How Predatory Lenders Are Leaving Veterans Homeless, Broke and In Debt

[marmar]

AlterNet / By s.e. smith

How Predatory Lenders Are Leaving Veterans Homeless, Broke and In Debt
Highly decorated veterans die in the streets because America tolerates a financial system that preys on vets.

August 4, 2011 |


Last week, Andrea Chandler opened her mailbox in rural Virginia to find an official-looking envelope warning her that an immediate response was requested, with a Washington, DC return address and ominous logos to suggest it was a communication from a government agency. She knew what she'd find inside: a solicitation from a firm offering to refinance her home and lower her monthly payments.

Chandler is a US Navy veteran with almost 10 years of service, from June 1998 to January 2008, and she's been getting these solicitations since she bought her home with the assistance of a Veterans Administration (VA) loan guarantee in 2008.

She's a target of pre-screened credit offers, a practice used throughout the financial industry that violates consumer privacy and sets people up for identity theft. These offers prey upon people who may lack the financial savvy to understand the truth behind the appealing terms. In pre-screening, financial institutions take advantage of vast amounts of data on consumers and their habits to tailor offers of credit cards, home loans and other financing. While it is possible, when companies follow the law, to opt out of pre-screening and stop getting such offers, the fine print about how to do that is on the back of the notices, and no mention as to why people might want to do that is provided.

“I get on average one to two solicitations a week from firms that want me to refinance my home through them,” Chandler says. The offers say that “my credit doesn't matter, the amount of equity in my home doesn't matter, no appraisal necessary, no income verification necessary—all that matters is that I have a VA home loan and no additional liens on the property, like a second mortgage.” These solicitations surround the VA's Interest Rate Reduction Refinancing Loan (IRRRL) program, often marketed as a “VA streamline” or “VA to VA” streamline loan, and this program is big, big money for lenders, even in a toppling economy. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151866/how_predatory_lenders_are_leaving_veterans_homeless%2C_broke_and_in_debt/

[Turbineguy]

1. I've been getting those threats too.

Muggers with Spellcheck.

[midnight]

2. When Bush was in office their was a huge data dump of vet

info. spanning several decades... It was a horrifying breach of security... At the time I wondered what was the possible reason for this... Are vets should not have to put up with this...