range. ING direct is looking at charging off over $500,000 on this short sale. I need something stronger. We have a foreclosure date set in the very near future and I need a stronger deal to make this short sale go through.

So I went back to the buyer’s agent and told him we needed an offer for at least $985k, which was $60k higher than the previous offer and a full $10,000 over the amount she said was killing the deal previously.

I sent her this:

I spoke with the buyer’s agent, and his client is willing to come up in price. He would prefer to add the fees onto his offer, rather than paying directly up front. However, I confirmed with hiom that if the appraisal does not come in at the higher price those fees would be paid by the buyer at escrow.

I will send you a new HUD reflecting that and if you can submit that, I will have the seller sign on it.

That was not adequate for her. She actually required that I get the entire offer written and signed at the price she was now calling a counter. I did *exactly* what she asked. Got the higher price, and emailed her the contract to the same email address I had been corresponding with for months. (nlarsen@ingdirect.com) I received the following response:

I will not be reviewing any documents sent to my personal e-mail.
Please re-send to HOMERETENTION@INGDIRECT.COM

So of course, I resent the offer and documentation. She asked for the MLS listing, and a copy of the earnest money check. Which I provided. I also let her know that we had received a second offer on the property for (75k, and that with two offers we could probably get one to bring the price up even higher- *if she would let me know how to counter* she asked me for a HUD again and I asked her why we were doing a HUD on a $975 offer, if we had one at $985k. I wanted to know if she wanted us to counter on price first. She responded with this:


I need all documents for each offer. Do I really need to spell it out?


Knowing that I would never get her Nancy to understand I was trying to bring more funds to the table for ING Direct, I let the second offer die and focused on the original. On 4/21/10 I believe she had everything she needed and had requested for the file. On 5/4 I still had not heard from her, so I requested an update.

The short sale for the above referenced property is declined.
My manager will consider re-considering only if the borrower brings in $40,000 toward the amount we are charging off.

After two weeks, this was the response, after meeting (and going beyond) what she had asked us to obtain. So I asked her if the borrower had to bring it in, or if we could counter the buyer again (at the very LEAST, if I know a price ING Direct will accept, I can market the property at that price!) here is how she answered me:

I thought you said that the buyer would only pay $985,000? It is odd that they now are willing to come in with an additional $40,000.

I sent her this response:

I am not promising that the buyer can do this. You have not given me a solid number- ever- to go back to the buyer with as a counter. Without an approved price, I can’t give an answer to this buyer or any of the other buyers who have expressed interest. We have acted in good faith, relying on your suggestions in communicating with the buyer’s agent. This buyer has spend hundreds of dollars on an appraisal already and is prepared to take on the cost of replacing a roof for $75,000. As the member of a team that has successfully completed dozens of these short sales, we think the current offer is representative of market value, but that doesn’t mean we can’t counter higher. We do not represent the buyer and cannot guess what his upper limit truly is….

I went on to reiterate the history on this file and she let me know she had forwarded my email to her manager- who I was sincerely hoping to hear from. This morning, I received the following from Nancy:

I submitted the short sale for review yesterday. The credit committed declined the current offer of $985,000 from the buyer, no money from the seller and no release letter from the second lien holder other than an e-mail.I reviewed with them what our bottom line will be and they are requiring the offer from the buyer to be $1,000,000.00, which is the current value, the seller coming in with $20,000 cash to the close or a $40,000 soft note and written proof that the second lien holder accepts a payoff of $3,000.00 from the proceeds.

So once again, she is asking me to go back to the buyer’s agent without ever promising this offer will be taken. We have a serious buyer with the funds to close this and he is going to get frustrated and walk as this is the 4th time ING has changed prices on him. Had she given me the million dollar price starting out, I could have had offers competing in the millions. In addition, requiring a seller deficiency on a first mortgage in a state that doesn’t allow deficiency in case of foreclosure is unheard of. I asked her if the buyer could cover the additional $20k, assuming he was willing to (he is not) . Her response today after my repeated requests for clarification:

1) $40,000 promissory note at 0% interest for 7 years is a payment of $476.20/mo. This is not possible for the seller, he offered $100 per month, and that was denied.
2) The seller must contribute on any offer short of a full payoff. However, if you are able to get the buyer up to $1,020,000, you should be doing that to present us the highest and best offer.
3) The foreclosure date has been set. If you cannot provide the items I need to present this to the credit committee by tomorrow, you will not have enough time to close before the foreclosure.

I am frankly at the end of my very patient rope with Ms. Larsen. She consistently threatens foreclosure to the point that it’s obviously meant to be a scare tactic. She has made more than a few comments about the character of the borrower, something that is completely inappropriate. I have not yet passed on her emails to the seller, as I hoped to close this without him realizing how negative the experience has been. The above exchanges are a small sample. I have dozens of her emails and it’s clear she is disdainful towards the seller and either all realtors, or at least our team. Although the financial crisis has been hard on businesses and individuals alike, the individuals DESERVE dignity, even when things are difficult. She is in NO WAY working for the best financial interest of ING. The above exchanges are a small sample of the negativity and condescension I have dealt with. According to her, she has 90 files open at one time. If situations like what I have encountered only make up 10% of her workload, she could easily be costing you over a million dollars a month. I don’t know how many negotiators you have, or how many distressed properties you are mitigating, but the problem get exponentially worse when you multiply it. I have a hard time believe that is the stance of the entire ING Direct loss mitigation/home retention department, but perhaps I am wrong. If this is standard, I think it’s vital that you know this is costing you and your shareholders A LOT of money in many, many areas.

This file has a clearly established market value, and an obvious hardship. There is no sound business reason to choose foreclosure. I am certain Mr. CLIENT will commence litigation immediately if his short sale is denied, because there is ample documentation that it simply should have been approved. The current offer is at or above NON-DISTRESSED property value. He cannot be required to sign a note, or bring in cash he does not have,

PLEASE- one of you must have the authority to view this file, approve this hardship and approve this at the very fair $985k price the buyer is willing to pay. The net to ING on that is $894k. If you foreclose, and are fortunate enough to sell this home as an REO for $925-$950, you will still be out all the HOA fees, back taxes and commissions to a new set of realtors. However, the likely REO sale price would be $849k, hence my assertion that this is about to cost ING direct $150k+


I will let you know what happens!

[Riverside resident]

I am also in a similar situation with ING Direct. Does anyone can help share any information regarding a Short sale with ING Direct? Any information/forms would help. Appreciate it. Thanks

[kitster100]

Since my last post in January, I am still under-employed.


I have a loan with ING Direct and my "lifeboat" of savings is now running really low. My unemployment benefits have expired, and am (I'm told by the Unemployment Agency) not eligible for the recently passed extension. I'm thinking of applying for assistance to ING Direct in reducing my payment. I am NOT underwater and paying an interest rate of 4.75%. However, with only a token income from two part time jobs, there is no way I can make my payment. I have applied to over 100 places for full-time work. I got ONE interview, and many emailed messages saying: "Sorry, this job has been cancelled, eliminated, etc". Can anyone clue me in as to what to expect from ING Direct? I've got to contact them soon. From what I'm reading, they are awful to deal with.
Many thanks in advance for any advice you can share. This forum is just what I have been looking for.

[NorCalAl]

Please let me know what happened. I am dealing with her now!

[kitster100]

I am dealing with ING now directly. They, like other banks are playing the game of requesting the same info over & over, but otherwise I can't complain (yet). Fortunately, I DON'T have Nancy Lawson as my contact. I gave them a number for a payment that I need my mortgage modified to. No appoval on that, yet. We'll see how it goes. By the way, for any readers of this forum, if things really go south for you with ING then you should know that their federal regulator is the OTS (Office of Thrift Supervision).

[atulca]

I am dealing with ING now directly. They, like other banks are playing the game of requesting the same info over & over, but otherwise I can't complain (yet). Fortunately, I DON'T have Nancy Lawson as my contact. I gave them a number for a payment that I need my mortgage modified to. No appoval on that, yet. We'll see how it goes. By the way, for any readers of this forum, if things really go south for you with ING then you should know that their federal regulator is the OTS (Office of Thrift Supervision).

Any updates on this? I lost my employment two months back and ING denied my loan modification request. How should I proceed as today they called and said that they are starting foreclosure process.
thanks in advance

[kitster100]

Yes. I have received a Demand Letter. AND they want a financial statement (again). As for you, have you sought assistance from a non-profit housing counselor agency? Or, at this point perhaps your best bet would be to contact a lawyer. Show him all your loan documents and correspondence. At the very least he may be able to buy you some time at the hearing. Maybe.

[kitster100]

ING Direct, despite their attempt to project a friendly image in their advertising, is very unhelpful to in-trouble borrowers. To start, they only allow a 30 day period to try and work things out with you. There is no give and take, it's their way or the highway. In my case, I attempted to get my payment reduced by only a few hundred dollars a month, because I felt that, with this very slight reduction, I could keep my payments up. They said no. My reps' excuse was that since I had a 3.75 % loan, my interest rate at the new payment would be too low! The rep then said that they pay about the same amount for money that I was being charged, which is of course, absolutely untrue. The fact is, the Dutch government enriched ING with a huge bailout of over THIRTEEN BILLION DOLLARS, with NO interest. When I reminded my ING "Home Retention" (a mis-naming of a department if there ever was one) rep of this, they hung up on me.

Also, Reuters reported on ING sending a letter to a firm in Arizona that was trying to arrange purchase rentbacks of homes to owners. Well, ING Direct's view was that actually keeping homeowners in their homes was the most ridiculous thing in the world, even if it meant that they would lose less than if they foreclosed. ING notified this firm that they would no longer work with them. The article said:

In a letter to American homeowner Preservation, ING said: “ING DIRECT will also be adding your company to our exclusionary list as your company strictly finds investors to keep sellers in their home, while the bank takes a significant loss. This is against ING DIRECT’s short sale policies and guidelines, and as such you will no longer be able to work on this short sale file or any future ING DIRECT accounts,”
Adam Agostinelli of ING Direct Retail Asset Management advised in an email to AHP.

The Reuters writer was so appalled at ING's actions that he titled his article: "Vindictive Servicer of the Day: ING Direct". (search on same term at reuters.com). Mr. Agostinelli, your stance on AHPs' efforts is so outrageous, I would not be surprised to see a "60 Minutes" reporter asking to interview you, soon.

So, if you have an ING mortgage and need to negotiate with the big orange ball, be forewarned, they are not your friend. Their orange ball will turn black and try to squash you.

[leenk]

I have been trying to get a loan mod with Ing Direct for a year and only get the run around. Their supposed loan mod, offered 6 months ago, required $2500 to their lawyers, $3500 to my lawyer, who they REALLY didnt want to work with, said they don't work with lawyers,*wonder*why??*(btw don't recommend You Walk Away, just another predator trying to take advantage of us) interest*only for 18 months *which at the end puts me at an even higher interest rate because it's the end of my 5/1 arm, and all months and late fees added to the back end of the loan. It would cost more for the loan mod than if I had been paying all along and if I could have paid it, believe me I would have. After the 18 months I'd have higher principle and interest rate. Six months prior to my first late payment I tried to refinance to their easy loan for less interest and they sent an inexperienced*appraiser who low balled me by a lot so I didn't qualify. And even though I paid for the appraisal I couldn't receive a copy!! Since then they only give the run around. They have extremely inexperienced people reading standard answers to any question or suggestion or request saying either we can't afford the house so we should let it go, would have liked to have known that 5 years ago before putting down $120,000, where were the underwriters?? Or pay my back taxes and they'll reconsider us, don't believe that, or the offer still stands 12 months now, which as time goes by makes my principle go up and up as well as late fees. With everything I've read I'm convinced that they want me to fail. There is no reasonable solution offered. And from what I've read ING Direct (servicer for ING) *makes quite a profit from my house getting money from *ING for foreclosures rather than to modify a loan, tacking on late fees etc (check *out Vindictive Banker of the Day article Vindictive servicer of the day: ING Direct | Felix Salmon *) Why we aren't we all storming the White House is beyond my comprehension. I think we're all just zombified by all this. They set an auction date and it's traumatizing. Btw, most banks are bidding on their own homes if they think the house has value. *

[leenk]

It dawned on me that I'm the only one that can't get my house for less. They'd rather get a lower price for the house at auction because they either took insurance out on the house, some say knowing this would happen, and getting the difference paid to them with no cost to them, Or their servicers benefit more from foreclosure because of added lawyer fees, late fees and other expenses, or they bid on their own houses to sell for more profit if they see future value. Maybe that's why they offered teaser rates with arms, took out insurance and wont work with the homeowner to help keep them in their homes until this blows over. No sweat off their backs, no loss to them, but in most cases, profit.

[kitster100]

I hear that ING is on a mad push to try and clean up their loan portfolio before Capital One takes over. So if you are working with them, GET A LAWYER. Also, ING Mortgage is DROWNING in paperwork. For example, when speaking to them, if you refer to a document, letter, or form you submitted, nine times out of ten they can't locate it. Oh, and the excuses will flow. For example, they'll tell you: "Uh, well, it hasn't been entered in to our system yet", or something similar. However, weeks may have past since they received it. This even applies to correspondence sent by certified mail.

[woodwell]

What should I do? My refi was done 2007 by NBGI, Inc. Does anyone know about NBGI? Were their loans handled improperly? Then, Countrywide, then again BOA. I had a letter from ING as of 2/1/2011 saying that ING took over the loan from BOA. Meantime, I was forced to file a personal bankruptcy. When ING called me for the payments, I told them I was in the bankruptcy process. They said they would discuss the modification once I had the court clearance. I am out of the bankruptcy now. I am 16 months behind. I hear ING is easier to get the loan mod because they are much more flexible than HAMP bound banks. Is that true?

[LoanModHelpCenter.com]

My experience with ING Direct and modifications over the past 3-4 yrs has been they are all based on their original terms 3-5-7 yr terms. I’ve never seen longer terms and the rates down to low to mid 4% rate.
ING Direct doesn’t do 30 yr fixed rate mortgages.

[woodwell]

Dave, Thanks for the info. ING has not contacted me for 3 months. I wonder what's going on. Maybe, ING won't do anything until they complete the sale to Capital One by the end of year. HAMP does not approve the income unless it shows on Tax Returns. I wonder ING would consider my children's consistent monetery help to me as income source for the loan mod. Please advise.

[LoanModHelpCenter.com]

Woodwell , They may be stalling ? Have you done a call to them? Hamp guidelines use current income documentation when there is a discrepancy between tax returns and current income.>>
Are your children living with you? If so yes. >>
>>

[meljaydlc]

Can anyone here tell me how long it took ING from the first missed payment to begin the Foreclosure process? We too have tried and failed at getting any kind of modification from ING. Sadly with it being an ARM, we simply cannot afford to stay any longer and are insanely underwater. (we are now 2 months late on payments.) Our best option is to just walk away since we have been told we don't qualify for a short sale having an 80/20 (ING/Citi). We already have a new place to live and just want to give this condo back and be done with the bad investment. Any advice on the length of this process would be greatly appreciated.

[kitster100]

To all who are trying to deal with ING Direct: their "Home Retention" Dept. (I know, the irony of the Dept's. name is palpable) is groaning under the weight of their workload. Their document systems, their phone system, (and perhaps other systems) are giving the staff constant problems. Recently, while On the phone with one of their supervisors, not knowing that I was NOT on hold, told another staffer that their "phone system is screwing up again".
ING tries to portray a friendly image, but really, they are a miniature version of B of A, Wells Fargo, and all the other bad actors of the financial world.

[LoanModHelpCenter.com]

Don't apply to ING direct without first knowing if you would qualify at 3% and 360 month term. ING cares more about freeing up monthly homeowner cash flow from reducing mortgage payments than trying to follow HAMP guidelines or HAMP type modifications. They do not participate in HAMP, and don't go below 3% and 360 month amortization, and don't give you a fixed rate more than 5 years at most.

[hawks]

Have had 2 loan modifications with ING in the last 3 years. After reading on here-I'm shocked that I was able to get these through. Now, however, we are at a crossroads of being severely underwater and not able to pay our property taxes. If we stop paying our mortgage-we can pay down our other debt. I would like to be able to stay in the house for one more year to get our daughter out of high school. Happy to do a short sale but after reading people's experiences with ING-sounds like that is not very likely. We have not missed any payments but are considering stopping next month. How long will foreclosure take? Do we need an attorney? Would love some free counseling but every site seems to be connected to debt consolidation buzzards.We are in Illinois.

[Cat Damiano]

hawks,


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

You can get free counseling in your area through HUD, they can also help you with other options to avoid foreclosure;

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

Depending on the court schedule, it usually takes approximately 215 days to effectuate an uncontested foreclosure. This process may be delayed if the borrower contests the action, seeks delays and adjournments of hearings, or files for bankruptcy. Property owners have a right to reinstate a defaulted mortgage within ninety (90) days of the personal service of the foreclosure complaint. Property owners have thirty (30) days after the foreclosure sale is confirmed to retain possession and occupancy of the property at the expiration of which they must vacate.

Illinois Foreclosure Laws - Foreclosure.com