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Trapped in Bank of America Hell
Are you one of the lucky ones? Have a good job, live in a nice neighborhood, enjoy your cozy home? Think foreclosure only impacts the reckless or the unemployed?
Think again.
George Mahoney worked and saved and built his cozy colonial-style home in Lynnfield, Massachusetts in 1981. There, he and his wife raised three lovely daughters. For many years, the Mahoneys paid down their relatively small mortgage with their local bank -- a division of Bank of America (BofA). In 2007, they took out a second mortgage to help a daughter start a small business. Two wage earners, a great credit record -- the loan was a breeze. That was when the trouble began.
About a year after getting the second mortgage, BofA started notifying George that his payments were late. Soon they jacked his credit card interest rates from seven percent to twenty-eight percent. Next, they ruined his credit record. His Sears card dropped from a $10,000 limit to a $500 dollar limit. Then one day in the fall of 2009, BofA initiated foreclosure on the house he had built and owned for 28 years.
The only problem? The Mahoneys had never missed a single payment on either their first or second mortgage.
Initially, George thought the problem would be easy to fix. He went down to his local branch to get help, but the local employees were rebuffed by corporate headquarters. So he started getting a receipt for each mortgage payment and faxing it to BofA headquarters. He also started the first of thousands of calls. Usually, BofA staff would readily concede that he was right. But even if they initiated a "fix" it never lasted more than 90 days, when the saga would start over again. In the last few years, he has received foreclosure notices twice - most recently in October 2010.
"Banks shouldn't be allowed to ruin people's lives this way. My stress level for the past year and a half has been a 10 and my wife is a wreck," George explained. His wife, Marianne, confirms the toll the trial has taken on the family. "The whole thing is a nightmare. The stress we live under is unbearable and it's embarrassing too. No one can help us, no one can do anything and it's ruined our credit. I have always been proud to have perfect credit," she adds, the strain evident in her voice.
After receiving a foreclosure notice in October, hiring a lawyer to send urgent letters to BofA and even after repeated talks with top-level staff in the office of BofA President and CEO, Brian Moynihan, the Mahoneys are still in jeopardy.
Bank of America Fraudclosure Central?
Recently-released data from the Federal Reserve shows that BofA received almost one trillion dollars ($931 billion) in taxpayer assistance during the financial crisis. The Fed has also been investigating snowballing allegations of fraud in the foreclosure process, allegations that include false notarizations, false affidavits, accounting fraud, abusive fees, false practice of the law and more. Fed Board Governor Daniel Tarullo told Congress that the problems identified "raise significant reputation and legal risk for the major mortgage servicers... requiring immediate remedial action." But will it come in time to aid the Mahoneys?
The Mahoney's experience indicts endemic accounting problems at BofA. Payments are misapplied constantly and the default position is abusive foreclosure. The bank reports some 1.3 million customers behind on their payments, but can regulators trust any data coming out of BofA? How many of these people are trapped in the same hell as the Mahoneys?
In a lengthy interview with the New York Times this weekend, Brian Moynihan reviews his first year as BofA chief. "I feel proud of what we have done," he said. "You never want to have a customer feel that something isn't right." But given BofA's track record, Moynihan's cheerful "there is not a better job in the world!" tenor strikes a surreal note.
Help May Be on the Way
On Tuesday, Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, leader of the 50-state task force on mortgage fraud, met with more than 100 people from 15 states. In the crowd were representatives from community, faith, and labor organizations, foreclosure victims and struggling homeowners from across the country.
Led by the feisty folks at PICO National Network, National People's Action and Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, the participants presented Miller with hundreds of case files documenting foreclosure fraud, abuse and plain malfeasance.
The group burst into a spontaneous round of applause when Miller said in no uncertain terms: "We will put people in jail." Miller also said he supports a settlement with the big banks that requires significant principle reductions, loan modifications, and compensation for victims -- key demands of the community groups.
As the holidays approach, too many Americans will be losing their homes because of hard times. An untold number will be losing their home due to the fraudulent behavior and stark indifference of the nation's largest bailout-out banks. Let's hope the Mahoneys are not among them.
27 Comments so far
Show AllLet's do hope that the Mahoneys and ALL others in a similar fix do not lose their homes, AND, as far as the ""We will put people in jail." line; let's DEMAND that happens.
Jail? Hail far, as we say here in East TN. Put 'em on a pointy stick ala Vlad the Impaler! My exceptionally hard working cousin just got screwed with a 26% credit card interest charge. Then bury them in unhallowed ground- Wall Street.
Not really bloody- nearly a vegan---MD
This story, if true, is shocking and horrid. People in this situation should immediately get a lawyer and push the bank hard. Banks can end up paying big bucks (think punitive damages) for wrongful acts against borrowers who pay their bills on time. It may also be useful to contact your congressional representative, particularly if he or she is on the House Finance Committee.
"It may also be useful to contact your congressional representative, particularly if he or she is on the House Finance Committee."
Twenty years ago that would have been good advice, unfortunately now congress exists to service the banks not the citezens.
Dick Durbin came right out and said: "And the banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place,"
To add insult to injury the banksters used the TARP bailout money to pay the lobbyist to bribe Congress to sabotage any remedial action to hold the banksters accountable and to continue their, banksters, criminal conduct of stealing from American taxpayers. As for BofA they are the worst American bank to deal with. I have some credit cards with them and pay no interest just to cost them more money than they make from me.
Bank of America is a nightmare I put behind me 3 years ago.
When my parents died, I was given a check that was more than enough to purchase my current Toyota. I deposited this check and was told there'd be a hold on it for 10 days. Now if you or I write a check, you can be SURE no bank will give US that 10 day grace period! I managed to get the bank manager to say she'd make some funds available sooner than 10 days.
I left Florida for Georgia in a car that was more fueled by faith than gas, and stopped at a Toyota dealer in a little remote Georgia town. They had EXACTLY what I wanted, were willing to give me an $800 trade-in on the "wreck" I was driving, and I wrote a check for about $5000, and put the rest on 2 credit cards. There I was, driving away in a nearly new car!
I was NOT told that I'd have to pay sales tax in Florida.
I drove to the Florida Keys and returned to 3 messages on my answering machine from an irate Georgia car dealership. Bank of America did NOT clear the check I wrote. I narrowly avoided legal action.
Two years later I wrote a check for $1500 as a good faith deposit on a property, and learned on the Friday afternoon on which the contract would have expired, that once again, Bank of A did NOT clear the check. I had more than $1500 in the account, called to frantically apologize to the realtor, and MADE the local bank of A manager write a letter of apology to the real estate firm.
Last Thanksgiving I had to loan some money to my son-in-law, and didn't realize it left me overdrawn by about $80. Meanwhile I wrote 2 or 3 small checks, and by the time I got to a Bank of A to deposit money, they ran up over $100 in overdrafts on a sum of about $60. I argued with more than one manager, but they refused to take these sums away. One told me that even if I wrote a check for $1 over, I'd still be "responsible" for the $35 check-overage fee. I argued that like most things in this nation, it favored the rich. For a rich person to write a check of $10,000 over their limit and be fined the same thing as someone who crossed "the line" by $20 is NOT fair. He would not budge; so that was it for me. I cashed out my CD with them, and will NEVER again do business with that AWFUL operation.
As to the debacle experienced by these homeowners, it reminds me of the "Healthy Forest Initiative." Harper's Magazine* did an in-depth article years ago on what passes for forest management in the U.S. The expensive hard wood trees are erroneously defined as diseased so that logging companies can make mega-bucks from the lumber they represent. (* It was entitled, "Federal Chainsaw Massacre.")
I get the feeling that Bank of A could be culling its portfolio and deciding which plums it wishes to keep for itself.
For all the money printed off the Fed's presses, EVERY delinquent mortgage in this nation could have been fairly written down, homeowners retained, property taxes collected, and much of the graft, corruption, and felonious Wall St bankster conduct that now has been "legitimized" by two "presidential" administrations could have been avoided!
When lawlessness becomes the law of the land, we all suffer, even if we are not direct victims of these CRIMES.
I actually worked for them for eight of my misbegotten yuppie years. I had a job that was fairly low level but gave me a vantage point to see how decisions were made, on what basis. Being basically an old hippie surviving beyond my time, I felt like I was infiltrating a culture to which I did not belong ("boring from within" as we used to say).
Ever since I left there, that was in the mid eighties, I've been telling people that the large banking institutions are criminal conspiracies and that the only reason the higher-ups weren't in jail was they had bought all the politicians and thus controlled the laws so as to make them unbreakable. Of course nobody saw it that way. For the most part at the upper corporate levels, they don't feel like they're being villains -- quite the reverse. They believe they're the good guys doing what they were supposed to be doing.
They were completely out of touch with how anyone under the upper-middle class lived. One time one of them told me that "nobody" used cash any more. I told her that there was a whole class of people who bought and sold things weekends at swap meets (or as they call them here in pretentious northern California "flea markets"). It had never occurred to her that there were people doing such things, not using credit cards.
I think what I learned during those years solidified me as an official Paranoid Pessimist.
Jail is too good for corporate executives involved in aggressive fraud. They must suffer what they have unleashed on others. That is, foreclosure and confiscation of all their properties and wealth, and denial of legal process.
Hear, hear! I second that motion.
Dear Mahoneys:
This is truly disgusting. It does seem that B of A is mxing up a lot of houses and foreclosding on the wrong ones. The story goes that when Bof A was started that it was the Bank of Italy. When the 1906 earthquake came to San Francisco, the Italian founder set up shop in the streets and started working with people to help them get back on their feet right away. B of A, what the hell happened to you, because that bank used to be you!
Maybe, Mahoneys, you just have to slow them down. First, change the house numbers on your house, so they can't deliver the paperwork. Well, you shouldn't actually do it. Maybe one of your friends could sneak over and be anonymous about it. Really though, do everthing you can to slow them down, because once they get you out, they will probably move in one of their bank officers who will have lots of parties. A Wells Fargo executive already did that in CA.
Next, if you live in a state with termites( does Mass, have termites?) If so, rent one of those big tents from an exterminator company so that it looks like no one is living there and the place is being debugged.. Then sneak back in, and You can keep the lights on, but don't play any TV or music.
If you have really great neighbors , and they think that you are getting royally screwed, ( they could be next) then get together and change the street sign. As I said before, B of A gets streets and houses mixed up all the time. I read one story where they foreclosed on a house that wasn't even a client of theirs. The bank had the locks changed and even disconnected the electricity. Unfortunately, the doctor who owned the cabin, had nothing to do with B of A. He successfully sued them for ruining his freezer full of ruined meat, and of course the mess that B of A caused..
Of course my ideas are probably illegal, but so is what B of A is doing. It's really time for the 'little people" to stick together, and you might as well have fun while you're doing it.
Really, one would hope that the local court would decline any foreclosure if the bank can't prove it. Perhaps, if you haven't started suing B of A yet, it's time to start. Could you possibly sue your branch, and everyone in it, just to close them down for a while? Crimes against the community? It would also be nice to get a parade permit from you city and then have a picket parade in front of the local branch. B of A does seem to respond to youtube postings too.
I read a story that during the last Depression, the police would come and move the family's furniture out on to the sidewalk if the paperwork said that they hadn't paid. A crowd would gather and then , when the police left, the crowd would move everything right back into the house again. Good neighbors are really a great find, but then , a good bank would be too.
The original San Francisco based Bank of America was bought out by NationsBank which had its origination as NCNB (North Carolina National Bank) in Charlotte, NC. It was glommed together under the auspices of one Hugh McColl, a curmeodgeonly old bastard. NCNB and then NationsBank were well hated by many in their hometown for their ruthless, deceptive, theiving practices. The only thing that mattered was getting "big". Only "big money" clients counted.
And so it is today. No matter how many times they change their name, old man McColl's baby is still the same criminal organization as it was back in its earlier days.
Have you ever been to Charlotte? There are huge churches everywhere, as omnipresent as Starbucks in Manhattan. Hmmm.
I lived there for (20) years. You are correct about the churches and therefore the "christian" right-wing republinazi morass that comes with them. Except for family that I miss, I have been happily relocated to a much more urban, urbane, and liberal city and would not consider a return for more than a few days of vacation time. It's really that bad.
During the Great Depression (the one before this one, that is) many banks foreclosed on farms. Farmers in the Midwest often got together for "penny auctions," during which neighbors would bid one penny or less! for items, and banks often received less than $5 for a whole barn full of farm machinery. Farmers also used strong-arm tactics to keep people from bidding so that auctions often went with no bids. Eventually states in the Midwest enacted legislation to keep farms from being foreclosed, due to the actions of the farmers, their neighbors, and the penny auctions. I wonder if somehow an organization could develop a strategy based on the penny auction method to keep people's homes from being sold out from underneath them.
You might find it interesting to know how I became a bank of america "customer". I started with a small local bank, CBT. IF memory serves me right, they were bought up by Shawmut bank, who was bought up by Fleet bank, who was bought up by BOA. (I may even be missing one more, but Im not sure).
Anyway I finally found a local Credit union and I am now moving my money out of boa, screw the crooked bastards.
I was so nervous with all this news about fraudulent actions by the BofA, and they were starting to hassle me with letters about details about my tiny mortgage with less than $2000 balance left to pay, that I took a reverse mortgage (the only kind I could get) to pay them off early. I was sleeping much better for a couple of weeks until I learned that my reverse mortgage company uses BofA to 'service' their loans. I'm mad as hell. I didn't get this info until after I signed all those papers. Didn't think to ask. I'm stuck with them for life, unless I draw out all the money now !!!! Only option I can see.
Yes, this happens in America. I am spending my second Christmas essentially homeless. When I lost my job, "Mike" from my mortgage company told me to save up 3 unemployment check stubs and do a workout package to modify/temporarily reduce my mortgage. Once I saved them up, I was told there was NO MIKE, never was a MIKE, and they don't accept unemployment checks as proof of income. By then I was in foreclosure. Every attempt I made to straighten it out resulted in someone in India saying the same gutteral bark: would you like to pay the past due to-day? After 5 months, I ended up walking away and let them keep my $150K mortgage on a condo worth $65K by that time. No forwarding address, nothing. I have since rented rooms off Craigslist, moved 3 states away to get a job and just try to keep my head above water. I work now. As a contractor. No holiday pay (Merry Christmas) and pay my own insurance ($600 a month). Welcome to Amerika. Land of the Free. Food-free, house-free, education-free, and dignity-free.
Shirley,
Your experience is being repeat a million times over. Just try being 75, over-educated, in good health and trying to get any job.
So what to do?
The only solution to lay-offs, wage reductions, unpaid overtime, speed-up, increased financial and personal stress is to fight back -- as a cohort -- a group. Individually, we simply don't have the time and resources to mount a broad attack attack against the banksters and casino stock exchange gamblers, let alone to reverse the take-over of the Federal Government by the crimnocentric Corporate State. We need to fight back by creating our own credit unions, cooperative banks and cooperative funding organizations, including an ethical stock exchange. Here's a very brief summary of the Path to Success:
PATH TO SUCCESS
- FUNDING OF WORKER COOPERATIVES
- By Jim Miller
1 OVERVIEW
The key is to have future cooperative workers deposit small amounts per paycheck into a savings account with a Workers Cooperative Credit Union (WCCU) or a member-owned and managed bank. This money can be used by the WCCU or co-op bank to make loans to start-up Worker Cooperatives (social benefit entrepreneurial enterprise [SBEE]) by having the savings accounts pledged as collateral. This loan qualifies. Each worker signs a continuing guarantee pledging $XX of the savings account. The savings account continues to earn interest.
The continuing guarantee is a percentage of the loan and declinates as the principal of the loan is paid back. This approach provides for some liquidity to the worker and eventually when the loan is paid, the continuing guarantee is canceled which cancels the pledge of the savings account.
The worker who signs the continuing guarantee will have specified that it is only for the specific loan, not roll-over loans or refinancing of the loan, and is for the benefit of a named worker co-op.
When the total of the continuing guarantees reaches the tipping point, the CU makes the loan to the SBEE.
The full article is at: http://sbic.wetpaint.com/page/PATH+TO+SUCCESS
Jim Miller
jimmiller5417@yahoo.com
Dear Mahoneys':
Write a letter to your Attorneys General, Martha Coakley and cc it to the Secretary of State, William Galvin. After you think they've received the letter, call them every five minutes until you can speak with someone who will help you.
There could be a case going on right now against Bank of America. You won't know until you get in touch with them.
Coakley could care less. If it does not involve putting innocent human beings in jail for decades on bogus "child molestation" charges, she is not interested.
Whether or not a homeowner misses a payment, he can have his home foreclosed. The law helps the bank in foreclosure either way.
When a bank customer is treated unfairly by the bank, the law aids the bank.
It's time to defeat all incumbents regardless of which party the are from because the real party they are for is big business. Give every candidate one term until they catch on that they have to represent the voters and not the financiers
The first thing every elected politician at any level wants to achieve is re-election. Deny it to them. Make them one termers. Clear out the long serving non supporters of the working and middle class (what's left of it anyway).
What the hell are we doing returning these stinkers for 20, 30 and 40 years. Let's unemploy them too!
This gives new meaning to the word home wrecker. Everyone knows that today it's immoral to be honest. One must earn their crooked credentials before advancement within the bank is possible. It's competitive crookedness for profit.
All I can say is 'wankin' fuckin' bankers'!
It is important to take your money out of the large banks and put them into local banks that support your local economy. My wife and I used to have lots of IRAs with Bank of America that we moved to our local credit union.
Stephen, you are on the right track. The problem is that all banks, whether local or global are dedicated to capturing as much profit as possible for the private owners of the bank and really don't care about their employees or customers, despite their PR.
SO THE ANSWER IS to create our own financial institutions and boycott the traditional banks and financial institutions.
Here's a possibility: Common Good Bank -- in pre-start-up status, at: http://commongoodbank.com/
We Found It
Join Us
as a Founding Member/Owner
The Design. We found a way, eight years ago, to create a Common Good Economy. We found a way to plan and invest locally, for thriving local economies and a sustainable future. We found a way to gather as communities, to decide for ourselves what our funding priorities should be -- for sustainable agriculture and energy systems, for local self-reliance, for ensuring that everyone has enough to eat, a home, and satisfying work. We found a way to fund those priorities: Common Good Bank™ -- Real democracy, real money, real power.
The Strategy. Then finally this summer we found a way to get that Common Good Economy launched. We found a way around the challenges of funding Common Good Bank with conventional investments. No need to wait for government or conventional investors to launch it for us. We found a way to get the Common Good Economy launched ourselves, from the grassroots. How do we get it launched? We found it by buying in.
It's that simple. We must found the Common Good Economy, about four thousand of us together, by funding it and owning it, each of us at whatever level we can manage. Now we are consolidating our existing support (that's you) before launching this membership campaign publicly. In the first month (November) we raised a quarter of a million dollars. Now it's your turn. Join us!
Join Us
as a Founding Member/Owner
(If you are already a Founding Member/Owner, thank you! Tell your friends and relatives.)
Thank you for reading and thank you for supporting Common Good Finance and the campaign for a Common Good Economy.
Wishing you happiness and prosperity in this season and throughout the year,
Sincerely,
William
William Spademan
President
Common Good Finance
democratic economics for a sustainable world
PO Box 21, Ashfield, MA 01330 USA
+1 413-628-3336
Be one of our 4,000 Founding Members
Join us at www.CommonGoodBank.com
yes...
put your money in local bank and go after the banksters..
here in Europe we'd be delighted to see the american people standing up.
wake up my friends
Dear folks,
Let's get to work and create our own banks, credit unions and stock exchanges. Let's put our energies, ideas and funds together to make sure each type of financial institution is legally formed, well managed and properly funded. Let's follow a path to success. Here's the overview:
PATH TO SUCCESS
- FUNDING OF WORKER COOPERATIVES
- By Jim Miller
1 OVERVIEW
The key is to have future cooperative workers deposit small amounts per paycheck into a savings account with a Workers Cooperative Credit Union (WCCU) or a member-owned and managed bank. This money can be used by the WCCU or co-op bank to make loans to start-up Worker Cooperatives (social benefit entrepreneurial enterprise [SBEE])by having the savings accounts pledged as collateral. This loan qualifies. Each worker signs a continuing guarantee pledging $XX of the savings account. The savings account continues to earn interest.
The continuing guarantee is a percentage of the loan and declinates as the principal of the loan is paid back. This approach provides for some liquidity to the worker and eventually when the loan is paid, the continuing guarantee is canceled which cancels the pledge of the savings account.
The worker who signs the continuing guarantee will have specified that it is only for the specific loan, not roll-over loans or refinancing of the loan, and is for the benefit of a named worker co-op.
When the total of the continuing guarantees reaches the tipping point, the CU makes the loan to the SBEE.
For the rest of the proposal go to:
http://sbic.wetpaint.com/page/PATH+TO+SUCCESS
Jim Miller
jimmiller5417@yahoo.com