AND SO IT BEGINS!! Bank of America's skeletons exiting the closet.

[Whitehouse]

Anonymous as just released the first batch of the secret correspondence they uncovered.

[Gistok]

Bank of America is unforrtunately my Mortgage holder [[for Freddie Mac).

They offerered me the "Making Home Affordability" plan... which was a con.

After paying reduced mortgage rates for 6 months they suddenly claimed that I wasn't eligible... and made the difference as late mortgage payments.... so they were going to foreclose on me.

I tallked with them, and even made an extra payment one month. The following month I made another payment on a Friday [[via ECheck)... but by Monday they announced that they were indeed going to foreclose... and even going as far as taking the previous Friday's mortgage payment... and just leaving it as "extra money" in my account... rather than as a months payment.

Well then they referred my mortgage to a law firm for foreclosure....

The law firm scheduled a meeting with me and my "mortgage advocate" [[Greenpath)... for Feb. 16.

Well suddenly 2 weeks before that date... BoA found out that they were indeed a bit too agressive [[and maybe some heavy handedness from the Obama Administration helped)... and now are willing to work with me... since I only have 2 years left on paying my mortgage off.

Also... BoA was my late mother's bank... and we've been trying since last autumn to close her account [[my sister and I had our names on it as well). Well closing an account with BoA is not as easy as it seems. If any transaction at all comes the accounts way... it automatically opens the account [[even with a zero balance)... and gives you an overrdraft fee... now 4 months later it's become the bank account from hell....

[Whitehouse]

I've said it before. I'm glad I live in a country where bank monitoring is still working..... I fear this thread is going to be a looooong one, as more and more documents get to see the light of day. I hope someone at the top is starting to sweat!!

[Gannon]

Gistok,

You have shown once again why there needs to be a national moratorium on any forms of foreclosure.

Any and ALL.


Yours is not the first horror story I've ever heard.


Take BofA to small claims court on that account. I'm sure it'll close immediately. OR have your sister AND yourself take your names off the account simultaneously at different branches. YES, it'll take a trip to two branches and co-ordination through cell phones, but break them.

Break them good.

[Ray1936]

BofA sends me daily junk mail containing blank checks and telling me how wonderful it would be for me to write myself a check and take care of whatever needs taking care of.

I shred the checks, but stuff the "Postage will be paid by addressee" full of shit and always mail it back.

[["Shit" figuratively. Not literally. Although it's tempting.)

[Gannon]

Everyone remembers that pervasive memory of the 80s and 90s of anywhere from 4 to 10 credit card applications arriving PER DAY in the mail, right?!


If anyone doubts that this current 'crisis' wasn't manufactured, please go see your proctologist and psychiatrist.

They will be studying the same general area, because your head is stuck.


Now the only people who get them are ones with credit scores higher than 700. The postal service must be suffering because of this loss of mail abuse.

[Jimaz]

I ... stuff the "Postage will be paid by addressee" full of shit and always mail it back.

It's been a while since I've heard of that amusing strategy. The heavier the contents, the greater the postage they have to pay. I recall hearing of mass movements where everyone involved mailed bricks back to them.

The problem with becoming a predatory business is that it limits future growth of your brand. It only makes sense if you expect your brand to become worthless anyway. Any business who goes that route is admitting that no one should do business with them. Isn't that obvious? Sometimes I wonder.

[Jimaz]

Everyone remembers that pervasive memory of the 80s and 90s of anywhere from 4 to 10 credit card applications arriving PER DAY in the mail, right?!

We received one of those just the other day. They may be coming back. Of course I shred them immediately without reading. Any honest businesses had better start lobbying again for stronger regulations because their crooked cohorts have destroyed their credibility too. Younger folks may not remember the time when businesses lobbied for strong regulation to protect their own interests.

Heh. Low credibility of credit card companies. There's an irony for you.

[Jimaz]

The OP link contains a link to the source that now displays "Service Temporarily Unavailable."

Cyberwars! LOL

[Detroitej72]

I shred the checks, but stuff the "Postage will be paid by addressee" full of shit and always mail it back.

[["Shit" figuratively. Not literally. Although it's tempting.)

Thanks for the great idea, I'll start doing that myself!

[1KielsonDrive]

Find a small, local bank, if any still exist, or a credit union and get ALL of your money out of big banks. Big banks exist for only ONE reason: to screw you in any and all manners possible. I opened a bank account about a year ago with National City, now PNC, due to their proximity to my business. How screwed up are they? Bad news. Only the second big bank I've done business with in my life. Big banks are the true criminals in our financial meltdown.

[1KielsonDrive]

I closed my Sears charge a few years ago when they were taken over by CitiGroup [[BANK!). I have a couple charges [[Best Buy and Home Depot) that I rarely use only in time of need. I keep an eye on them through my regular credit agency reports. I'll close them at the drop of a dime if they play any shenanigans. Banks are like coffee companies, they know they have us by the whatchamacallits.

[Whitehouse]

The Netherlands is a country with a very dense ATM network. And in every, I mean EVERY shop there's a way with which you can pay with your bank card. There really is no need to apply for a credit card. I've had one once, company issued by the way. It was an American Express card. I had to work for a couple of weeks in Hyderabad, India. And there was one instance where I was very lucky to have it.... Long story...

That's about the only way you can find me with a credit card in my pocket, going abroad far away. If I visit the USA I certainly would have one.

But my bank card cost me ZERO Euros.
All transactions: ZERO Euros.
[[Sometime I wonder how the bank is capable of making a profit... )

[gibran]

I just was hammered by BA and who do I call [[besides a lawyer) they have not reported my payments as on time and admitted to a mistake..but they have been reporting me to a credit agency for two years [[just started monitering credit).. they havent completed a work out agreement.. I was afraid that if I raised a fuss they would foreclose on me before I changed banks.. any ideas?

[Ray1936]

Here in metro Las Vegas, I bank with Bank of Nevada, a branch of Zion Bankcorp. In other words, a Mormon run bank. It consistently is rated the top area bank.

Mormons are among the most honest and ethical people in the US in my view. They have a wacky religion, but I like 'em just fine.

[1KielsonDrive]

Here in metro Las Vegas, I bank with Bank of Nevada, a branch of Zion Bankcorp. In other words, a Mormon run bank. It consistently is rated the top area bank.

Mormons are among the most honest and ethical people in the US in my view. They have a wacky religion, but I like 'em just fine.

I don't know about their honesty and ethics, but you're correct - they're a WACKY religion. One of the wackiest. On par with catolicism, minus the many centuries of developing and refining their wackiness.

[Whitehouse]

I don't know about their honesty and ethics, but you're correct - they're a WACKY religion. One of the wackiest. On par with catolicism, minus the many centuries of developing and refining their wackiness.

I had to LOL about that.

[TKshreve]

I don't know about their honesty and ethics, but you're correct - they're a WACKY religion. One of the wackiest. On par with catolicism, minus the many centuries of developing and refining their wackiness.

I spent some time in Utah opening a restaurant. Just about everyone that worked there was Mormon. Ray has it right. In my experience they are very sincere people, in general. I would be curious to see crime rates and such for Utah. I would guess there's good stuff there per capita. Anyone want to google that for me?

[Jimaz]

People who restock store shelves with alcohol products always strike me as surprisingly neat and clean for such a job. I heard somewhere that Mormons are preferred for that job because they would never drink alcohol even if their life depended on it. The few Mormons I've known were very nice and helpful. There are those who loathe them though.

They're also required to maintain a rotating stock of emergency food, IIRC. That sounds sensible.

[Whitehouse]

Here's something explosive.

Especially the Horwitz quote was damning.

In an effort to align its interests with its servicer customers, the company will often reinsure the policies it writes with the same servicer that requested them. "Such arrangements allow significant flexibility in structuring the sharing of risks and profits on the underlying business," Assurant notes.
The interests of the two parties are so aligned, in fact, that in many cases there ceases to be a clear difference between the entity purchasing insurance and the entity selling it.

So if it's accurate, the Anonymous leak is the smoking gun in this mess. Because it indicates from Bank of America's own internal documents that this was intentional fraud for profit, and explains just why mortgage companies were dragging out the foreclosure process -- and refusing modifications.
They were making so much more money on the re-insurance policies, it didn't pay to modify.

Man! Americans got raped by their own banks! First, Republicans made sure oversight was out of the window and after that it was a free-for-all for the banks. I have to admit, the scheme was clever but now that Wikileaks and Anonymous are outing the banks, this will get very messy. If you have bank stocks:
SELL, SELL, SELL!!!

[[But then the share prices will plummit, the government will again have to foot the bill, and that means you. The fat cats at the top get their bonuses and this pepetuum mobile will not stop. You all get fucked all over again....)

[East Detroit]

Also... BoA was my late mother's bank... and we've been trying since last autumn to close her account [[my sister and I had our names on it as well). Well closing an account with BoA is not as easy as it seems. If any transaction at all comes the accounts way... it automatically opens the account [[even with a zero balance)... and gives you an overrdraft fee... now 4 months later it's become the bank account from hell....

Do what we did.

Walk into the branch over there on Harper, and tell them you are closing your account[[s) and will wait for the checks. 15 minutes later they are handing us our money. 16 minutes later they are asking why we are closing our account[[s) and we said so that we can move our money to our credit union. Adios.