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Warning about Wells Fargo Bank...
- Jan 15, 2010 at 6:56 PM
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- Comments (9) Total Views (296) Everyone can see this journal post.
I'm mainly writing this as a caution to my friends, not to complain about how crappy my life is right now LOL.
Apparently our house is officially going into forclosure...and its not because we couldn't afford to pay the mortgage. It is because our bank, Wells Fargo, is deliberately trying to screw us over.
Back in summer, we were having some money issues and got about a month behind in paying the mortgage. At around the same time, we learned about a loan modification program that Obama had started where you can lower the payments of your loan without having to pay for an actual re-finance. We got into the program with the bank and they claimed they would probably be able to help us. They told us to start paying $500 a month for the next 4 months (our normal payment was around $1000), and if we didn't have any problems doing that, then, after the 4 months, they would modify our loan so the the payments would stay lower permanently and they would just tack on the money we were behind to the new loan total.
So we started paying $500 a month instead of $1000. Shortly after, we got some paperwork claiming that after the 4 months of paying this, we would then have to pay them $4000 because that's what we'd end up being behind!! Chris (my fiance) called them and said there's no way we could do this, and how is this helping us? The guy at the bank assurred him that we would not have to pay that money back all at once, that it WOULD just get added on to the loan when they do the actual loan modification.
We paid $500 a month up until December...never late, and always the amount they wanted...but instead of being notified that our loan would be modified, instead we got papers in the mail stating that they were starting the forclosure process on our house because we had not stuck to the terms of this deal and we were now SIX MONTHS behind on our mortgage!!! (Keep in mind, we originally went to them asking for help because we were ONE month behind...) Chris called them and they claimed we had not done what they asked us to do. We said of course we had! We paid half our payment every month as they had told us to do and it was never late. The person he talked to actually claimed that we had not paid ANYTHING since September!!! Chris got angry and asked where the money was going that he had been paying all this time??? Were they just keeping it??? The lady got really pissy with him, put him on hold, and never came back. Thankfully he got that conversation (along with a couple others) on tape in case we end up having to fight this.
Then, last friday when Chris got paid, he went to the bank to make a FULL mortgage payment (might as well not get any farther behind, right?) and the bank refused to take it! They said our account was suspended. Next day we found out why... They had sent us to collections! We got a letter from a lawyer saying we now owed them our mortgage in full (yeah ok, like that's possible).
Chris looked up complaints against Wells Fargo online and found ALL kinds of accounts of the exact same story....and many of these people had actually ended up losing their house in the end! They went to the bank because they were just starting to get behind, and after the bank put them on this program to "help" them, they ended up so far behind that it couldn't be helped! Apparently Obama had given Wells Fargo all kinds of money for this loan modification program so they could help people out, but they are only actually helping less than 1% of people who apply...the rest are getting screwed like us.
I really don't know what's going to happen. Right now, it seems so ridiculous to me that it can't be real. If there is any justice left in this country, this can't happen to us, right? Someone will be able to stop this. I don't know if we will end up having to get a lawyer and stuff or not. My grandma co-signed on our mortage when we bought the house, and I am planning on telling her about all this when I see her this weekend. She may be able to afford to get us a lawyer....or maybe co-sign for us again so that we can re-finance with another bank. I just can't imagine us losing our house so quickly just because we were a month behind. At the moment, I'm looking at the good side...since they're not letting us pay our mortgage payment...we have an extra $1000 we get to keep this month LOL!
In conclusion; Don't ever ever EVER deal with Wells Fargo bank!
Comments:
Thank you for the information. My husband and I just recently bought a house and our VA loan is through Well Fargo Bank. I will forever remember this journal in the event we find ourselves in a similar situation. Thank you
Wow, Becky, that really sucks. When I first went to legal services here, she was horrified when I said the bank holding mine was Bank of America, and the first thing she said was what a shame it was that it wasn't Wells Fargo, because they are great about working with people, and care more about people keeping a roof over their heads than the money.
Guess someone's been taking lessons from BAC the last few months.
Find your paper trail, or at least your electronic version. Your bank should have proof of your payments going out, even if the mortgage part of WF didn't "receive" them. And -- not our cup of tea, I know, but contact all the media sources in your area wit consumer advocacy, and rip WF a new one concerning this" helpful program" of theirs. If the thing does nothing but make it worse, that is not helping -- and it is false advertising, and basically bait and switch. To offer a program to help people keep their homes and not get further behind and use it instead as a way to screw them over for money is vile and reprehensible.
Yep, definitely someone's been Grasshopper to BAC's Sensei.
They all suck.
Good luck, Becky. You know I just got through playing this game.
*with. Not wit.
Need food.
Waiting for child. There is pizza in my immediate future.
FUCKERS!
RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Oooo!!! Yes, contact the media!
I'm sorry that you are getting royally screwed. You really do need a lawyer. It's possible that you can get one through a consumer advocacy group.
I voted popular, people need to read this.
Chris is doing that, Erin. He is going to call Steve Kagen too...he was Chris' doctor for a long time before he got into politics, so they know each other. I just found out that one of my best friends went through the EXACT same thing recently...even same amount of money! But she didn't fight it and had to borrow $6000 to pay the assholes back :(
How is this going Becky???
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OMG i am so sorry you two are being put through this! what a nightmare
- sati769leigh
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