Trapped in Bank of America Hell

[marmar]

from BankstersUSA:



Trapped in Bank of America Hell
Submitted by Mary Bottari on December 15, 2010 - 08:28


Are you one of the lucky ones? Have a good job, live in a nice neighborhood, enjoy your cozy home? Think foreclosure only impacts the reckless or the unemployed?

Think again.

George Mahoney worked and saved and built his cozy colonial-style home in Lynnfield, Massachusetts in 1981. There, he and his wife raised three lovely daughters. For many years, the Mahoneys paid down their relatively small mortgage with their local bank -- a division of Bank of America (BofA). In 2007, they took out a second mortgage to help a daughter start a small business. Two wage earners, a great credit record -- the loan was a breeze. That was when the trouble began.

About a year after getting the second mortgage, BofA started notifying George that his payments were late. Soon they jacked his credit card interest rates from seven percent to twenty-eight percent. Next, they ruined his credit record. His Sears card dropped from a $10,000 limit to a $500 dollar limit. Then one day in the fall of 2009, BofA initiated foreclosure on the house he had built and owned for 28 years.

The only problem? The Mahoneys had never missed a single payment on either their first or second mortgage.

Initially, George thought the problem would be easy to fix. He went down to his local branch to get help, but the local employees were rebuffed by corporate headquarters. So he started getting a receipt for each mortgage payment and faxing it to BofA headquarters. He also started the first of thousands of calls. Usually, BofA staff would readily concede that he was right. But even if they initiated a “fix” it never lasted more than 90 days, when the saga would start over again. In the last few years, he has received foreclosure notices twice – most recently in October 2010.

“Banks shouldn’t be allowed to ruin people’s lives this way. My stress level for the past year and a half has been a 10 and my wife is a wreck,” George explained. His wife, Marianne, confirms the toll the trial has taken on the family. “The whole thing is a nightmare. The stress we live under is unbearable and it’s embarrassing too. No one can help us, no one can do anything and it’s ruined our credit. I have always been proud to have perfect credit,” she adds, the strain evident in her voice. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.banksterusa.org/content/trapped-bank-america-hell

[bluerum]

1. There ought to be a law against willful and wrongful destruction of your credit rating.

[ET Awful]

8. There is a law. It's called the FCRA and people would be well advised to

familiarize themselves with it.

[chervilant]

49. hmm...

Gosh, I sure wish I could believe that the humans we elect to 'govern' us and 'promote the general welfare' of our nation are truly invested in codifying laws that are just and reasonable.

But, I've read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine" and Hofstadter's "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" and LaFeber's "The American Age" and Immerman's "The CIA in Guatemala" and countless other tomes that have helped me understand that the uber wealthy have a narrow vision of the future of humanity. Their's is a narcissistic, hedonistic vision. Their laws--just and unjust--exist to grow and protect their inordinate wealth. If this means stomping on the heads of the hoi polloi, well, we lowly members of the hoi polloi are expendable. God knows, there's enough of us...

[CountAllVotes]

2. it would almost be funny

However, it isn't. Good damn luck if you happen to end up dealing with the legal affairs of someone that had accounts with these crooks. Crooks you ask?

CROOKS YES, all of them.

I was treated like a criminal when I had to deal with them. My final last words to them (c. abt. 10 years ago was "I hope you go broke"). :dunce:

:dem:

[Cal33]

27. You are right. There are too many sociopaths who are among

the ranks of the politicians and corporate executives. They are
the cause of most of the big problems not only in this country,
but also all over the world. They always have been.

The only way to have world peace is to get them out of power.
I don't see this happening any time soon - if ever. Do you?

[Larry Ogg]

37. There are too many sociopaths as well as psychopaths...

And the only way to get them out of power is for people to be educated about them.

[Cal33]

54. It's going to take a long, long time to educate so many people,

and, in addition the Repubs. already have the advantage of owning 90%
of the news media. You can bet they'll do everything against educating
the people. They'll only redouble their efforts at misinformation and
outright lies. This is what happens when sick people are in power.

[Capitalocracy]

36. Oh, they would've gone broke

But lucky for them, the good people of the U.S. of A. were more than willing to help them out during their time of need. Not that they'd do that for you. And not that we were actually willing.

[tridim]

3. I'm out of the big-bank system, forever.

I consider it the silver lining of my foreclosure.

They will never collect another penny from me, and it's their fault.

[Cal33]

28. How do you manage to get out of the banking system? Through

credit unions?

[tridim]

31. Well, I have no money right now, so it's easy..

But when I get a job I'm just going to find an established local bank, maybe a CU.

[Cal33]

34. Many thanks. And I wish you all the best, and a Merry Christmas

and a Happy New Year.

[tridim]

35. Thanks. I'm actually very happy right now.

Living with family, no multiple collection calls per day and no significant stress. :)

[Hawkeye-X]

41. I heartily recommend Bellco

They've been my parents CU for over 25 years, and now mine for the last 5 years.

The banks finally kicked me out and put a "block" on me from signing up with another bank again (via ChexSystems which I hate)

The bank needs to fail, and I don't give a *SHIT* if they are too big to fail, if they're too big, fucking break it up.

I'm tired of the M&A crap and we need stability of some sort.

And banks needs to be punished HEAVILY daily. If they get money for 0% interest then they should offer the same to us, regardless of credit.

Hawkeye-X

[tridim]

42. Is that national? I'm not in CO any more. nt

[Hawkeye-X]

48. No

In colorado... Where are u living nowadays?

[marzipanni]

57. This trend is a good one

http://moveyourmoney.info/

[democrat2thecore]

4. Disgusting. I left BofA and have happily been in a credit union for 2 years -nt

[Cal33]

29. I saw your message only after having replied to the one above

yours. Does the credit union work like a bank? Can you write checks, etc.?
Many thanks.

[Cal33]

33. Many thanks.

[avaistheone1]

39. My credit union pretty much acts like a bank.

You can write checks. And my credit union has more favorable interest rates than banks do, both on their savings accounts and on their loans.

[Cal33]

51. Thanks a lot.

[democrat2thecore]

58. Sorry. Just signed on again. Absolutely. Online banking, checks, debit cards...love it! -nt

[Cal33]

64. Many thanks. Are you also protected by the FDIC (I think that's

what it's called.)?

[gristy]

5. If he has indeed been paying on time, it would seem he could sue BofA for harrassment.

All in all, this story is pretty short on details.

[tridim]

6. Seems reasonable, but it's nearly impossible to sue giant banks.

At least that's what my lawyer said. She said their legal departments are just too powerful.

[chervilant]

50. And,

willing to devote inordinate amounts of time in court...

[SoCalDem]

7. I have been fighting with AHMSI since Feb over an early payment I made

They credited it to principal (which was not that bad), but by doing that, it allowed the escrow amount to drop below their "magical number", so they sent me a letter saying that if I did not advance them $535.00, my payments would increase for the next 12 months.. I did that immediately, and guess what? my payments still increased. I noticed too that the insurance they contracted for us, had gone up over 100%, so I went to Sate Farm and paid a full year's premium with them & canceled the insurance they had for us.. They KNOW it's prepaid, and now our escrow account it sitting at nearly $3K, and they still have never properly credited that payment.. There is NO way to talk to a person who has authority to fix anything.. I have to write to them @ their "conflict resolution" department.. I gave up after 6 tries..and am so hoping that our mortgage will get sold again..

Every letter I got from them assured me that it would be corrected, and that I was right..but nothing was ever fixed..

[skystone]

25. AHMSI

We feel your pain and have been there. They (AHMSI) repeatedly refused to credit payments to our account until they were late, then charged us late fees. No matter how many times we called and begged them to accept the electronic payments they would not do it. Even though we paid or mortgage monthly, they told us we were 2 months behind in our payments. We hired a lawyer and got it straightened out, or so we thought. Now, 2 years later, they called and told us we needed to pay late fees for 2006!! However, they refuse to send us anything in writing. And earlier this year we discovered they had canceled our insurance policy and had taken out one that was THREE times more costly than what we had. We only figured it because they increased our payments to our escrow account. We were able to fix the insurance debacle, but these people at AHMSI are so sneaky and underhanded, they try everything to screw you.
I can see us paying attorney's fees again.

[gristy]

59. I had a large amount of extra $$ sitting in my Bof A mortgage escrow for property taxes

I tried to get them to refund some of it to me so that they would have -just- enough when the property tax came due. They said no, they would not refund any of it to me. So I cancelled the escrow and they wrote me a check for the whole amount. I now pay my property taxes. I've always paid my insurance myself.

[SoCalDem]

62. AHMSI will not "allow" a "no-escrow" option..

and I cannot actually talk to a human who has any authority.. At least I am pretty sure that our payments will drop significantly this next go-round, and I will just have State Farm bill them for the damned insurance.. We plan to pay this thing off in a few years anyway.. We are paying about $2k extra every month on principal, and are paid up on monthly payments through Feb. (we decided that was a good use for the SS check my husband's been collecting since January )...mine kicks in in a few months, & we'll just add it to that.. and we can always hope they sell our damned mortgage to someone who will "do the math" and get it all straightened out..

[lovuian]

9. they are ROBBING people out of their homes

illegally and nobody is sending them to JAIL
if these people went to JAIL
this would stop the problem

[Dawson Leery]

10. Is there not to be a secret info drop on BoA next month?

[nc4bo]

11. It can't happen soon enough and I hope it has the power to send them and their

companions into oblivion.

"It" should have never have passed.

[GiveMeFreedom]

12. All I have to say is ...

FUCK BANK OF AMERICA



and I mean that from the bottom of my heart!:mad:

[lonestarnot]

13. Are these people too old to pick up a pitchfork?

[Occulus]

14. Oh, but we can.

If everyone were to halt any and all payments to all banks immediately, these fiscally immoral, inhuman monsters would vanish. The problem is that too many still see the payment of debt as an "honorable" thing.

When it's a personal debt, it is an honorable thing to pay it off. But that's person-to-person. Corporations have no honor, ethics, morality, or compassion because they are not human beings.

Fuck 'em. I'd happily get behind a national credit revolt. If we all stopped paying, they would die. Quickly.

[lonestarnot]

16. Only works if ever last customer is committed to the end.

[Occulus]

18. For that, we would need a leader.

Got one handy? Obama sure as hell wouldn't get behind it!

[jimmie]

15. Bank of america is hell.

long history with them.

[anafreeka]

40. BOA

I worked for Bank of America and I'll second that....

[Tatiana]

17. The only way this will get better is if they are sued by the government.

Whether that be the feds or (more likely) the state attorneys general in all the 50 states.

And individual doesn't have the money to sue a big bank like BOA. The big banks know this... they know the average citizen doesn't have the time, finances, or power to mount a prolonged fight. So that's what they try to do -- they try to wait you out while continuing in their fraudulent, harrassing ways. My mortgage was sold to Chase and it took me almost 6 months to get them to reverse the charges and to stop considering all my payments late. The only reason they did the about-face was because I filed a complaint against them with the IL attorney general.

The IL and CA (Lisa Madigan and Jerry Brown) AGs have truly been heros on this issue.

[dotymed]

19. No one is immune.

I, as a Union carpenter, was preparing to work the annual "shut-down" at Eli-Lilly's for about the fifth year in a role. Each time we had to have a background check. "Choice-point" reported that I was a convicted felon. I lost about $20,000 that year. Months later they contacted me (after many, many calls) and said they had made a mistake... I was still never allowed to return to an Eli Lilly's site. Not too long later, I had the first of many heart attacks. Social Security says I am not disabled. I received a "Schedule A" hiring preference from our government for federal employment (in an office setting), six years later...no job and my Union benefits have to be re-documented every six months. If I don't have a heart attack or surgery for 6 months, I lose that insurance and sub-poverty stipend that I raise my 14 y.o. son on. I used to be "middle class", now I'm "worthless." Still no Social Security benefits that I paid into for 30+ years... what a (non) life.

[oldlib]

20. The current value of my home

is considerably less then the principal balance on the mortgage with BOFA. Late last year I contacted BOFA to discuss a monthly payment reduction and they wouldn't discuss it. Early this year I worked with a loan modification company in an effort to force BOFA to reduce the payments. After months of negotiations they finally agreed to a three month trial period with a reduction to 31% of my gross income. I made these three monthly payments and didn't hear anymore from BOFA until I received a payment statement from them, wanting the older, higher payment, with a prevision that I could pay the trial period payment. I have made two monthly payments and BOFA has remained silent. I suspect that they could still foreclose and I believe that their silence on the issue is designed to frustrate me with uncertainty.

[derby378]

21. Moral: NEVER take out a mortgage through BofA

You might have better luck working through a credit union or a neighborhood cooperative.

[oldlib]

22. My original mortgage

was with Countrywide bank, and was later purchased by BOFA.

[Gormy Cuss]

30. The Countrywide purchase ruined BofA mortgage division.

I had no problems when it was the old BofA home mortgage department, but the new BAHL division (aka the old Countrywide) is like a Hydra biting off its own head. They can't do a single thing in a timely manner and half the time what they do is incorrect.

I was so glad to refi out of the new BAHL.

[Bluebear]

43. You said it!

[Hannah Bell]

23. um, it doesn't matter *who* you take out a mortgage with, you may find it sold to someone

else in short order.

mine was sold three times.

[Codeine]

32. After which point the mortgage will be sold.

We really cannot control who holds our note.

[Statistical]

55. On mortgages it might not matter. They are bought and sold like penny stocks.

I had a bank of American mortgage. Refinanced with a credit union (Navy Fed) who sold it to Countrywide who was bought by BofA.

[gristy]

60. my mortgage was sold to BofA

:mad:

[Uncle Joe]

24. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[taught_me_patience]

26. IF this story is true

BAC is in real trouble. They'll likely be liable for treble damages and a jury will probably have no mercy on them.

[Gin]

45. I agree...if this is true...time for an attorney....that is all they understand.

[Wednesdays]

38. They can charge you whatever they like...because they can!

[redirish28]

44. Where are our elected officials to protect us from this crap... OOPS my bad

This is America the Elected officials are protecting the corporate thieves.

[bengalherder]

46. Hey you guys in CA still banking with BoA!

Notice how when you walk thru the door there are two lines. One is for 'members' another is for those without accounts who must cash thier payroll checks drawn by their employers upon BoA. Notice how slowly the 'nonmembers' line moves. For every three 'members' there is one 'nonmember' allowed to the windows. Not only are these people singled out for humiliation, blatant robbery of their time, and an extra fee for merely presuming to cash a check drawn from a business that pays plenty in fees itself to bank with that 'Bunch of Assholes', but then they are told "If you make an account with us we will treat you better." You should be able to discern very quickly that these are people who will pick nits to put you in categories where they can treat you as deserving lesser consideration, perhaps even deserving robbery. So please do not feel smug in your 'membership' and your faster moving line. They WILL find a way to screw you too.

I do not know if they have this practice in other states because I haven't set foot in one of their establishments for 10 years, but caveat emptor, and all that.

The wikileaks on the banks cannot come a moment too soon.

[delightfulstar]

47. I'll stick with my CU, thanks.

I used to bank with BoA. They screwed up on my direct deposit a few years ago, which they didn't post properly. Meanwhile, an automatic bill payment was withdrawn, as scheduled, because the funds were supposed to be there. Then the bright little computer tried again, and again (ad nauseum), until the OD fees racked up to a whopping $367. Of course, it was "not (their) fault." After trying to argue with a very vapid CS rep (and her equally idiotic supervisor), I closed my account, needless to say. My MIL has also had issues...she tried to have them send a certified check for something, by certified mail, it was lost in the shuffle somehow, and they tried to make her wait 30 days before they would re-issue it. In fact, they wouldn't do anything until the envelope came back nearly unrecognizable three weeks later, because it was almost completely torn apart in a USPS machine. After she walked into the branch and was livid with the manager, they finally cut her a new check. This is why I wouldn't touch them with a 100 foot pole.

[snot]

52. Another part of the problem (relevant to many businesses besides banking)

is that banks and other businesses have slashed personnel as well as salaries in order to squeeze out more profits, relying on automation and less-competent or more-overextended employees to do the same or more work.

These businesses were perfectly respectably profitable in the old days, though not the cash cows they may be now; and customer service was much better.

[droidamus2]

53. Tell me about it

I am dealing with B of A as well. Unfortunately when I took out a loan with Countrywide (paid 50% down, eventually took out a home equity as well) little did I know that B of A would end up buying out Countrywide (I had ceased doing business with B of A many years prior due to something that is a whole different story). Now in my case my current position is admittedly my fault with a big help from a tanking economy. B of A is in the process of foreclosing on my home due to lack of payment on my home equity loan. When I took out the loans I had almost $100,000.00 in the bank admittedly only a small amount of income from my craft business but we were hoping to grow that business. Little did we know that my significant other Susan's only kidney was failing which would make it impossible to put the time into the business to make it pay a living wage. On the other hand though my primary mortgage is not in foreclosure, due to the fact that I have submitted 'home retention' paperwork, I still owe a few thousand in back payments. I have gone through all my savings, my retirement funds (with significant penalties) and am only able to find temporary part time work in the area (been looking for full time for >2 years). My problem is they will not work on a 'home retention solution' for the home equity until they complete the process on the first mortgage. I submitted the initial retention paperwork for the first almost a year ago and they still have not made a final decisions and, this is the part that bugs me, I am only 5 months behind on my payments (made a few partial payments when I could but things have become even tighter) yet they are able to get that process going with no problems. So the way I see it (again my position ultimately is my own fault) they are holding the retention out as a carrot while pushing through the foreclosure. Luckily the state of Vermont through their 'Homestead Act' may keep me from losing my home but it is still frustrating.

[emsimon33]

56. There needs to be a class action suit

Take the banks for billions in fault and then pain and suffering.

[20score]

61. We lost our house because Chase reported us late, erroneously 4 times in six months before the rate

increase. Still looking for a lawyer.

[Kumbricia]

63. I'm sure this is a naive sentiment but

Why aren't individuals who do business with an organization able to vote to approve a merger, or at the very least, given plenty of time to take the business elsewhere before the acquisition happens?

As several people mentioned, they would never choose to deal with an institution like Bank of America, but because of mergers, they are forced to, and if one has a loan of some kind, they usually don't have a choice about whether to deal with the institution, it's forced on them.

I'm sure this issue has come up frequently in legal circles just as it has in informal discussions - why should the consumer be forced into business with a company they didn't choose? Why aren't there rights for consumers in this regard?