Complaint Review: Countrywide Financial - Simi Valley California

and the 'Update By Author', which was submitted on February 11, 2012.

Then type in all of the following numbers at this site and read the Ripoff Reports for important information if you have a mortgage-

481508
476868
666769
250108
803940

After chasing Bank of America  (who now owns Country Wide) on this subject for over 2 years, I was finally able to get them to do a internal security review of the situation.

They sent it to their fraud department, and it was found: 

The signature (reportedly MY SIGNATURE) DID NOT MATCH the other signatures. This mismatching signature was on the "Pre-Payment Addendum", which caused me to pay over $12k in fees on a re-finance.

Now, when I asked what are they going to do about it... and how are they going to fix the situation.

NOTHING!!!  They said that they are not going to do ANYTHING to help out, even though they admit the signatures do not match.

How bold of them to say this... my next step was to report them them  the

  Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (better known as the OCC (no were not talking about Orange County Cycles, thats a different OCC).

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Website

The OCC is now investigating this situation, and its now 5 months later, and its still under review... so I guess I just have to sit and wait for them to complete their review.

Scott, No offense to you, but this entire mortgage deal stinks from here in Illinois. Again, I have several years in the mortgage banking industry. Your assertation that you were forced to pay erroneious accounts or judgements on your credit report raises red flags, as does this " power of attorney" to correct missing information or mistakes AFTER the closing. The purpose of the initial application (1003) is to gather information about the property, and the borrower, it " initiates" the process, and if you recall, along with the application, you should have signed several disclosures, and the borrowers authorization to pull your credit, and obtain sensitive inforamation from your employer, your bank, and your existing mortgage company, along with your homeowners insurance company. Along with the 1003, you should have been provided a Good Faith Estimate and Truth In Lending form that you are required to sign. These forms clearly spell on the terms of the mortgage note. Your loan officer should have explained every fee that was charged, and after reviewing these forms you are required to sign them. When the loan officer gathers these supporting documents, verification of employment, bank statements, proof of insurance, and payoff, along with your credit report, the underwriter reviews all that is on these documents to make sure you have met all of their requirements to secure the loan. No one said your credit was less then perfect, but please be advised that often the borrowers with the best credit are subject to debt to income that are less then 50%. You mention that you had some erroneous information on your credit report, and these were not your debts, I have no reason to believe that they are not your debts, however, I do question why you closed this loan, after being forced to pay something that is not yours after showing proof that they were not yours? I have worked with over 200 lenders, and I have found that every lender I have worked with, if provided with solid proof that the information is erroneous will place a copy of that proof in the file and ignore it, NOT MAKE SOMEONE PAY IT. If what you say is true( and I have no doubt that it is) this power of attorney to change the loan after closing reaks of FRAUD. If I were you, I certainly would contact the governing body that regulates the mortgage industry in your state. You state the broker said.. they will take care of the problem later, doesn't seem on the up and up , you obviously were taken, again, perhaps you learned a lesson the hard way, I am sorry this happened to you.. but I am still scratching my head as to why anyone would close on this loan, given the issues of paying off debts that were not yours and you had proof it wasn't yours, and signing closing documents when the loan wasn't what you were told. After you left the closing, why didn't you drive over to the brokers office? When refinancing you have a 3 day right of recission..why didn't you question the broker then? I am not a big fan of Countrywide, I have nothing to gain from this post, but I have to agree with Countrywide, you signed at closing.. Countrywide, didn't mislead you, I see this as a result of a very bad mortgage broker.. who misled you.

I was told that I had to sign the power of attorney so that they could correct errors and blanks in the documents without having me sign a complete new package of docs. this might not be that way in your state. but all the mortgages that I have gotten here in AZ have been that way. so seeing that doc to sign seemed pretty normal. As far as being over debt to income. you are making assumptions without the facts. 1. I had a credit score of over 700 2. Credit Card Debt was 8.99% interest, with low payment of $180.00. 3. Auto Loan was interest rate of 7.99% through a credit union, with a payment of $424.00 My D/I Ratio WITH keeping the CC and CAR LOAN would have been around 42%, I make roughly double what the average income is for the area. I provided them the docs from the lawsuits, and attorney general advising them of the indictments, and charges of consumer fraud, they flat out refused to look at them.

In response to your post.. first of all, You should have walked out of the closing when the terms of the mortgage note was explained to you. Why did you give a mortgage broker power of attorney? I was in the mortgage business for many years and NEVER asked a client for " power of attorney" to correct errors.. did you attend the closing or was this in another state? More questions for you: Forced to pay off the FRAUD ON MY CREDIT REPORT - ~$18,000<<<< you didn't have proof that this was not your debt.. that is interesting.. if you cannot prove its not yours, you have to pay it. Forced to pay off the one Auto Loan on my Credit Report ~$24,000<<< you probably were over your debt to income issues Payoff the Credit Cards ~ $16,000<<< over debt to income issues Lenders are heavily regulated.. if your debt to income exceeded 50% of your monthly net income you had to pay off these debts, I am sure someone explained that to you. Otherwise you never would have qualified for the loan. Intersting that you dont mention how much money you save each month on high cost credit card debt and auto loan payments. Also interesting is that you didn't mention that with your debt consolidation now you can write off the interest at the end of the year.. so really other then the interest rate being higher then you were quoted everything seems like it was done with your best interests in mind. Debt consolidation is a great way to get out of debt and save money every month, plus more write offs at the end of the year. Pay option arms.. dangerous.. your so concerned about having to pay off high interest credit cards, but have no problem with deferred interest on your mortgage, interesting , because if you make only the minimal payments.. you will end up owing more on your house then its actual worth. Hopefully you learned a lesson aboutnot signing power of attorney for no reason. Forced to pay Exorbant Lender and Title Fees ~ $10,000

Gary in Chambersburg; You make a valid point. As I mentioned during the signing of the docs I called the broker and asked them that very thing... they told me that because I signed the power of attorney that it was most likely a clerical error and would get corrected, so I trusted what was being told of me... Now after the fact it seem shta that broker and lender were in on it...

How is paying 10,000 in fees and 18,000 in fraud a means to an end? Why would you not rescind? I mean you say in your into the fees were exhorbant yet you agree to the terms? Did you not read through the paperwork that was provided at closing and discover the terms you agreed to during the rescission period? I mean you have three days. Now you come on here and complain. I just don't understand. Amazing that 45% of Countrywides portfolio consists of the option arm products. I mean in 2006 you could have had a 30 year fixed in the mid 6% range with no prepay. These interest only neg am products are garbage, the have prepays and the rate rises, simple as that. But why in the world would you not rescind?