In Oct. Of 2002 Fairbanks Capital Corp attempted to forclose on out home. They had only bought the loan 2 months previous, and had already applied late fees when payments were mailed in plenty of time to have reached them well before the 17 days it took them to apply the payments.
Fairbanks informed us by letter that we were being forclosed on for the amount of $3,071 owed in late and misc fees, missed payments and legal fees.
Now, to the best of my knowledge and to be fair and honest, there were some leftover late fees on the account when Fairbanks took it over, but those were being taken care of with extra $100 monthly pmts as per my agreement (verbal) with the previous lender, and in fact, the two months payments previous to this forclosure notice were also for an amount $100 over the monthly payment.
I still have no idea as to how they arrived at the above amount amount, my records showed an unpaid misc balance of only around $700. I believed at the time that it was a straight out attempt to get my home (valued over $200K, with less than 1/3 of the original financed amount left to pay) for these fabricated fees, but I really didn't know what my recourses were, and I was frightened and intimidated by the rep, so I paid it.
I suspected something wrong, so I called my bank to see if the phone-check had cleared and they said no. I then called Fairbanks and was told that my property was in forclosure for failure to pay, that my phone-check had been returned. I told them that that was impossible, as my bank hadn't received it. The rep was rude and threatening and disconnected me when I requested a supervisor.
I then called my bank again, and asked them to fax me a statement to the effect that they had received no draft for payment in the amount I specified. I called Fairbanks back and got the one and only reasonable rep I've ever dealt with, who informed me when I gave her the phone-check info that she could see exactly what happened. The other rep had neglected to put 4 zero's in my acct. Number. The NSF was actually an internal error and although she could see that, she apopogetically told me she couldn't do anything about the NSF fee, and referred me to the Customer Advocacy dept. Where she assured me all would be cleared up.
For the next 3 months of my busy life I made my payments with my online bank bill-pay service, secure in the knowledge that I was timely and all was well.
NOT!
I received a collection call threatening and rude regarding a late payment that was not late, along with a demand for aproximately $500 in misc. Fees!
I have requested a disbursal of funds statement and payment history every month since then. I have not received either. They call me and harrass me every month... Every day, in fact, unless I speak with them and then the calls stop for maybe a week. They have stated that I made no payment in April of this year, and although I know I did, it hadn't cleared my bank, so Last month I made 2 payments in one month only to have the mysterious missing check presented for payment at my bank a week later.
I believe this was a blatent attempt to have another NSF on my records.instead it has made it difficult to pay all my other bills. Imagine, 3 mtg pmts in one month! Ouch!
Currently they are calling me daily again, and are claiming that I am still one month behind along with (now) over $700 in misc charges!!!
I am at my wits end with these criminals. I'm taking some of the advice posted here.
1) Calling the Federal Trade Commission
2) Calling The California State Atty General
I'm thinking of some other steps of my own, as well...
3) Better Business Bureau
4) Fair Housing
5) do some research on finding an Atty who would take on a class action suit on contingency
6) referring Fairbainks to this website every time they call.
Terese
Fontana, California
U.S.A.
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