For 8 years we tried to refinance our townhouse. When we moved out in late 2008 we had lived there 23 yrs. I had lost my job and with that lost 2/3 rds of my salary and have never gotten another job that paid what I was making. Over the past 8 yrs tried to refinance, either didn't make enough money, was working temp so they wouldn't use my salary, husbands salary was never enough for them either. They would tell us they would help us then send us all the paper work and 3 days later would get a letter saying we were turned down, cause of our credit. I can't tell you how many times we tried to refinance the loans. We felt it was a "win win" for all of us. If they added the taxes to the loan, refinance it at a lower interest rate, lowering the payment amount, so we could pay the payment on time and in full. We originally were given a loan which was 125% of the value of the house with an interest rate of 24%. They also gave us what they said was an unsecured loan, with a revolving line of credit. They tied that smaller loan to the mortgage. Their loans never included the property taxes either, so with the 2 payments and HOA fee we had to pay we were paying over $1650 a month and that didn't include the taxes. We also set the payments up to pay 2 times a month since the payment amount was well over a paycheck. We were paying them the twice a month payment when all of a sudden they said we couldn't pay that way; had to pay the full payment amount at one time. They would call us all day long looking for payment. We were always behind cause we couldn't afford to pay on their schedule. My husband got tired of the 20 calls a day came as late as 9 pm every night. It was harassing to us. At one point one of their supervisors told me to file bankruptcy, as our house was not worth anything anyway. At one point I even told them that I was the customer, and expected to have better service than I was receiving. If I was treated badly, I know others were treated badly also.
We got so tired of their lack of "I don't care about you as a customer attitude"; we just paid what we could and then decided to move. Put the house on the market as a short sale. HFC would not work with the real estate agent. She said they were the worst she had ever dealt with or in their case who wouldn't deal with them, they didn't return calls, they wouldn't talk about an amount that they thought the house would sell for; they just forced us to leave the house and move some place else. We left in 11, and forced to rent some place. House was auctioned off in 1. They started calling me at work again after I told them not to call there.By the end of 1, my husband was laid off from his job because of the economy; because they still wanted their money for the smaller loan, kept telling me that if I paid a certain amount each month we would be back in their good graces again. How could we when we were living on just my salary, trying to make ends meet. Most of my salary goes for rent now so there isn't much left for much else. I kept telling them that and they kept repeating the same thing to us, "PAY US THE MONEY YOU OWE". They even brought in a supervisor to tell us the same thing. That smaller loan should have been written into that foreclosed amount anyway. HFC DOES NOT WORK WITH THE CUSTOMER! They made that loan to us knowing that they were putting us in a bad financial position. The only way I got them to stop calling me was to stop at the local office and have them flag our account with a DO NOT CALL on it. It almost made me feel good to see that they closed their local offices and all those people were out of work. Maybe they would get a taste of their customer service dept calling on those who had worked for HFC and had their houses financed thru HFC also.
I am now getting letters from a debt collection company asking for the balance of the smaller loan, the one that should have been in the told that they wrote off in the foreclosure. They don't seem to get it that now both my husband and I are unemployed and only bring in a small amount of money now. They say they understand, but they are not waling in our shoes so they don't understand.
Aj
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
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