If you have/had a mortgage via Countrywide, you need to read this:

[dixiegrrrrl]

Last edited Thu Feb 28, 2013, 11:11 AM - Edit history (1)

This is a long piece which outlines

1. why Countrywide and BOA never owned your mortgage
( but managed to (illegally ) foreclose just the same)

2.and how BOA/Countrywide is illegally overcharging most mortgage holders
(if you have escrow account with your servicer)

I had to read it twice to get all the info. into my brain, it was worth the time!

[font style=color:#CC0000;]Edited to say: the link NOW opens to their home page, BUT scroll down a bit and it is the first headline on the left side of page.[/font]

https://op99.org/content/bank-america-fraud

pls rec if you feel more folks need to know about this.

[Sherman A1]

1. K&R

Thanks for posting.

[pinboy3niner]

2. K&R

[Dont call me Shirley]

3. My realtor tried to direct me to Countrywide, thank goodness I went with a credit union.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Ironically, going with Countrywide was a good thing for us.

Mr. Dixie and I bought our retirement house ( a marvelous house!!) in 2005, when we had cash from selling out in Cal.
But since we had moved back to Ala. we had no jobs, and no source of income, other than the money in savings.
Countrywide of course was only too happy to give us a "Jumbo" loan, as they called it then.
And I had no idea of how evil the mortgage was, at the time.

So because we could put 20% down, we were able to insist on no escrow, no PPI, and best of all, NO prepayment penalty.
We also pay no property tax, thanks to the homestead exemption.
Thinking that we had avoided all pitfalls, we happily got the mortgage.

then 2008 hit and with it the gradually increasing flood of mortgage fraud by the banks, and by Countrywide.
However, we have a ridiculously low affordable mortgage, and an income stream, so it all turned out so far for the best.

I AM going to quietly check out what is on my mortgage papers at the assessor's office, tho.

[dgibby]

4. My mortgage (VA loan) was sold to Countrywide/BOA,

recently resold to another company. I'll be so glad when I get the house sold. It's a rent to own right now. Fortunately, my loan's not under water and was never in foreclosure, but the entire thing is one big headache.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. There is a website which tells you if your mortgage is at Fannie Mae.

The banks gave the mortgages to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, in exchange for face value money from the Treasury.it was part of TARP.
A website exists which allows you to see if Fannie has your morgage.
Google should help you find it.

My mortgage is at Fannie, I found out.

I am also betting that the county property assessor never got paid for the transfer fees.

[dgibby]

14. Thanks! n/t

[Delphinus]

25. I'm selling mine,

rent to own, right now too. It was with Countrywide for years, now BOA. I have been lucky, too, to keep up with payments, etc., and did not escrow anything, in order to get the loan. I hate to wish my life away, but three years is a long time to continue dealing with them (BOA).

[madashelltoo]

5. Sent out to family & friends

[Heather MC]

6. Every time i attempt to refy, i feel like i am making a deal with the Devil.

I have decided to just stay where i am with mortgage. All the companies now want me to add an escrow account. i have being paying my taxes on my own for 10 years. I tell them i escrow my own tax account and keep the interest for myself. They try to tell me it's better to let them do it. I say i don't need to pay someone 500 to 1000 bucks to write one check a year for me.

They get mad that i know that.

[mikeysnot]

11. They do want you in escrow

My loan was sold to Countrywide and by 2004 they were jacking up my escrow submission under the guise that my property taxes were going up. The jacked it up 400.00 a month.

At one point I had 6k in my escrow account. I called them on it, they claimed it was because Cook County hadn't requested my taxes yet.

Even after they did pay my property tax I had 3500 still in escrow.

I refinanced, got out of escrow, now have more money, knocked 4.5 years off my mortgage and I am lucky, so far, to be above water after 11 years.

It sucks at tax time, but at least they don't have my money to play with in escrow.

Now with Chase, wonder when the shoe will drop on them.

I say nationalize the banks.

[GiveMeFreedom]

7. Kick and Recommend

Anything that brings down BofA is alright by me.

[mountain grammy]

8. BOA is a criminal enterprise going after old ladies.

they are suing my 85 year old aunt because they say they "mistakenly" signed off on a note 7 years ago.

[davidn3600]

20. Might want to get an attorney, that may be beyond the statue of limitations.

[mountain grammy]

21. She does have an attorney. I guess they filed just under the limit.

It's really incredible.

[Jersey Devil]

10. I have a fight with them every year over my escrow account

My mortgage was originally with Countrywide, then serviced and transferred to BOA. I read the article. They don't double the monthly taxes/insurance they collect but it is always much more than 1/12 when they calculate it. When you call them and go through the hell of pushing all the endless menu numbers on your phone before you actually get to speak to a live person, their initial explanation is always the same: The difference between what is actually 1/12 of your taxes/insurance is "pad" that they are allowed to collect. But if you press them and tell them the pad is a maximum of one month under R.E.S.P.A. (The Real Estate Settlement and Procedures Act of 1978 - I happen to be a lawyer) they will recalculate the escrow properly.

I have noticed that in the past 2 years they seem to be calculating the escrows properly so maybe they have changed their practices, whether voluntarily or by court order.

There still will be a "pad" but much smaller than they originally calculate it to be and that is not necessarily a really bad thing, because if there is no "pad" at all then annually when your taxes/insurance go up you would be required to send them a lump sum to account for the increase.

[dixiegrrrrl]

13. I may be wrong, but I think you can get out of escrow

once you have paid 20% off of the mortgage????

I seem to remember that from when I had my first house, which was in escrow.
Sold it tho, before I had a chance to pursue the 20% thing.

[davidn3600]

16. That's private mortgage insurance (PMI) I believe.

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. Yeah....you are right....

drats...too bad, because BOA is ALSO known for illegally trying to push expensive house insurance onto mortgage holders.
They try to do it with me every year when my house insurance bill is due.
I have to have the insurance carrier contact them to confirm I have coverage.
BOA offers coverage, of course, at 2-3 times the usual cost!

[Jersey Devil]

29. Depends on the bank

The Note and Mortgage (at least here in NJ) always contains a clause dealing with escrow and it doesn't matter how much you've paid off, so unless that particular bank decides to do it voluntarily you would always have to include escrow with your payment.

I once had a bank that notified me to pay my own taxes and insurance because they were screwing it up so badly that I almost had my insurance cancelled and notices from the tax collector that my account was delinquent. Then, after realizing their error they paid it twice and tried to raise my monthly payment again. They are out of business now but I did like being able to pay it on my own.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Yes! That is why I asked for no escrow.

I can always get cheaper insurance if I wish, or change carriers to save money, etc.

Interestingly, the Countrywide office tried to charge me 300.00 for not having escrow.
Luckily, this is a small town and everybody knows everybody, my real estate lady talked to the agent
and I ended up paying very little in loan fees.

Plus it helped that the main Countrwide office was in New Orleans and this was a few days after Katrina!!!!!
so the agent had no option in okaying all the forms herself.

[MzShellG]

15. The question is......

What can be done about it if you're in the foreclosure process?

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Try to find an attorney in your state who is practiced at foreclosure

Some attorneys are now specializing in foreclosure fraud.

[MzShellG]

18. True. But attorneys are expensive.....

A lot of folks going through the foreclosure process will most likely have a hard time affording attorney fees. Its a win/win situation for BOA, unfortunately.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

19. when I switched my C.W. mortgage to a credit union home loan

the payments went down by half, immediately.

And they get smaller ever month. with CW they seemed to stay the same, even after years of payment.



I WISH I had known about the credit union YEARS ago!!!

[lonestarnot]

22. Only reason I haven't done it is because the credit union could just sell it back.

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. Do you know for a fact your CU would sell your mortgage?

Been reported that some CU do not sell the loans.
Maybe worth checking out?

[lonestarnot]

37. Well, I checked with them yesterday as a matter of fact and they said no they will never sell the

loan back, but the problem is they do not service the loan.

[dixiegrrrrl]

38. "they do not service the loan."

drats...loan serviing issues are also a problem.
too bad....wish there were some alternative to the big bank money games.

[lonestarnot]

39. Me too. As that is where the big problems are. They are precluded from servicing because they do

not have enough money in credit unions. Banks didn't either, they just do it anyway.

[lonestarnot]

23. I know Elizabeth is going to do something about them if she can.

Saving for later. I started reading and got to hot to go to sleep. Early morning in the morning.

[Sirveri]

24. Does this link work for everyone else?

It redirects to the home page for me...

[dixiegrrrrl]

27. Good catch..the page has changed.

Hang on, I will try to find the story.

[dixiegrrrrl]

28. added correction to link. Thanks for catching the change.

[bananas]

32. It still redirects.

You're probably getting the copy in your browser cache,
they're probably checking the referrer for anyone coming into the site from an external link.

[dixiegrrrrl]

34. the link should go to the home page, from there the article is clickable

by scrolling down a wee bit, on left hand side of page.
Does that not happen for you?

[bananas]

35. Yes, and there are 11 pdf's at the end of the article. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

36. Yes, the full article is at the link, as I said.

The pdf sources are also there if one is inclined to read them.
I simply made my own copy of the article for reference in my files.