Don't Bank on Fairness from your Bank.

My husband and I wanted to pay down our mortgage and refinance at a lower rate. We had been struggling with a high payment for a few years. And when my husbands father passed we received a little money and thought we would ease the payment a little by paying it down.

We applied in January and it has been one bump after another. Accusing us of liens we did not have on the house, forcing us to go to the Attorney Generals office to clear our name of any liens there where. This happened twice, in which the Attorney Generals office could find no record of us having any liens. The bank assumed because the name was the same as my husband that it was him, without verifying his social nor birth date. We had to bring in my husbands deceased wife's death cert. 3 times. And then they put her name on our checking account. Which we had to sign yet more papers to have her name removed.

They promised us a lower rate for 15 yrs and yet the day before the closing said that we couldn't have it. By then (11 weeks into it) I blew my stack and said that we would take our business elsewhere. I believe they want to keep you in debt for as long as possible. We did finally close with the promised rate. But, had to go through numerous hoops to get there.

What is going on here? They don't want you to pay down your loans, pay your loan current. I read Zarp3333 his story and it makes me so mad how unfair our bank system is. Sorry had to vent!

I've found the best thing to do is ALWAYS deal with small banks.
I live in a city of less than 3,000 people so you can imagine how small the bank is.
I have never had any problem being financed for whatever it is I need.
Car, House, Personal, and even a boat lol.
Big banks only care about money. The longer you owe them money, the more money they get.
It's a trap.

reply to post by MysteriousEyes1

Sounds like quite an infuriating story. The only reason I can think of for them doing this is they will lose some income/profit. Seeing as how mortgages are a very profitable thing for them, I can't imagine it would make that much difference over a 25 or 30 year period but they are probably one of the greediest organisations around and have plenty of money and legal possibilities to get what they want.

I hope you get things sorted soon.

When dealing with the bank use every tool at your disposal to mess with them, they will do the same to you so be prepared.

My father was having problems trying to even get the modification packet for his loans, until I told them I was advising him to bail on everything and move out of state with me.

All of a sudden they got eager to help.

Oh and depending on your bank, you may want to troll them on face book, keep telling horrible stories about them, ive seen reports of BOA contacting these people with offers to help if they agree to stop posting about them.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Thanks, LightSpeedDriver. We closed on it a couple of days ago with no hitches. Thank goodness, enough was enough. I guess threatening to take our business elsewhere helped. The weird thing is we have never had a problem with them before.

reply to post by benrl

Thanks Benrl, I will have to remember this.

reply to post by GmoS719


Actually the best thing to do would be to NEVER deal with any bank.
They have a staff of lawyers ready to take what is yours at a seconds notice, while you have only you.
I avoid banks like a flying black herpes infestation.
I will never have to worry about a bank run or a negative balance.
Imagine never having to worry about a negative balance, when the money is gone you just cannot spend it!

Before you sign anything ask them to produce the wet ink signature note to the last mortgage.
If they do at least you know they hold it, if they can't produce it (which is why I think they are stalling)
I would have a title search done first. If it went through the MERS system and the note has been lost you may find out that after paying your house off you still don't own it since no one is able to produce the deed.


Just for giggles if the title is lost pay 13$ to the county recorder and claim the property (like the man who claimed an abandoned house when the owners were forclosed and the bank went under) and see what happens, you never know.

reply to post by VforVendettea


Very good advice. Thank you.