My VA mortgage ran for 30 years through CitiMortgage, and only about a year and a half remained on it. After several mergers, CitiMortgage turned out to be the final lender I dealt with.
Early last year, 2004, I ran into money trouble. I live on SSI/Medi-Cal because of a disability. A very hard divorce left me owing on this loan, and the debt had to be cleared by me, while the VA reverted to my ex-husband after the payoff. The monthly payment was $314.22 at 8.50% APR. That may not sound like much, but it is truly hard when your income is only $810.00 a month.
To keep this short, I phoned CitiMortgage and described my financial situation. They offered to mail a "Workable Solutions Package," and they did. I filled in every part of it, holding nothing back, and faxed it back on 2/24 at 00:21:51, keeping a Transmission Verification Report. Roughly two weeks later they informed me they could NOT help.
I phoned again and asked what sort of deal that was. I had never missed a payment. Until I asked them for help, my status was very good. When I asked for the reason, the explanations made little sense. There was still another year of payments to make, and because of my gross income they felt nothing was possible. I wondered aloud why they would not simply lower my payments by cutting the APR, since California's housing boom had pushed rates down to 5 to 6% APR. Their answer was that they wanted me to refinance the house. I told them that was ridiculous, since I owed only $3,437.00 on the loan. To me they were not being realistic at all.
Next I contacted the VA and told my story to a very kind woman there. She was truly troubled that CitiMortgage would not help me. She passed along some phone numbers, but they led nowhere. In the end I took money from relatives to clear the mortgage, and I have to repay them. I simply did not want to deal with CitiMortgage any longer.
Since then I have learned that CitiMortgage, also called CitiCorp Mortgage, CitiGroup, CitiBank and CitiFinancial, took part in the large California power crisis connected to Enron. In addition, calls to CitiMortgage are routed to India. I do not think the company cares about keeping jobs in the USA. Recently it also cut 1,600 positions at its call center in Rancho Cucamonga, CA, so that more work can go to India.
In my opinion CitiMortgage is a devious, unscrupulous and ruthless crowd with no compassion. I mailed a letter to its president and CEO, David Schneider of St. Louis, MO, and asked for a respectful reply, explaining everything I have described here. So far I have received no answer.
Just the other day I phoned my County Tax Recorder's Office in Riverside, CA, and discovered that CitiMortgage failed to pay my final property tax installment, due 12/10. I said that the people at CitiMortgage are not nice. The County Recorder's Office told me a late charge of $36.79 (10%) had been added to the 12/10 taxes, making $404.97 owed right now.
I had told CitiMortgage to be sure these property taxes were paid out of my escrow balance when I paid off the mortgage.
In my heart I believe CitiMortgage is no good, and it certainly did not care about me as a customer.
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