This has been a very difficult year for many people. My wife died of cancer almost 5 months ago and I was the primary care giver for 5 months before that and unable to work. My job is in the financial services sector and on straight commission and needless to say even when I could work, there has been very little business. I had money in savings, but through medical expenses and no work, it has been depleted rapidly.
I have contacted Wells Fargo Home Mortgage several times about either reducing the rate on the mortgage and principal balance based on a conservative 30% drop in home values (based on my direct conversation with a county tax assessor and may be more than that with an epidemic of foreclosures in this area). They had no programs available for assistance and finally referred me to HUD and Hope for Homeowners.
I ended up with another number that went to their collections department. They said any adjustments made would adversely affect my credit and any reduced rate of payment, the interest lost would be added back to principal.in essence, they were offering nothing and destroying my credit rating. I have not fallen behind on my mortgage yet but on the edge. I didn't want to go into default and completely wreck my credit rating and had thought about not making a payment for 90 days, but reading through some of the other entries, Wells Fargo either doesn't get what is going on in the market or they want to be owner of the largest number of homes in the US. They indicated that there was a magical date on their calender of December 16th that they were introducing a streamlining program that might help-haven't been able to get any more information on that. People in their refinance department also have no information about assistance to struggling home owners trying to meet their obligations but find themselves in dire circumstances. I really should have known better than to go with Wells Fargo.
Before I did this large mortgage with them, my son went in to one of their branches locally to get change for a $100 bill before we went to the local farmer's market. They would not give him change for a $100 bill because he didn't have an account with them-great PR and winning business. He wasn't cashing a check. Total inflexibility and confusion on their part has lead to frustration and not knowing what to do next.
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