I made the fatal mistake of refinancing my home with Ameriquest Mortgage several years ago. I had never owned/refinanced a house on my own before. I now realize I should have my own real estate attorney work with me. It would have saved me thousands. The appraiser that Ameriquest sent was one of their own and I see now that they inflated the appraisal to get their fees and take me on a tough ride. I am not illiterate by any means but I am not an extremely knowledgeable person about business laws etc. At this point Citi Residential is servicing the load but will not work with me in any way. I was forced to have an escrow account which I had never had. They have charged me this years and next years taxes up front. After researching what I had paid and they had paid the taxes were over paid for almost 1300 bucks. I had the county issue the mortgage company a check to refund my account. Of course I have not received any information that they received it. Citi Residential will not tell me who owns my loan. They have told me that I need to sell my house short, get a room mate or declare bankruptcy. They will not even talk to me about working something out. I asked them to lower my interest rate for a year so that I could get my 2003 vehicle paid off and then I would have an easier time of making payments. Oh by the way they do not want partial payments, evidently they do not count!. Every time I call I get a different entry level worker who is just doing what they have been told to say to people. I have asked to talk with someone at a supervisory level that could help me. As it stands right now, they will foreclose on my house if my loan is not cured by Dec. 27. Unfortunately, $4+ gas, emergency surgery and a series of other unfortunate events has led me to this mess I am in today.

From reading other peoples messages I see I will be homeless for the new year. I am just a hard working teacher who got this big old house in a divorce. Now I owe more than it is worth due to the great economic disaster we are facing world wide.

I wish there was someone who could help me that did not want $1795-2500 to talk to the mortgage company for me.

I am praying for miracle.

I obtained a refinance through Ameriquest in 2003 with a "fixed" rate that lasted 3 years, then went to an adjustable rate that only ever goes up. I initially turned down this loan offer because of those issues, but was told they have a department that would contact me to do a cost free refinance within a year of my closing date. That year came and went and I started calling them. No one there seemed to know what I was talking about, no such department existed. I continued pursuing this until Katrina came and totally destroyed my house. Ameriquest offered to delay 3 months payments, but all was due at the end of 90 days. That was no help whatsoever, so I declined their generous offer and made my mortgage payments. In fact, I have been making them ever since the storm and my house is STILL gutted and unlivable. I received a rebuilding grant that barely touched the costs of repair, since my 90% damaged house was estimated at 62% damage and rebuilding costs have skyrocketed. Since the house is still gutted, they won't refinance. "We have to protect our interest in the house." Now my payment has risen twice, from a rate of 8.25% to 11.25%, resulting in almost $200 a month higher payment. It will continue to go up every 6 months, but if the prime rate goes down, my payment will NOT. When I told them I could not afford higher payments, I was told I was getting all this free money from the state. The inference being that I could afford to give them more money from the rebuilding grant. Here is the punchline: I was told that MOST of their Katrina customers had stopped making payments, and that had I done that, I would qualify for a loan modification, but since I had continued making my payments, I had shown that I had no hardship, therefore, I do not qualify for any loan modification. I wanted to protect my credit rating that is significantly higher than it was when I got this loan as divorce issues dropped from it. I also felt that the responsible thing to do was pay my debt, since it was not their fault my house was destroyed. I wondered why they would "help" the non-payers and ignore me. Those who stopped paying wrecked their credit and are now at Ameriquest's mercy for whatever rate they get and are trapped into remaining their customer for who knows how long. If I ever get this house fixed, I will have the freedom to dump AMC/Ameriquest for a more reputable company. The biggest problem I face now is avoiding foreclosure because I truly CANNOT afford these ridiculously high payments. The chances are now very good that they will end up getting my house back. Fixed, my house will be worth well over twice the pre storm value and they stand to make a fortune by finishing repairs and selling it. The worst part of that is that this house was the foundation of my retirement.

I've been living in the smallest most bare bones camper FEMA issued for 18 months and am looking at at least another 18 months or until the feds come get it, but I have no hardship. This is how AMC / Ameriquest treats those who lost everything to Katrina, but continued to make their payments anyway.

That should tell you how they will treat everyone else. Be forewarned! The predator is always smarter than that which it is devouring... and if you do business with these people, devouring you will be their primary purpose!