BrownEyes

I got my first credit card after doing a lot of credit repair 15 years ago. It was eventually sold to Chase. It was a very high interest card but I kept a low or nothing balance all this time to keep building credit. All my accounts are paid automatically and I’m never late. I made a $150 purchase in July on this card. It didn’t get paid automatically for an unknown reason. It’s like their system lost my checking info and auto payments was shut off. No one could explain why. I had a string of life-changing events happen since that purchase including the loss of my granddaughter... I get online statements and received one late notice in August that went to trash, so it didn’t get paid. My credit monitoring notified me that Chase is showing more than 60 days past due and the account was closed. I called Chase immediately. Their rep was so nice and seemed to think it could be fixed. She just needed to “bring it current” first. I stated repeatedly I wanted to fix the credit reporting first. She insisted no one would help me until it was at least current. I authorized the payment. She puts me on hold then comes back saying, “Sorry. Account is closed and can’t be reopened.” Three calls, six transfers, and two hours later I now have a delinquent closed account. My oldest longest reporting trade line is now delinquent and I gave them money. Am I royally screwed now?

I feel your pain. I really do. My husband took our boys and built a beautiful play house the summer before we were foreclosed on. That hurt more than anything when we had to leave it behind. But there is life after foreclosure. I promise! Once we came to grips with losing our house, it was actually a relief when it was all said and done. We are almost one year post foreclosure and I can tell you there IS life and happiness after. For us it's been an opportunity to teach our kids that we're strong and as a family we can overcome obstacles. My kids have learned that life isn't always fair and sometimes you are faced with tough decisions. We know we won't be in this rented house forever and it's just a place to hang our hats for now. And it's OK. It really is! Someday we'll own our forever house again, and my boys and their father are already working on the plans to build an even bigger and better playhouse together.

You said he didn't have the "right". Yet, he does have every right. That's the point. No one can predict the future. The what ifs are questions one asks themselves when they end up in situation like the OP's. No one buys a house thinking, nor planning, they will take thousands and thousands in losses due to no fault of their own in case one of those "what ifs" arise. In fact, most people purchase a home thinking that down the road they can sell if need be in case one or more of those what ifs happens! If a purchase of a home was *just* to have a place to live, why would anyone buy one? They do it because it's *also* supposed to be an investment. (Hence the fact that people also buy to rent.) Or something to pass on to your children. You can't do either if you're suddenly underwater so far there's no way the home will be worth what you paid for it in your lifetime. We were quite financially sound when we purchased our home. There was no way to know in the near future everything would come crashing down in our economy, that we would suffer through a job loss and hardship in the years to come. I was out of work six months. When I did find a job it was at considerably less pay. We depleted our savings to continue paying on the mortgage. We took most of our son's college money and used it to make mortgage payments. We had a crappy loan to boot and there was no way out once were upside down. We tried repeatedly working with the bank a good year or more before the savings ran out. Once the savings was gone and we could no longer make payments, we tried to short sell. The bank jerked us around so many times on "lost paperwork" and other immoral crap, that they are now being investigated for how they handled us. Oh and we lost the house to foreclosure in April last year. So we dumped all we had into that house for nothing. The bank got paid insurance money, plus they sold the house. We got nothing. (Except an extremely overpriced place to live for four years....) I posted on these very forums in 2008 shortly after we bought the house (and the market tanked) and we were "only" 25k underwater at that point... (by the time it was foreclosed, it was 100k in the hole). Looking back, our only regret in all this is that we didn't walk away in 2008. At least we'd still have our savings. Now we live in a newer and bigger house and our rent is $500 cheaper per month than our mortgage payments were. We can leave whenever we want in case any "what ifs" should arise... But without the heartache, stress, and worry about living in an house we can't get out of. Had I known in 2008 that it was only going to get worse, I very much would have walked away instead of holding on to that lost cause. Yeah, it strikes a nerve.

Again, a home is not a guaranteed investment. At no point were you promised a positive return on your purchase. I agree, our financial markets are in the toilet, but it does not give one the right to walk away when the value of their home goes down. He legally has every right to walk away if he chooses. He absolutely has the right to breech his contract if he so chooses. If you're taking morally? Big businesses do this all the time if the investment they purchased no longer offers returns. No one bats an eye. But the average guy who doesn't want to be trapped doesn't have the "right"? Get real. Maybe he can afford it now but what about the future? What about if he dies? Who inherits the loss then? What if he has to relocate for his job? No one wants to feel TRAPPED and that's exactly how it feels. *ESPECIALLY* if a situation arises where you know in the near future you will not be able to continue paying for a lost cause. It's a hopeless feeling... I've been there. You moral police with your guilt trips aren't giving good solid advice either.

I don't know how Realtors work in other states, but here they are paid by the seller AT closing, not before. The Realtor will be paid a percentage of the sales price, based on his/her agreement with you before they even start to sell your house. They don't see a dime until the house is sold. Realtors do short sales because they still get paid. It's a lot of work, and the pay is less, but it's a paycheck none-the-less. In my short sale situation, my Realtor negotiates her fee for getting the house sold with the bank, not me. I won't be paying one penny to her if the house sells. I would suggest asking around (friends/family/etc) for a good Realtor and then calling one. They can tell you how it works.

I'm no longer replying to the OP. But in case anyone is wondering: HAMP told me I did not qualify FOR HAMP. HAMP told me our Our HTI is 30% currently and our loan is interest only for now. The HAMP guidelines state you have to be at 31% WITH principle. And they don't appear to know how to work with interest only loans when it's not quite at that guideline, but will be. The HOPE line told me that the 31% guideline MUST include principle. The HOPE line called the bank and asked what our payment would be with principle and the bank refuse to tell her that. They tried multiple times on my behalf because they agreed we'd easily qualify with the principle based on their determination of what the payment would be when the interest only period ends. But they needed something from the bank. Especially in our situation. (We have four children still at home.) But the bank claims they don't know because our rate will be adjustable by the time the principle kicks in. HAMP suggested we go for a traditional mod, without them. So we did. THAT was denied for paperwork missing. So to recap in case there's any confusion: 1. We did not qualify for HAMP based on the current loan terms (principle only), but HAMP told us we would EASILY qualify with principle. 2. We tried for HARP. Too underwater. 3. We tried for a traditional mod directly from the bank. Denied for paperwork missing. 4. Tried for a short-sale and after two months of battling "missing paperwork" we have an offer in that's in review. That's where we currently stand. We do not fit in any of the categories the jaded, rude, and judgmental OP posted.

You have a lot of nerve, cinderella. To copy and paste only portions of my posts in an attempt to prove I fit into one of your categories? Vile. You left out the parts about the job loss, the income being less, the part where we depleted our entire savings paying on this mortgage instead of sending our child to college, all while TRYING to work with the bank on this TOXIC MORTGAGE we were scammed into. You also left out the parts where we didn't know the terms of the mortgage until ONE DAY before signing and that our loan officer committed fraud by backdating the GFE. That we signed under the threat of being sued and the promise of a refi in three years. You left all THAT out. You left out that these are MULTIPLE modification attempts. I was denied for every reason I gave because these were MULTIPLE attempts! They don't want to commit fraud? Then why are the BANKS telling me to miss some payments?? They knew as of two years ago now that we were making payments out of savings and it was running out. THEY told me to not make at least three payments, then a modification would be considered. Those were their exact words. We took THE BANK'S advice. But we chose the short sale route. We have given up any hope of staying in this house. Our situation has changed enough (as my prior posts have spelled out) that we can't afford it anymore as we dumped all we had into it! It's been a nightmare for us which I've also posted. I've posted about the stress, the worry, the frustration of our situation multiple times but you left all that out too. You can take your categories and stick them where the sun doesn't shine.

I dunno. I've known Cinders for a long time, before CB existed. She's not that sort of person. I don't always agree with her on things, lol- but I'm sure her motives aren't nefarious. I think it's just a case of working the other side of the fence and seeing things from that perspective, while having no personal experience with HAMP as a homeowner. I'm not sure folks really realize how poorly implemented it is until they actually try to use it. What other possible reason could there be to post it here? Over and over? What purpose does it serve? It's not like she's telling us about the people who work at HAMP and how that side of things are. She's consistently stereotyping those on this side of things and it's always bad. And if someone tries to give her a differing view of the banks and the bad things THEY do, she won't hear of it. Like the "lost paperwork" thing. It just serves zero purpose. Especially because I completely disagree that most people that request mods are bad people or are in the categories she described. This forum is to ask for help and advise. Not be belittled FURTHER from someone working at or for a bank. Those in MY situation get enough of THAT.

That sucks and I'm sorry to hear that. The banks eat lots of documents. It's just a game they play, and in my experience are purposely vague about what they need as a stall tactic. One minute telling you everything is in order, but sending letters to the contrary, purposely confusing the homeowner. As for cinderella's categories, I fit none. And I would venture to say most on here don't fit. In my opinion, she posts this garbage in this very section of the forums, where many people are asking for help/advice, in an attempt to make them feel bad.

Sad...

That sucks. Maybe you can get it changed again? We can now access it online so I always know what's owed and always keep a positive balance in case of things like that. Each year they give us a refund at the end of the year and I just put it right back into the account.

Thank you. I'll contact them on Monday.

So does that mean we can't ever get that to show a different status? I don't care that the garnishment is on the report, but the fact that it's negative and affecting his score is what bothers me. It's not late, it's not in collections, yet that's how it's reporting.

Kavey, That really sucks! What happened to my husband is he and his ex were going to avoid lawyers and do their own divorce, custody agreement, everything. They even took a class for it. While she went through all the motions with him on doing their own divorce, she was having a lawyer draft up papers behind his back. Long story short, she tricked my husband, lied, didn't have him properly served (I'm not sure how she got around that), etc. then one day they were divorced. Just like that. It was crazy. Anyway, I'm not sure I understand what you guys mean by "compelled"?

Anyone else have any other ideas?