Comments on: Countrywide to Bail Out Overextended Borrowers

By: Me

Me — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:03:09 +0000

*My mother is not interested in re-mortgaging. She is just being approached by these banks trying to throw money at her. She declines and shakes her head in disgust.

By: Me

Me — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:59:54 +0000

We had some extenuating circumstances beyond our control this past year costing us our life savings +. Our business is one in construction that is badly being affected by the economy. Our mortgage is with Countrywide and we are going through this “rework” remortgage. Countrywide is offering very little in the way of making any significant changes for us, and the remortgage involves a “step-rate” interest rate which is completely open-ended. They want us to sign a contract without knowing what our interest rate will be after 2011.

On the other hand, my mother, who owns her house outright, who has very carefully dealt with her finances all her life to keep her safe in her retirement, is being offered over $200,000.00 to remortgage. That’s where the bailout money is going-to people who don’t need it and therefore are sure bets for companies like Countrywide.

What’s happened has happened, we’ll take our lumps and misfortunes and move on with our lives, but it will probably mean giving our house to Countrywide, a company who has no real interest in assisting people in holding onto their homes.

By: razmaspaz

razmaspaz — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 15:05:59 +0000

Well Wall St. Likes it to the tune of 16%. I don’t know how countrywide can’t do this. They can either write off the entire loan (and flood the market with foreclosures) or they can take a little less profit and move on. If CW can return these to manageable payments, and still make a deal their investors like, more power to them.

By: David Mackey

David Mackey — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:53:51 +0000

Very good thoughts on this, not that I don’t want people to be rescued in this instance, but it might not be a bad idea to make it mandatory to also attend a financial training seminar.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:00:50 +0000

I am on the same page as Joel. They are certainly giving a good PR show with talks of these “bailouts”, and working with their customers, but I think we can all agree that these companies aren’t going to roll over and lose money willingly.

There may be some borrowers that can requalify for better loans. They may offer refinance discounts over their already inflated costs. No real charity there. The rest of them are probably in subprime loans for a good reason – they are a credit risk. CW isn’t going to give them a free right, and I’d be willing to bet many of these resetting ARMs are going to be converted to fixed high rate 50 year loans, to keep the payments low but keep their risk minimal and their interest profit high.

By: Mrs. Micah

Mrs. Micah — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:46:16 +0000

I’m glad they’re reworking it because of their end of the responsibility. But we’ll see what happens. I hope the borrowers will be accountable and use this bailout for good.

By: Joel

Joel — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:34:47 +0000

I’m holding judgment until details leak out of how this “rework” happens. Just as lenders got borrowers excited about mortgages they couldn’t afford, they could just as likely be getting troubled borrowers excited about a “rework” that may involve all kinds of penalties and charges that make it a bad deal. We’ll have to see how it shakes out, and what other lenders do.