My husband & I bought our home in 2005, right at the Real Estate's all time high. This was are first home together, and the foundation of which we would build our family. (We have 3 biological and 2 foster children)

When Countrywide financed our home they set us up on a 'NEG-AM' loan, which you pay a minimum monthly payment and the Negative balance goes on the back end of your loan. They assured us that we would be able to refinance our loan in 6 months and get a 30 yr fixed. However, this was not the case. After six months we tried to re-fi. Our home already had depreciated 15, 000. We decided that since we could afford to make our minimum payments that we would continue on, in hopes that the housing market would go back up. HAHA... IT only got worse.

In July of 2008, after never missing a payment, I contacted Countrywide to ask about a loan modification. They asked questions and we began the process. They said they would call us in 3 to 5 working days with an answer. That never happened. I called back about a week later and spoke to someone in India. I explained the situation and they said they never received any information about the first call I had made. Once again We started the process again. I called back about a week after faxing all documents to them and The representative told me that they could not help us because we had never missed a payment. She also stated that we do not make enough money to afford our home.

In October 2008, I received a fedex letter from Countrywide. This was the answer to my Prayers. SO I THOUGHT. I opened the docs and read very carefully. It was an interest modification until 2015. My new rate was now to be 4.25% instead of 6.25. This would bandaid the problem temporarily. Here is the catch- it states ' Please be advised that your monthly payment WILL increase significantly when the interest-only term expires and you are required to make principal and interest payments for the remaining term of the loan.' This is known as a 'SHOCK' loan.

At the end of October, I sent Countrywide another HARDSHIP letter along with financial statements, certified mail. I told them in my letter that I appreciated their offer, however in no shape or form would that help us. Once again, I am fighting the fight and not giving in. I followed up on that and guess what? We don't qualify. How is that so? They said they already gave us help, which we denied the offer. At this point, I had intentionally missed 3 months payments, assuming this was the only way they would help. They also advised my husband not pay our credit card companies.

Febuary 2009 rolls around and Countrywide Collections calls for the mortgage payment. We explain the situation to the lady and she asked if we want to try again? OK, sure-why not! I get all the info together once more and fax it to the Home Retention Department. I called back about 4 days later and The lady says they never received the fax. She assured me that she would note my file that I would re-fax the paper work (so they don't close the case) and gave me by the end of the working day to do so. So I did. I felt HOPEFUL with the BAILOUT President Obama had just passed.

On March 17, 2009 the Home Retention Department called my husband. The Man he spoke with told him that we do not qualify and there was nothing more they could do for us. They referred us to the HUD counseling agency.

I am dumbfounded by what Countrywide is doing to millions of Americans. They tell us that they can not help us because we have not missed payments, so we do (which severely damaged My credit- now cant get a loan even if I tried) and then they Turn us down. They constantly play mind games with you. Nobody at Countrywide has a clue about what the hell they're doing. They are a cold & deceptive Company and they should be done away with forever. I feel like anyone who is in the same predicament as Myself, should join forces to take these bastards down. They Are a Company that destroys families and they should be punished!!! PLEASE HELP WITH THE FIGHT!

I just realized today that I have not received a bill from Countrywide in the past two months. I immediately called to see if I just lost my mind or what. They insisted that they had sent the bills to the proper address. I immediately made a double payment by phone and was charged a late payment for February. I argued that we have made all our payments on time since 2006.

I told them that I rely on receiving the bill as I not only do my personal bills, I do my fiance's personal bills and I am a bookkeeper for his company, and I have my own business. I process a lot of checks each month. They told me that the paper bill that we receive every month is just a courtesy and that they don't have to send the bill by mail, that I could go online and see everything there. My God, what if I didn't have a computer or I didn't know how to use one? I just hope now, that they haven't messed with our credit by making a report to the credit bureau. If I find out that they did that I will go to every length possible to ruin them. I believe this is how they are making money, if they pull this every once in awhile to a couple thousand people then they can get away with it. They have a very cocky attitude about it too, as if it was all my fault that I never received the bill. I am responsible for paying six mortgages every month, if I don't get the paper I'm screwed.

In October, 2008, I signed up for Countrywide's PayPlan/26. This program drafts 1/2 your monthly mortgage and in doing so, my savings would have been $70, 942.00 in interest by applying essentially an additional month's payment each year.

The first draft was taken out of my checking account on 10/16/08. On November 11, 2008, I received a letter from them stating that my PayPlan/26 service has been discontinued because a special data condition exists on my account. No one that I spoke to could tell me what this 'special data condition' was, and I made a payment of $2, 574.62 over the phone, plus they charged me $12 to take the payment.

Since that time, Countrywide has failed to get the PayPlan/26 program working on my account, and they failed to take the bi-weekly payment from my checking account.

I chose to wait to see what they would do. This past week I received a letter from them, return receipt requested, which I signed for at my local post office. It seems that someone can take the time to send a threatening 'Notice of Intent to Accelerate' but the same person can't take the time to investigate the history of the account.

Sorry for you Countrywide, but I'm not doing your job(s) for you.

I'm sending the equivelant of what they were supposed to take from my checking account, minus what's already been paid, and minus the $12 fee they charged to take a payment over the phone when they failed to automatically draft from my checking account.

It's clear to me that they are deliberately sabotaging the PayPlan/26 program in the hopes that they can collect bogus fees and late charges, and hoping that I'll stick with the original 30-year fixed mortgage, thereby collecting the $70, 942.00 in interest that the program would save me. Guess again, Countrywide.

I'll be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau, the United States Congress, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, to name a few. I'm quite certain I'm not the only mortgage holder that Countrywide is trying to dupe. I am, however, not going to sit by and do nothing.

I'm very interested to hear from anyone who has had similar problems with Countrywide.

this may sound like the same sad story but true, my husband was in a major care accident in Dec (NOT HIS FAULT) This was 1 of 3 this one took everything including our home, when Countrywide was called in December since we had no savings (I called right away so we could work something out our mortgage was 3100.00 mo.) Countrywide was so rude to me, each month I would call asking for help of some sort to drop our payments they asked what we could afford I told them 2000.00 that was not good enough...as the months went on the calls got worse to the point I was crying and upset, my blood pressure went up so high (I DO NOT HAVE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE) I could not believe the way I was being treated like a criminal...Our credit was perfect after all, our home was 400.0000.00. The bad thing is I would call them to resolve this they would tell me wer'e taking your house, you need to move, then they stated we abandonned the house, we were there until the end, they changed the locks the day after court which we did not go...The house is now listed at 207, 000 we now got 1099A'd foe FMV of 320, 000. what a joke...Stay far away from Countrywide, we had this bank for 11 years and still did n ot mean a t hing that we were never late, , , , EVER. Thanks for reading, I sure hope nobody else gets treated so poorly, WHY DO WE WORK SO HARD...for what to lose everything and get NO HELP.

If you want to keep your home, if you want to put a stop to the criminal activities by this compay, then it's time to DECLARE WAR ON COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS NOW!!! Contact your congresspeople, the President, every homeowner's advocate you can. the FTC and the FBI, HUD, and, if possible, an attorney, and write them again and again. If we act en masse, we can bring down these creeps and put them where they belong - IN PRISON!

I apologize for the length of this, but I think you will find it good reading, but don't just read it. TAKE ACTION!! The home you save may be your own!!

You must understand that YOU are NOT their customer, the lending companies and investors are their customers. Part of what they do (which comes from mortgagetrap.org) to steal people's homes and much of which is happening to me now is this:

"The below and other situations are not errors, mistakes or situations where a servicer's managers or employees failed to do their jobs. Their systems are well-designed and state-of-the-art in terms of analytical technology that helps them choose and process their victims. These scams generate enormous profits from a business that is difficult to run, people and litigation intensive and normally only marginally profitable. Many have failed and been acquired (Fairbanks bought several).

What you Must Understand...

You, the borrower are not their customer. Lending companies and investors are their customers. Most of the borrowers that fall victim to these abuses are classified as "subprime" borrowers (borrowers that either because of credit or income cannot qualify for a conventional loan). The vast majority of "subprime" borrowers are not well off enough to fight when abuses do take place.

The path toward losing your home to this scam is actually quite simple. The first phase is designed to fabricate the default and typically beings with one or a combination of ways to arm the servicer's records with false data:

When the servicer decides to manipulate the date the payment was received in order to artificially create a late payment.

When the servicer doesn't post payments made or improperly applies them

When the servicer applies part of the payment to something other than principal and interest and creates a partial late payment or deficiency

When the services decides to "force place" an insurance policy on the property by claiming the homeowner has not provided proof of insurance.

When the servicer pays your property taxes late, the adds their late penalty to your account without your knowledge.

Any or all of these processes result in at least one month of the account being past due and a negative note is made in the credit report (which effectively prevents the borrower from refinancing). "


***Below is my story, which went to my congresspeople as well as the FTC, my state attorney general, and a number of advocacy groups and executives at BOA and CW:

I pray that you will withdraw any and all bailout money from Countrywide Home Loans and allow them to die, as they continue their abusive behavior toward borrowers. They are not using the bailout funds for the purpose intended, in fact they are attempting to steal people's homes rather than keep people in their homes. Below is my story.

Thank you for hearing me out.
Please help.

SECOND LETTER

I sincerely hope you can understand my anger, fear, frustration, and
confusion at the situation I face as detailed below. I apologize for
the length of this. Please read the bottom as well. Thank you.

I received a voicemail from Countrywide this morning asking for a
return call. I am very leery of doing this without a third party
involved to make sure we are ALL on the same page, and for good reason.
Whatever is going on with the accounting at Countrywide makes zero
sense to me. First of all, just a month ago, the system showed me well
ahead on my payments, and papers to put me in a lower interest fixed
rate loan were on their way soI was told by a CSR. But this week, I get
a notice of intent to accelerate letter from CW telling me my loan is
in serious default and that I owe now for December, January and now
February. So what you are telling me is I have missed THREE
payments???? Or more???? That is absolutely NOT true. Furthermore, your
letter of intent to accelerate mentioned "other fees" I may owe but
said NOTHING about what those fees were nor how much. So how exactly am
I to tell where I stand with CW??? What do I owe, why do I owe it and
when??? I have no idea what to believe or that whatever is told to me
is correct or not.

I never ever received any letter stating I was behind, no calls or
anything else indicating there was any problem with my account. In
fact, I had a good relationship with the Countrywide CSRs and found
them cordial and at least appearing to be helpful.

I would like to again have a good relationship with Countrywide, as I
did for a couple years...but I cannot be blindsided by this sort of
thing. I need to know.

I did hear from Lori with the MO Attorny General's Office, and thank
her for her help. Hopefully this can be straightened out. I know I
cannot do it alone.

As I said before. I am sure there are many very fine people who work at
Countrywide who care about their jobs. But there appears too to be some
who either don't know what their doing or don't care, regardless of the
people whose lives are unneccesarily ruined by their unwillingness to
do their jobs.

I am not trying to be a jerk here, I'm really not. I just love my home
and wish to keep it, and it makes no sense to lose it just because
someone isn't doing their job right or intentionally manipulating the
system.

I'd like to get this straightened out as soon as possible. Thank you
for your help.

FIRST LETTER

Below is a link to a piece of news you might find
interesting:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28645505/

Countrywide admits to LYING!


To Countrywide,

Just a month ago, according to your system, I had no payment due to you
until March of 2009 (as a result of a loan modification and advance
payments made by me), and you were supposedly in the process of moving
me into a low interest fixed rate loan. So imagine my surprise when I
got a letter from you tonight of an intent on your part to ACCELERATE
my loan, DOUBLING MY PAYMENT AND charging me late fees!!! How can you
charge late fees on payments not even due?????? Could someone there
explain to me exactly what the heck is going on???? You don't even have
a representative available after 5:15 PM Central Time!!

Further, your website says you have not received a payment from me
since 10/31/08. That is completely untrue!! In spite of the fact that
you showed me three months ahead on my payments, I still made payments
faithfully, only skipping last month after your CSR told me my payments
were not being applied to my balance, but put in a holding account
while the loan workout was going on. He explained I might as well wait
since the package - which never came - was to be sent out shortly.

So would someone please explain to me exactly what your intention is
regarding my loan????? Do you want to foreclose so you can sell my
house and keep my equity, is that what this is all about? Since this
isn't the first time you've done this sort of thing - such as holding
payments late so you could charge a late fee, for example - what
exactly is your endgame here? Well I will tell you what mine is. This
is my home. I love my home, and have done absolutely nothing to deserve
losing it just because someone at your company, whether they be
completely incompetant or unbelievably evil or not giving a rat's
behind about their job or the people it affects, cannot or will not do
their jobs right. I have every intention of keeping my home - and I
WILL KEEP MY HOME - NO MATTER WHAT IT TAKES! If that means my cold,
dead body being removed from it, then so be it.

I will give you credit on one thing - your CSRs have always been
cordial, helpful and friendly to me; it's too bad they cannot do
anything about what goes on over their heads. But whoever is
responsible for such shenanigins as this, which I read is common to
Countrywide DESERVES TO BE FIRED! ALL OF THEM!