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The banks have brought this upon themselves.

A few weeks ago, I attempted to refinance my mortgage at BOA - and I assure you that financial qualification is *not* an issue, we have more than enough income to qualify for twice the loan amount, excellent credit, and enough liquid assets to pay off the existing loan by writing a check if we wished.

1) First, I was told that “Our system is overloaded, and we will not be accepting new refinance applications for 3-6 months.”

2) Probably, for 80-90% of callers, that would have been that.

However, in my case I have the personal and business experience to know how to get around this sort of gate-keeping, and after escalating the call up two levels of supervision, I was assigned a loan office.

3) I can’t prove that the application process was designed to discourage applicants, but it might as well have been. Typical example:

BOA: “We need copies of all pages of you MM statement, including the blank pages.”

Me: “I do not keep the blank pages, but I’ll go to the bank, and get a reprint.”

BOA: “The reprint is in a different format than the statements you FAXed in. We will need to have a copy signed by someone at the bank, or something like that.”

Me: “Or something like *what*, exactly?”

BOA: “I’ll have to check that with underwriting. Perhaps you can go on-line and print a copy...”

(I go online. First, in order to get a copy, I have to change over to electronic statements (I prefer paper statements, on which I can make notations).

I then discover that the on line statements are not in the same format as the paper statements. And so on....)

In return for all this, BOA offers me a rate of 4.75%.

So I pick up the phone and call a local Mortgage Broker recommend by a source I trust.

No problem, he can do a HARP II loan (similar to the program we are discussing) at 4.00%, and with none of the bullshit I was getting from BOA.

Now, why would BOA be making it as difficult as possible for existing credit-worthy borrowers to refinance?

I may just be a cynic, but somehow I suspect that it may have something to do with reluctance to exchange a 5.6% loan for a 4.75% loan - let alone one a 4.00%!