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Politics | 01/22/2009 10:40 am

Need Help With Your Mortgage? Expect to Wait if You're Calling the Bank

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© Shutterstock

Need help with your home mortgage or avoiding foreclosure? If you’re calling a bank, be prepared to wait. It turns out, even if you’re a congresswoman, you’re put on hold – for awhile.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA, spent more than two hours trying to get help from someone at Bank of America for a constituent family who was struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments. In front of rolling ABC "Nightline" cameras, Waters was repeatedly put on hold for long stretches, disconnected, transferred to extensions that didn’t work and switched to a recording which directed her to the bank’s website. How helpful!

Even though Bank of America later apologized, Waters says, just to add insult to injury, this is what the average troubled homeowner faces.

"The average American trying to negotiate a loan modification will not be able to get it done," she said. "It will be impossible for them to get in touch with the right person, and even if they get in touch with a so-called counselor, they have a cookie-cutter kind of direction that they go in."

An ABC News investigation found that the process of reaching out for help can be disorganized and frustrating, and far from consumer friendly. Click here to read the entire story.

5 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

fp1
Banks need to have there books open and ready for inspection by the FBI. Those with their hands out for our money better not have a ton of toxic waste on their books; if they do nationalize them, sell off their assets, and tell the rest no more handouts until you start lending. Until they do start lending the econ is going to stagnate. This may be draconian but it’s the only way I see to get them to start lending.
By fp1 on 01/22/2009 10:52 am
BrooklynGal1
Frank, Cobwebs will form while people are waiting to for a response unless the government stops handing out candy instead of standards. Even people who want to refinance their mortgages and have excellent credit are being turned down. Paulson sold a very good package to Congress that made excellent sense, then when he got the money, gave the Congress and US taxpayers the finger and went in a whole new direction.
By BrooklynGal1 on 01/22/2009 11:27 am
fp1
Paulson was a disaster alright. If there’s to be transparency in gov’t then there should be this also in the private business sector. And in opening the books these banks had better be ready to put up or shut up—some of these banks are sitting on mountains of cash and timidity seems to be the rule of the day. They have to start lending. It’s the only way to get part of the econ working again. Paulson’s handing out of cash with no rules, no transparency is the final disaster of BushCO.
By fp1 on 01/22/2009 11:31 am
BrooklynGal1
Either Paulson left with his tail between his legs, or is laughing all the way to the bank if he got some kickback for breaking the rules of TARP and throwing money at bad banks and institutions so they could get their bonuses.
By BrooklynGal1 on 01/22/2009 4:31 pm
TrishKoile
We are a middle class family in Central Florida who have been trying to get help from Homecomings Financial a GMAC subsidiary for the last 5 months to modify our loan. It has been nothing but a run around. They would rather short sale your home, claim the loss to the government and then re sell your house for less than to work with the homeowner in it! It has been a nightmare, I am still trying to find a way to keep the home I love, fix my interest rate and re evaluate the market value on my home. HELP!
By TrishKoile on 02/12/2009 8:19 pm