In May of my husband and I decided to refinance our home. We had bought our home thru the Farmers Home Administration in 1993. Farm home encourages people to refinance with a regular bank or mortgage company after you've been with them for so long, but they don't force you to. Well, in May is when we made the biggest mistake of our lives.
We refinanced our home through a company called Heartland Home finance.in less than a year, our mortgage was sold to HSBC Mortgage Services. Our payment stayed the same as it was with heartland. All went well until my husband got indefinately laid off from his job in November. He searched for work and collected unemployment until it ran out in May of with no more extentions. I was working as a nurse but my wages wern't enough to carry us through without a struggle.
In Janurary I filed for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy was in my name only and not my husbands. It also DID NOT include the house, because we wanted to keep it.in the meantime, my husband finally found work in April but had taken a pay cut of about 5.00 and hour but it was better than nothing at all.in June the bankruptcy was officially filed with the court and my hearing was scheduled for August 5th.
Since the official filing with the court in June, we stopped recieving statements form HSBC, which contained our payment coupons. I had to call them to arrange to make payments by phone. After all those months without a second income, it was taking some time to get caught up but we new we could do it, but it would take some time. We never fell more than 2 months behind.
The second week of July I called to make payment arrangements for June and July. Those payments were accepted. While I had them on the phone, I inquired on why my husband wasn't still recieving statements from them. They told me it was because of the bankruptcy. I told them that he was not a part of the bankruptcy and his name was first on the loan and he should still get the statements. They still said it didn't matter.
In early August, my car broke down and I had to have 500.00 worth of work done to it. This made it difficult to come up with August's payment. I called them and told them what was going on and they asked if I had gotton the Reaffirmation Agreement yet. I didn't know what they we talking about and I said no and what exactly is that? They said it's an agreement to reaffirm the loan to get a smaller interest rate and lower our payments.
Oh! I thought it was a dream come true! Lower rate and lower payments! Well, this lady I talked to said we'd be getting this in the mail and as soon as we got it, to fill it out and fax it in. Just a couple days later, we recieved the R. A in the mail, I filled it out and faxed it in. To our amazement, it actually let you suggest an interest rate and payment. We suggested 6.5% at 650.00 per month. We had been paying 9.5% at 870.00 per month. The paperwork was faxed in mid August.
The end of august came and it was time to make the August payment. We still hadn't heard back about the R.A. Well, I called to make payment arrangements for August. This time I talked to another lady and she asked me about the R.A. I told her that I faxed it in. She stated that they never recieved it. She told me to fax it in right awayagain to try to get this payment down and then use that figure to make my payment. This sounded promising so like an idiot, I said ok and hung up without making the payment arrangements.
It is now late September and still have not got this R.A. Yet. I called back and yet a different lady told me they recieved the fax and that my paperwork was sent to my attorney, whom handled my bankruptcy. I called the attorney and spoke with his secretary and she had no clue what I was talking about. I called HSBC back and told them what my attorney's office had said and they transferred me from person to person and dinked around till I was finally disconnected.
I was up to my ears in frustration so I took a break and called them back the next day. I got the same runaround again. Transfer, transfer, transfer. Please hold... Thankyou for holding, we'll be right with you... We apologize for the inconveinience... Please hold for the next available representative. Over and over and over again. I guess I was on the phone getting transferred for about 45 minutes or so and it was time for me to go to work. Unfortunately, that was a Saturday and I wouldn't be able to call them till Monday.
Low and behold, Monday, I got the paperwork in the mail. Apparently my attorneys secretary didn't see this paperwork cause it was sent by another secretary in my attorneys other office in Detroit. So I read the paper work and couldn't belive my eyes! HSBC had actually agreed on the terms I had suggested before! The next step was to have my attorney look it over and we both had to sign it. The only problem was that my attorney wasn't going to be in the office in my town until Friday. That was October 9.
So I went in on that Friday, signed the papers and so did he and he submitted them. I called HSBC to try to make payment arrangements again the next day and I finally got to talk to somone. I had spoken with another lady (i wish I had got names), and she stated that they wern't going to take payments over the phone any more. I told her that I had planned to make 2 payments at the old price but that my R.A. Was signed and submitted the day before. She stated that they had not recieved it and that it was too late. It had to be in by the 10th, which happened to be that day. I told her there was no expiration date on that paperwork and that I and my attorney went over every inch of it. She told me she was sorry but there was nothing she could do.
The next thing I know we are in foreclosure. We have until May 20 to redeem our property and it is now April 30. I almost feel it's better to let them have it mainly because we don't want to have to deal with these inconsiderate vultures. We couldn't get refinanced through another bank for years due to my bankruptcy and the pending foreclosure. Even if we were able to save it.
Beware to anyone considering buying or refinancing... Do not go thru hsbc mortgage services!
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