Posted on 10/13/2010 1:17:11 PM PDT by Fred
The new, 49-state investigation into foreclosure frauds comes as no surprise to people who follow the mortgage service business. Shoddy, deceptive paperwork has plagued homewowners for years. In the industry’s slimy underside, firms push borrowers into default and foreclosure, even when they’ve been making payments on time.
Their business model makes defaults profitable, says Marie McConnell who has been auditing mortgages for 24 years. The ugly chain of deception starts with the way the servicers handle your escrow account.
A mortgage service company collects your monthly payments, deducts a fee, and passes the remainder to the investors who own the loan. The majority of the servicing is done by big banks, such as JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. Your payments usually include a sum for property taxes and homeowners insurance premiums, which goes into an escrow account. The servicer uses that account to pay the taxes and premiums as they come due.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneywatch.bnet.com ...
or servicers have to have complete and unfettered compromise authority and without that authority they can not file the forclosure.
AND
for mortgages specifically, original promissory notes. NO e-copies.
There just is no simple way to keep the banks from failing or defraunding you.
I had an issue once where my health insurance was cancelled because Blue Cross posted both my wife and my payments to her accout.
Thereby creating a huge windfall of overpayments for Blue Cross to use.
Repeated telephone efforts to get it staightened out were repeatedly met met with assurances from Blue Cross service representatives that the the payments had been reposted, all was fine, you worry too much, trust us, blah blah blah.
Naturally we did not record these calls, but you know Blue Cross possibly did.
When I went to the hospital however the hospital was informed by Blue Cross that my insurance had lapsed for non payment many months previously.
As Blue Cross now found themselves exposed to a lawsuit they simply denied everything, all the calls etc and claimed that both the payments had been properly posted to my wifes account at our instructions. The payments were made individually every moth using US Banks bill pay system, BUT according to US Bank we were responsibleto make actual hard copy captures of each computer transaction.
US Bank refused to provide us with any records showing these tranactions, only that X $ went to Blue Cross on X day.
I am personally satisfied that even had we made and saved copies of each transaction at the instant it was done, Blue Cross would have stonewalled because they evidently have no real legal oversight.
I am also personally satisfied that US Bank could and would have provided Blue Cross with the evidence they denied me had it been in Blue Crooes interest.
You can’t keep it simple enough to protect yourself from these industries.
They are essentially criminal enterprises.
How Y’all liken Kentucky so far?
Chris Whalen's Terrifying Presentation On The 2011 Foreclosure Crisis
For all you "blame the poor defrauded 'deadbeat home buyer" . . . It is going to get very ugly out there in reality village. Banks, mortgage lenders and Wall Street giants are going to go BK. "Good riddance," I say, and "Put that in your 'Too Big to Fail' Pipes and breathe deeply."
'Nuff said by me here on FR.
And the American taxpayer is the chump holding the 6 TRILLION DOLLAR bill for freddie/fannie/fha...free market..NOTTT
The left wing media seems to be trying to spin the mortgage default crisis into a “evil, crooked banks are stealing homes from innocent homeowners, who have never missed a payment crisis”.
The banks have screwed up royally, first by making these loans and second with shoddy paperwork and the consequences could become even more devastating than they already are, both the banks and the housing market. However, in 99.999 of cases banks are NOT trying to snatch homes that they (or perhaps, technically, some other lender in the chain who didn't properly transfer title) are not entitled to foreclose on.
In over 99% of foreclosures, people are losing their homes because they did not pay the mortgage.
It's all about solvency, not liquidity, just as it was two years ago.
how about banks which put in “forced place” insurance and that disqualifies the home owner from modification.
Next year will be hell on many financial levels.
Never ever have a direct payment. Always check the bills and statements.
And never ever use Wells Fargo. They don't check signatures. I became president of our kids' afterschool activity program so went to Wells Fargo to get new signature cards, change addresses, and the usual making sure everything was up to date. I'd already heard that the previous president (who had died) couldn't get new signature cards and continued writing checks and sure enough, they hadn't changed any names since the account had been opened many years before. Then they started hassling me and wanting my social, the bank that held my mortgage (ha, didn't have a mortgage - don't believe you so bring in the deed - I don't think so), my cars and the title holders (ha, didn't owe on them either and don't even ask for the title), and on down the list of personal info that had nothing whatsoever to do with the account. Then they demanded the ex-president come in - uh, hello, you know she died and half of you went to the funeral! Nope, didn't matter, they still insisted she come in. Needless to say, after a few minutes of this crap I told them to just close the account. They refused. I walked over to the teller's window and wrote a check for the entire amount and signed my name. The idiots cashed it.
Regarding the other stuff, it's why I like it simple. You can't guarantee things will go smoothly, but you can reduce the risk of screw ups. It's all about mitigating risk. I did learn to record transaction numbers though.
Speaking of insurance, I'm about to drop my health insurance and go with a $10,000 deductible package, btw.
And if they don't have that 20% some other fee is attached. Bottom line, don't buy until you have the 20%, pay your own taxes and insurance, and get the loan for as short a period as possible so they have less of a change to mess you over.
See my #29 below on Wells Fargo. I will NEVER do business with them.
The problem with waiting until you have 20%....if everyone did that, man, talk about a housing slump.
Which reminds me, wonder why we don’t hear about the PMI paying off 10, 15 or 17% of the loan?
A lot of these problems could be avoided by doing business with a credit union.
My credit card company did that to me several times even though we were on separate accounts. Of course, they stupidly thought I wouldn't catch the added charges for non-payment on my statements.
Always make a note everytime you speak to these people. At the end, ask for their name again and how to spell it. They'll know you're keeping a record so there's less chance of them messing you over. And always make a copy of every transaction. Order checks that come with a duplicate. It's your reciept to prove payment was made.
No, that's a big part of the housing problem now. People didn't bother saving before they bought a house that was out of their price range to begin with. That's why there's such a thing as starter homes. You don't need a McMansion first time outta the gate.
True.
The problem now is people bought with ARM’s and interest only loans. Then when the rate adjusted they couldn’t afford the payment and couldn’t refinance (like they’d planned) because the house didn’t appraise. And they didn’t appraise because the price they’d paid initially was more than the house was worth BECAUSE they’d bought with ARM’s and interest only. Many of these people could have put 20% down and would still be upside down.
With that said, I agree it’s smarter to put the 20% down so you don’t have to pay PMI and can get the escrows waived. HOWEVER, there were 80/15 loans. People got two loans but only put 5% down and paid no PMI and got escrows waived. That means these loans that defaulted had no PMI to pay the bank. Plus, I’m sure these people didn’t pay their escrows either.
Then there are those who simply lost their job and can’t afford the payments. We’re definitely in a mess that’s gonna’ get worse.
Right now it’s not that easy to get a loan with good credit. BOA has bailed on the wholesale mortgage business. 3.5% does not attract many investors.
Want to get so outraged that your friends will start to fear for your sanity __ ? Read these two reports:
What Is MERS and What Role Does It Have in the Foreclosure Mess?
Naturally we did not record these calls, but you know Blue Cross possibly did.”
Insurance carriers note comments re each call on their system. You don’t need to record, but you should always make a written note of the date and time of your call, the full name of the person you spoke with and a summary of their comments. You can also log-on to BC systems now as a patient or a provider and check the status of your account. Recommend doing this at least once a month. If you have recently discussed a problem with them that needs resolution, give it 5 business days and then check the record. Repeat as necessary!
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