In December Wells Fargo contacted us and stated that they were able to provide my husband and I with a one mortgage payment extension. We accepted due to loss of income in our household. At that time no one disclosed that they would be able to lower our interest rate. This was a very fast and "time sensitive" matter.
In January Jackson Federal contacted us and explained that Wells Fargo should have lowered our interest and guaranteed a lower interest rate and if unsuccessful a full refund of payment. I contacted Wells Fargo to inform them I would be working with them and they stated that customers often use a third party for the modification process and do often pay them for this type of assistance. At NO TIME did Wells Fargo indicate that this was a poor decison.
During the next two months my husband and I heard nothing except from Jackson Federal. They stated that our morgage needed to be in default in order for Wells Fargo to work with us. We were a little uneasy about not paying the mortgage so we contacted a Mike Allen. He informed us that our request was with the underwritters and it was taking time due to the high volume of requests. At that time he suggested making a "good faith" payment for the underwritters to see our attempts to work with them. We made the payment. We stopped contact with Jackson Federal at the request of Wells Fargo who stated that they would prefer to talk directly to us. Funny, they never called us during the two month period working with Jackson Federal. NO ONE ever told us they wouldn't work with Jackson Federal.
After a few weeks, still hearing nothing we bagan speaking a Chris Hammers. He informed us that we had not been approved because they saw no hard ship and claimed we made too much money and in addition already provided an extension. He went over everything with me again and requested that I make a $2840 payment in April and $2400 payment in May. After both my husband and I speaking to him he stated that with these two higher payments (our mortgage is normally $2183) the underwritters would begin working with us in June. We agreed and had several follow up conversations with him. His plan was to lower our interest rate in June for a 12 year period and then refinance. My husband and I were thrilled however, come June we found out he no longer worked there and no one seemed to know anything about what we discussed.
My husband and I then made an appt. With our local branch to discuss refiancing with a co-signer. When we orginally opened our loan in January 08 we were told a co-signer was not an option. We are still unsure why now they would tell us it is an option. Everything went great until we were told, after a two hr visit, that our house needed to appraise at much higher than what it is worth. The branch assisted in contacting the Loss Mitigation department and we spoke to gentleman named Nate. The only thing he could offer was a repayment plan for 4 months of $3400.
My next conatct Money Management International. I completed a counseling session and the woman I worked with sent her recommendations to Wells Fargo which was a loan modification and a fixed interest rate over a 40 yr period. She couldn't undersatnd why Wells Fargo was pushing us to do a short sale.
Within two days I received a phone call from a Rachel Standley from Wells Fargo. She indicated they wanted to do a loan modification for us. I sent her all necessary paperwork at her request. Once again we were very hopeful. She went over my finances and asked what a comfortable payment would be and I told her $1700. I ghave my bank info and she arranged a payment for both June and July in the amount of $1700. She stated that the underwritters would want to see if we could make these payments and remain comfortable. My husband then called her to verify all of this information. SHe told him the same thing and stated they were going to do a loan modification for a 9 month period.
On June 15 Rachel called and stated that they have an approval for a repayment plan for
12 months in the amount of $2740. When I questioned the agreement of the $1700 (it was nearly the end of the month and this is what we budgeted for) she stated that was no longer an option. At no time in my conversations with her did she state the agreement of the $1700 was not a guarantee. She basically stated that it was out of her hands and if we couldn't come up with the money we would need to go to a short sale or inform her if we would be filing bankrupcy. I requested this all in writing and she stated that they were unable to provide me with my file or anything stating that we were denied assistance. She stated that our mortgage should be our first priority and basically stated that all other bills are not important.
I am now in the process of gaining assistance from our Attorney General's office. Wells Fargo has strung us along collected thousands in interest and wants us to lose our house. That is crazy. There is no reason for us to lose our home. We both work and have been proving to work extra hard at gaining financial stability. We have made many poor decsions regarding our finances however, have made great attempts to fix the issues. All of our bills are and have been current. We struggle with the mortgage because it is very high. We live pay check to paycheck so if an unexpected expense (ie: new tires, repairs, or loss of work) occurs we easily fall behind.
I do not understand why people who work and could stay in their home with a smaller payement are being given advice to claim bankruptcy or do a short sale by their staff. Wells Fargo has the worst customer service.
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