Countrywide Home Loans
PayPlan/26 - deceptive mortgage program (they don't really want you to save interest, they want to collect fees)

In October, I signed up for Countrywide's PayPlan/26. This program drafts 1/2 your monthly mortgage and in doing so, my savings would have been $70,942.00 in interest by applying essentially an additional month's payment each year.

The first draft was taken out of my checking account on 10/16/08. On November 11, I received a letter from them stating that my PayPlan/26 service has been discontinued because a special data condition exists on my account. No one that I spoke to could tell me what this "special data condition" was, and I made a payment of $2,574.62 over the phone, plus they charged me $12 to take the payment.

Since that time, Countrywide has failed to get the PayPlan/26 program working on my account, and they failed to take the bi-weekly payment from my checking account.

I chose to wait to see what they would do. This past week I received a letter from them, return receipt requested, which I signed for at my local post office. It seems that someone can take the time to send a threatening "Notice of Intent to Accelerate" but the same person can't take the time to investigate the history of the account.

Sorry for you Countrywide, but I'm not doing your job (s) for you.

I'm sending the equivelant of what they were supposed to take from my checking account, minus what's already been paid, and minus the $12 fee they charged to take a payment over the phone when they failed to automatically draft from my checking account.

It's clear to me that they are deliberately sabotaging the PayPlan/26 program in the hopes that they can collect bogus fees and late charges, and hoping that I'll stick with the original 30-year fixed mortgage, thereby collecting the $70,942.00 in interest that the program would save me. Guess again, Countrywide.

I'll be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, the United States Congress, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to name a few. I'm quite certain I'm not the only mortgage holder that Countrywide is trying to dupe. I am, however, not going to sit by and do nothing.

I'm very interested to hear from anyone who has had similar problems with Countrywide.

Company: Countrywide Home Loans
Country: USA
State: California
City: Simi Valley
Address: 450 American Street
Phone: 8006696654

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