wtf.. auto correction.. settlement != gentlemen

Cue the “Big Govt/Business can do no wrong, its all the consumers fault for being greedy/stupid” crowd to chime in with their appalling comments and blame everyone but BoA and the corrupt system with no oversight it represents.

The irony is that the usual line from the big business apologists (especially on the Consumerist forums) is, “Well if they’d just made their payments on time, none of this would have happened!”

It’s the consumers fault for being stupid enough to use Bank of America. I blame them.

This is nothing new, I know personally of three separate people this is happening to right now. It is a scam perpetrated by the banks. They are quite literally openly engaging in fraud.

I read an article that said the foreclosure rate was around 70k per month and as much as 10% of those foreclosures were in error.

That means 6-7k people a month are receiving foreclosures notices when they shouldn’t. This number is astronomical and in my opinion cannot be accounted for by lack of oversight.

I have read several stories about people who have either paid off their mortgage already or don’t even bank with a particular corporation receiving foreclosure notices.

I am eagerly awaiting Wikileaks disclosures about US banking. If this fraud has been coming from management then I will consider it much more than an isolated incident. Just like a auditor would reason based upon a sampling, I think it is happening throughout the system.

Anybody remember a short story by that name from a few decades ago? Only it was supposed to be science fiction then…

Or maybe another parallel would be Terry Gilliam?s Brazil, a tale of bureaucracy gone mad, and everybody so tangled up in paperwork that nobody can fix an obvious screwup without risking severe penalties for not going through proper channels…

I don’t think their lack of oversight would extend to someone who was rich and powerful. Even if it did I am sure the matter would be resolved quickly and quietly. If only it was that way for everyone else.

I’ve always hated BofA for a while but this just makes me hate them even more. I hope the wikileaks doc have some real evidence of fraud and that the execs get to spend lengthy prison terms. But for someone reason white collar crime always gets off easy. Look at enron. They destroyed thousands of peoples lives and only spent 10 years max. Yet you can go to jail for life for killing one person. We need laws that make the rich that screw us lose their whole lives then maybe they wouldn’t screw people over as much.

I have managed to own both our cars, and our home without ever having used credit in my life. My father didn’t believe in it, and I decided as a teen I wouldn’t borrow a dime. It hasn’t been easy by any means, but I own what I own, and owe nothing to anyone. (besides my father for showing me the way)

I cannot stop giggling, if it makes you feel any better.

(felt that pain: auto correct was the only thing I’ve wanted KILLED DEAD on my new phone, tired of sending messages making me sound like a booger-eating moron)

As you were. 🙂

All good, except that your house in 30 years also went up in value. You also didn’t pay rent for 30 years on a property you didn’t end up owning. So overall, you are far ahead, potentially much further ahead than the money people.

But you knew that.

Could have been worse, GM Finance sold ours to Greentree. A company that I have no idea how is still in business.

1) This is how normal people do things. Borrow a bit to substantially increase the value of the home and pay it back over time. Few people have the means to do as you suggest.

2) See #1.

3) Do you research every single financial choice you make? I’d find it hard to believe.

4) Bitter much? Sounds like your own credit is probably in the crapper, so you have to wah wah about someone with good credit being ripped by someone else’s weasel moves.

Blaming the consumer for the actions of the financial institution is what is really wrong here. It’s the real reason so many people are in such deep trouble.

Think risk vs. reward. Make the (criminal) activity high risk and people won’t think the reward is worthwhile.

So, I’ll certainly take increasing the likelihood of begin caught as my deterrent…

So basically Tim is saying that 100% of the blame is on the homeowners because a low-level customer service rep has the ability to place someone in a credit destroying program despite not having the written consent of the homeowner and the fact they do not qualify in the first place.

Having a loan from Bank of America entitles them to ruin your credit and foreclose on you, on a whim. Did I get that right?

Tim’s “I got mine, screw you all” attitude is pretty much why America will be on par with African countries in the next 20 years.

This does not surprise me in the least. We had the “pleasure” of having to sell our home in a Short Sale with BofA because my husband was downsized by none other than BofA. The only job he could find was out of state so we were forced to put our house on the market right when the banking crisis hit in 2008. Long story, short the bank mishandled our file from the start, taking too long to act on offers, even All Cash offers, never returning our calls, putting us on hold for 2 hours at a time only to disconnect us when they attempted to tranfer to a different department. We finally did work out a deal, All Cash, and we made it to closing in four months, which I am sure is a record. We only got it done this fast because I stumbled upon a contact at the BofA who helped us expedite things since my husband was a former employee. After we closed we waited three months before checking my husband’s credit score and found out that the mortgage had never been closed out. His previously perfect credit score lost over 250 points. We called the Bank daily trying to find out what went wrong and after two months of this we finally found a customer service rep who told us that the reason our file was still open, and now delinquent for 6 months, was because they had no record of receiving our closing funds! Apparently this was always in the file but no one ever told us. It seems that on the day of our closing, BofA was merging their systems with Countrywide and our wire transfers “got lost” in the system, even though eveyone got paid a couple of days after the closing. But they never closed our mortgage out. I sent the bank copies of our closing documents, had our lawyer contact them repeatedly but they refused to admit they had made a mistake and kept insisting we never closed! It was insane. I finally filed a complaint with the Federal Reserve and they finally set things right and corrected our credit reports. It was completely absurd. It is obvious that they hire anyone with a pulse to manage the files. It is criminal.

I think that BoA is systematically cheating the public. I do not believe that these things are just bureaucratic mistakes.

I run several businesses and used MBNA charge cards to consolidate transactions for each business. have always paid each cad in full monthly.

MBNA was taken over by Bank of America. I started getting late charges and interest and after investigating the problem discovered that statements were arriving 8-10 days after the closing date (grace of 20 days). I think that BoA raised (or is it stole) a great deal of money this way so I stopped using their charge cards.

I also think that the banking crisis has led to a staggering transfer of assets from public to those who are wealthy. Nothing has changed in the banking industry, we still ave a bunch of unethical crooks running things and they seem to pretty much own both political parties.

Clearly banking should take responsibility for for poor lending practices.

Foreclosing Banks Neglect Property ? cost lives

It did not have to happen.
The December 29, 2010 fire in Oakland took the lives of a young mother and her two children leaving a seven year old. The NY bank property owner failed to install smoke alarms in the Oakland apartments which the bank owned since 2007. Many banks are foreclosing on properties where people live and are failing to take the responsibilities that property ownership requires.

Banks foreclosing on condominiums frequently stop paying real estate taxes and home owners association (HOA) fees causing the remaining homeowners to make-up the shortfall. The HOA usually puts a lien on the condo to recover the arrears HOA fees, which may be paid only after back taxes.

The bank then tells the HOA it has a buyer who won?t cover the arrears HOA fees. The bank makes the HOA a take it or leave it offer. If the HOA leaves the offer then the remaining owners will continue to cover the shortfall.

Banks frequently do not keep up foreclosed properties nor do they assure the properties are safe and secure so they don?t turn into crack houses or catch on fire, like the one in Oakland.

Legislation that reverses this situation with teeth that penalizes banks for violations would make the banks want to negotiate as an alternative to foreclosure. The legislation should state:

? Banks that foreclose must continue to pay HOA membership fees and real estate taxes – on time.
? Foreclosed property must be kept safe and maintained so as not to drive down near by property values.
? Foreclosed property must be safe and secure to assure that it is not vandalized or used for illegal purposes.

The benefits of legislation that supports these concepts include:

? Improving public safety and health of those occupying foreclosed property and those near by.
? Protecting home owners who had no role in the foreclosure from rising HOA fees and decreasing property value due to neglected near by properties.
? Making the decision to foreclose more painful for the banks;
o Reducing the number of foreclosures
o Increasing the number of re-negotiated mortgages

A property owner has a responsibility to make the property safe, clean and up to pertaining codes.
The owner can face criminal penalties when neglecting those responsibilities results in damages.
Frequently banks shirk those responsibilities.
In Oakland it resulted in fatalities.

Contact your elected officials while the memory of this tragedy is still fresh in the mind. Pass this on.

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