This is why Chase is evil and not stupid

We received this story from a reader today:

There is so much to say. We were on a 3 month trail agreement that went to 14 months I was calling, faxing, leaving messages. I always called the Loss Mitigation dept. They said just keep on making ur payments ok this past Aug 2010 We did a phone financial & I did fax all the infor. the same day too. Just keep on making ur payments if we need any thing we will call u. So I went into chase to make our Dec. 1 2010 modification payment they would not take it 🙁  it is SUSPENDED in FORECLOSURE!!!! What? I ask chase to call for me!! They told me that. WHAT the HELL chase did not call me fax me email fed ex me nothing. I was told Mr. Vahe said that Laurel Lindsey got my case after 14 months on this trial modification we were paying on time calling all the time, where is our permanent workout solution for our loan cause the trial has been completed + ? O This Laurel Lindsey only had our case for 5 DAYS, now there saying we have been 19 months past due What? we were on a mod. & b for that we had to FILE BANKRUPTCY for a modification we had to much debt. I will be back…… Please help me help

Chase misses point with loan modifications

Oh Chase, how long can you hope to continue to get away with such a twisted loan modification process before Congress slams you with new regulations?

Long story short, 19 months ago I filed for a loan modification after I lost my job. Chase has lied to me, missed countless deadlines, lost fax after fax with bank account and social security numbers, not returned phone calls and their credit dept. has harrassed the living shit out of me. I have written letters to the NYS Attorney General, Comptroller of Currency, local newspaper complaining of the unethical way which Chase has conducted their business. A few weeks ago they tell me I am approved and foolishly, I get excited about what should be good news after all of this BS.
Incredibly, they make an offer to me that is $83.00 more per month than when I started this fiasco. My pay has been reduced by almost $25k and somehow Chase offers me a higher mortgage to “help me out”.
And the icing on the cake is that they gave me a “temporary” loan mod over a year ago until this was settled. The money I was saving during this period ($650/mo.) was reported as a shortfall by Chase and reported to the credit agencies as such. They single-handedly dropped my credit rating by over 150 points so it is almost impossible to explore any other options.
CHASE HOME MORTGAGE SUCKS!!!!!!!!

I guess this customer should be lucky that Chase didn’t demand all the savings during the loan modification period in a lump sum like they have done with plenty other customers and foreclose if the customer didn’t pay.

SEC investigating Chase’s sale of loan bundles

Chase hit with SEC whistle-blower suit

A former employee embroiled in a wrongful termination suit against Chase has filed a whistle-blower suit with the SEC.  Either she is trying to bully them into settling her case, or Chase went ahead and fired someone who knew where the bones were buried, in which case, note to Chase, when someone knows all the stuff you’ve done that is illegal, you might want to keep them on the payroll.

1. Chase Bank sold to third party debt buyers hundreds of millions of dollars worth of credit card accounts. . .when in fact Chase Bank executives knew that many of those accounts had incorrect and overstated balances.

3. Chase Bank executives routinely destroyed information and communications from consumers rather than incorporate that information into the consumer’s credit card file, including bankruptcy notices, powers of attorney, notice of cancellation of auto-pay, proof of payments and letters from debt settlement companies.

4. Chase Bank executives mass-executed thousands of affidavits in support of Chase Banks collection efforts and those Chase Bank executives did not have personal knowledge of the facts set forth in the affidavits.

5. When senior Chase Bank executives were made aware of these systemic problems, senior Chase Bank executives — rather than remedy the problems — immediately fired the whistleblower and attempted to cover up these problems.When I reached Almonte’s lawyer, George Pressly, for comment, he was shocked that I had the letter because it was supposed to be confidential. While Pressly was willing to confirm Almonte was a client, beyond that he had no comment. Pressly, who was clearly trying to figure out how to handle the letter’s disclosure, said he was suddenly getting a “firestorm” of calls and seemed unprepared for the onslaught. While he has filed many SEC complaints before — he operates the website http://www.secwhistleblowerprogram.org/, which is how Almonte found him — her letter is the first one he’s filed that went public.

If this suit is successful, homeowners fighting foreclosure will have lots of ammunition to contest their own foreclosures.

Chase foreclosure protest ends in arrests

At the end of this story, yet another example of how Chase’s foreclosure policy (and refusal to grant loan modifications) does not hold up under public scrutiny.

Translation, if you want a loan mod, seek publicity of your plight.

22 arrested in LA foreclosure protest at Chase

LOS ANGELES—Police arrested 22 demonstrators who blocked entry to a downtown Chase bank branch Thursday to protest what they said were unfair home foreclosures.
The demonstrators, which included homeowners facing foreclosure, community advocates and labor leaders, silently allowed officers to bind their wrists behind their backs with plastic restraints and guide them into a police van.

Dozens more demonstrators chanted and marched on a nearby sidewalk holding sighs that said “Stop Bank Greed, Save Our Neighborhoods” as the 12 men and 10 women were taken into custody.

Detective Gus Villanueva said there were no injuries to police or protesters. All the demonstrators were released by late afternoon after all but one of them received citations for trespassing, he said.

Villanueva did not immediately know why the one protester had not been cited.

Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment member David Mazariegos said the demonstrators hoped to bring attention to the plight of people who were unjustly losing their homes.

He said banks’ failure to modify many borrowers’ loans puts them in violation of the Home Affordable Modification Program in which lenders agreed to participate as part of the bank bailout.

“The banks are not helping anyone stay in their homes,” Mazariegos said. “It’s highway robbery, what they’re doing to these people.”

ACCE director Amy Schur said the groups were singling out JPMorgan Chase &

Co. because most of the borrowers whose foreclosures and evictions they are contesting are serviced by that bank.
Chase spokeswoman Eileen Leveckis disputed that the bank was denying help to distressed mortgage borrowers.

“Chase is committed to helping struggling borrowers remain in their homes,” she said in a statement, stressing that the lender had completed more than 250,000 modifications since early 2009.

Before the protesters blocked the doors leading to the Chase branch, homeowners at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure used a microphone to tell of their difficulties getting help from Chase and other banks.

Among them was Esperanza Casco, 47, who said her Long Beach home was foreclosed on even though she’d been making all the payments required under modification and forbearance deals worked out with Chase.

A Chase spokesman said in an Associated Press story last month that the bank gave Casco and her husband as many opportunities as it could to qualify for a modification, but that the couple was unable to do so.

The Cascos were scheduled to be evicted this month, but on Tuesday, Chase rescinded its eviction threat and offered them a new modification.

Chase spokesman Tom Kelly on Thursday declined to detail why the bank changed its mind, saying only that it reviewed the case again “with updated financials” and was able to approve the modification.

But Esperanza Casco said the financial information they sent the bank most recently was identical to the paperwork they previously provided.

“They saw that we were putting pressure and the publicity we were getting. But this is not just about us,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter. “There’s lots of people facing the same situation we’re in.”

Complaints against (big) banks soar

An Associated Press article about customers complaints against banks continuing to rise despite new rules and regulations intended to reign in abusive behavior pretty much sums up the problem in the last two paragraphs:

Consumer advocates say the punitive fees have hurt bank customers by driving them to use payday lenders and pawnshops. But there’s little doubt that the banks have been hurting themselves too.

“The culture at banks has been to chase profits at all costs, even if it hurts their customers,” said Paul Miller, head of financial service research at FBR Capital Markets. “Now it’s coming back to bite the banks in the form of new rules.”

Just how many complaints is the money grubbing abusive behavior causing?

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency estimates that complaints from customers of the 1,500 banks it regulates will hit 80,000 this year. That would be the highest level in the 15 years it has recorded them and more than double the 2008 total.

Make leaving Chase your new years resolution!

Mortgage works for nearly 30 years until Chase takes over

Chase Home Finance overcharged the bank account of a retired Massachusetts couple, ruined the couple’s credit and threatened to foreclose on them over disputed missed payments, according to a class action in Worcester Superior Court.

Patricia and Carlton Maggs say they never had any problem paying the mortgage on their home in Westminster, Mass., which they bought in 1977, until Chase replaced Washington Mutual as their mortgage servicer in October, 2009.

Under the Maggs arrangement with WaMu, the bank automatically withdrew $694 from the Maggs’ checking account every month for monthly mortgage payments, according to the complaint.

The Maggs say WaMu agreed not to take more than the agreed upon amount from the Maggs’ account on any one month without first obtaining the couple’s permission.

But in February 2010 – without first notifying or receiving consent from the Maggs – Chase withdrew $1,667 from the Maggs’ checking account, causing “catastrophic damages to the plaintiffs, who could not replace the approximately $1,000 excess funds that should not have been taken,” according to the complaint.

Read more …

Chase ransacks house of man on his deathbed

Yet another example of Chase claiming someone is behind on their mortgage when they claim they have made all payments and are up-to-date.

SEATTLE — J.D. Butler was on his death bed when JP Morgan Chase invaded his home, according to his daughter, who said the intrusion left the waterfront home in shambles.

Celeste Butler says she couldn’t get any answers from Chase, so her only option was to sue.

“I’m praying and hoping that this never happens to anyone else again,” she said.

Butler says she took home video to document what happened to her father’s waterfront home, which was ransacked while he fought for his life in the hospital. Drawers were turned upside down, and a locked china cabinet was broken into.

“They took 17th-century paintings,” said Celeste.

Items that had been collected during a lifetime of service in the U.S. Navy were destroyed.

“When I left this house, everything was neat and clean in this room,” said Celeste.

Celeste’s attorney says Chase, J.D.’s mortgage company, is to blame.

“One of the terms in the mortgage papers is that the bank has the right to enter the property if it appears that the home is abandoned, so we believe that this event was orchestrated by the bank to allow the bank to initiate action against the Butler home,” said Chris Davis, Celeste’s attorney.

Chase says J.D. had fallen behind in payments. And if a loan is delinquent, Chase says it has the right to enter a house.

“We followed our policy to maintain a mortgaged property, especially during winter months when cold weather can damage property,” Chase said.

The contractor Chase hired left orange stickers where the plumbing had been winterized. The mortgage company insists the house was disorganized when it initially checked on it.

But Celeste insists the payments had been made, and the Port Angeles house was neat when she left it.

“And the bank told me the mortgage was current,” she said.

Read more …