Debt Settlement Blog

Debt Relief Solutions, News and Advice for Saving Money
November 26, 2008

Feds Plans to Unfreeze Credit and Consumer Debt Market

Author: admin - Categories: Debt Relief Articles, Debt Settlement News

Debt settlement continues to grow at a rapid pace as more and more consumers are having trouble to affording their homes and credit card payments.  According to Bryan Dornan, who manages a San Diego internet marketing company, Nationwide Marketing, “In the last two decades, our economy saw robust growth that was created mostly from home equity spending and free flowing credit markets.”  Dornan continued, “Without facing the truth of our financial market and formulating a better game plan and executing it accordingly, our economy will continue to sink with more foreclosures, bankruptcies and decreased spending.” 

The government has introduced a pair of new programs that will provide $800 billion to help shore up mortgage lending and consumer loans for credit cards, student loans and auto financing.  Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has stated on several occasions how imperative lending is to revive the damaged financial markets for managing consumer debt that support our economy. 

Paulson has voiced his growing concerns for opening credit lines with more banks lending to key markets for consumer debt such as credit cards and that came crashing down again last month. He says the new FHA mortgage lending programs are aimed to get borrowing back to more normal levels.  Paulson claims that all the government programs have been aimed at supporting the lending that is vital to the economy.  Clearly the top-down waffling from Paulson and the banking institutes need to come to an end.  If banks don’t want to offer real mortgage refinance products or provide mortgage relief to struggling homeowners then they should stop putting their hand out for more bail-out money created from tax-payer funds.

  • Share/Bookmark
November 25, 2008

Fidelity National Financial Provides Loan Modification Platform

Author: admin - Categories: Debt Settlement News, Financial News

ServiceLink, the national mortgage services platform of Fidelity National Financial, has made available debt settlement services for all loan modification types, including rate resets, payment recasts and complex loan term adjustments. These home loan modification solutions allow mortgage lenders and servicers to streamline their processes, the company says.

The loan modification solutions include title, valuation, closing services, and mortgage modification guarantees. MMG provides assurance for eligible home mortgages that, when terms of an existing home loan are modified, the modification instrument does not affect the validity, priority or enforceability of the existing lien. The MMG eliminates the need for the mortgage lenders who are providing a loan work-out to track down the previous insurer to request for loan modification endorsements.

According to Kevin Gugenheim, executive vice president of ServiceLink, these mitigation solutions “help our clients meet a quickly evolving mortgage financing landscape,” says. “We have a very capable staff and veteran management team that’s working closely with our customers to define effective mortgage loan modification processes in a fluid environment.”

  • Share/Bookmark
November 21, 2008

Bankruptcy and Debt Settlement Cases Rise

Author: admin - Categories: Uncategorized

Over 100,000 consumers filed for bankruptcy in October.  Considering the current economic circumstances, it might seem reasonable for lots of folks to head to the nearest bankruptcy court. In fact, the bankruptcy process was changed in 2005 to assure that borrowers had as few rights as possible, thus discouraging bankruptcies.

“Perhaps most importantly for mortgage borrowers, the 2005 legislation says homeowners must obtain credit counseling and develop a budget analysis in the 180-day period before filing for bankruptcy.”  Of course, within 180 days you could be foreclosed before you can even get to a bankruptcy court.  Now the American Bankruptcy Institute reports that “overall October consumer filing total of 106,266 also represented a 20 percent increase from September. Chapter 13 filings constituted 32.6 percent of all consumer cases in October, a slight decrease from September.  Bankruptcy lawyers continue to report more and more cases for loan modifications and debt settlement, so the financial crisis continues to explode.

Financial stress?   How about a world-wide disaster built on bogus loan applications, predatory mortgage loans, massive prepayment penalties, insurance policies without reserves, grossly ineffective regulation and levels of risk which could not possibly be sustained. And weren’t.  The good news, relatively, is that those who financed with FHA mortgages at least have a shot at financial security. You’re unlikely to go bankrupt with FHA home loans because they prohibit massive payment increases, prepayment penalties or new loan applications which do not include checks for income and employment.  It’s unfortunate that many neighbors did not follow the same course.   > Read Complete Article.

  • Share/Bookmark
November 18, 2008

Reverse Mortgage Lending Settlement

Author: admin - Categories: Featured News Article - Tags:
468x60 - What’s Your Credit Score?

It’s a way to get quick cash, pay bills and buy the things you need or have wanted for a long time, but is it financial freedom or a step into a financial nightmare?  Joanne Bilyeu, 80, isn’t getting much sleep these days.  “I wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning and can’t go back to sleep,” she says.

The same is true for 69-year-old Erica baker. She tells the I-Team she can’t sleep at night.  These women live miles apart but they worry about the same thing — a reverse mortgage loan they took out on their homes.  They thought it would bring them financial freedom; instead it has been a financial nightmare.

A reverse home mortgage is exactly that. You get to pull out your equity in your home without selling it. You keep the title to your home. Your equity disappears but you have cash to spend. The I-Team found it comes with hidden costs.  Television ads selling these loans can be very persuasive and Bilyeu says so was her insurance agent when he signed her up for a reverse mortgage and then sold her an annuity, which is a common practice.  Bilyeu tells the I-Team the agent didn’t explain everything.  “I didn’t realize it would eat up my equity,” she says.  The 80-year-old widow also wasn’t aware that the annuity she was sold was a long term investment. If she needed money within 12 years, she would have to pay a heft penalty.

Financial elder abuse attorney, Ron Marron, says that tied up a lot of her cash flow. Marron has filed a class action lawsuit against Bilyeu’s insurance agent and Wells Fargo, the bank that approved the reverse mortgage. Marron claims they are in cahoots and tells the I-Team annuities bring in big bucks for the agents that sell them.  “The commissions are enormous,” he says.  In the lawsuit, Marron alleges the defendants were aware that the annuities being sold were inappropriate investments for seniors.  “It’s all about the money to them,” says Marron.

The I-Team dug deeper and looked into the insurance agent’s history. His name is Eddie Ybarra. He’s the person that advised Bilyeu to take out a reverse mortgage.  Earlier this year, in an unrelated case, the Insurance Commissioner of the State of California revoked his insurance license. According to the Insurance Commissioner’s report, Ybarra violated the trust of an elderly client.  The report says Ybarra promised a 75-year-old client he would invest $110,000 of her money, but didn’t.

According to the report, he pocketed $70,000 for himself and later admitted it.  We asked Ybarra about the license revocation. He told the I -Team, “I have no comment on that.”  We also asked him about Bilyeu’s case. Ybarra responded saying, “You’d have to speak to my attorney.”  Marron says annuities sold with reverse mortgages are a big problem.  “Financial elder abuse involving reverse mortgages and annuities is at epidemic levels right now,” he says.  It’s people like Bilyeu and Baker that are paying the price.  Baker was sold the same deal by a different company called Senior American Funding. They’re based in San Diego. In fees alone, she paid $17,000 for her reverse mortgage.  “I fell into it big time,” says baker.  Now she’s trying to dig herself out. With the help of Marron, Baker has filed a lawsuit against Senior American Funding alleging unfair, fraudulent and deceptive business practices.  Read complete 10 news article>

  • Share/Bookmark
November 11, 2008

Citi Settles with Loan Modifications

Author: admin - Categories: Debt Relief Articles - Tags: ,

The new loan modification initiative differs from Citi’s existing mortgage mitigation efforts in that it’s a much more proactive plan, said Eric Eve, Senior Vice President, Global Community Relations for Citi.  The credit giant maintains that they will determine where the need for mortgage modification is greatest, based on economic conditions, and send out letters to its homeowners in these areas to tell them that help is available should they need it.

This new initiative is open only to borrowers who are still current on their mortgage loans but are at risk of defaulting – particularly those borrowers who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are currently worth. Additionally, their loans must be owned by the bank, rather than sold off to investors.  Citi recently rolled out mortgage modifications to borrowers who were delinquent by cutting mortgage rates as low as 1% for up to 2 years for borrowers who they deemed had the ability to maintain making these lower mortgage payments on time each month. The bank says that its ongoing mortgage mitigation efforts have created about 370,000 loan work-outs since the beginning of 2007. 

For borrowers who have yet to default, Citi says they will help borrowers reduce their monthly home loan payment, including property taxes and insurance, to 40% debt to income ratio. In order to achieve this, they must settle credit card debt  and/ or lower interest rates.  Citi plans tocut mortgage rates while extending the loan term. In some cases they may even renegotiate the outstanding mortgage and reduce the home loan principal.  Das said the new plan will be implemented immediately and the workouts will be handled in a very fast, streamlined fashion to aid as many homeowners as quickly as possible.  Each of these new foreclosure prevention efforts, from Citi, IndyMac, Bank of America and JPMorgan, represent a significant step forward in resolving the housing crisis, according to Jared Bernstein, senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute. But, he adds, the problem remains overwhelming.  “These foreclosure prevention programs are helping but the help is marginal – in the hundreds of thousands of homeowners,” he said. “But help is needed by millions.”

  • Share/Bookmark