Wells Fargo: One Lie After Another, One Mortgage Holders StoryIt's no secret that I hate Wells Fargo. I hate them with a passion because they constantly lie to me. Unfortunately for me, Wells Fargo is not only my alleged mortgage holder, they are also my primary banking account holder now that they took over Wachovia. I say "alleged mortgage holder" because like many Americans, my mortgage has changed hands a few times since I first got it back in 1990 and the ONLY people to give me ANY mortgage documents was the original Mortgage holder.
I became unemployed on June 5th, 2009 and shortly thereafter I informed Wells Fargo. I wanted to keep them in the loop and informed and see what payment options they might be able to offer me. Instead of help, all I got was lip service and one lie after another.
In June of 2010 I received a letter from Wells Fargo stating that the insurance on my home expired 5/3/10 and that a Binder from QBE Specialty Insurance Company for $5,471.75 was taken out on my property by Wells Fargo. I call this…
Lie Number 1: Wells Fargo had ALREADY paid my homeowners insurance $1,677.00 from my Escrow on April 16th for coverage just like Wells Fargo did the years before to my Insurance Company. So why after paying it were they now telling me that I was uninsured?
Apparently, the "left hand" does not talk to the "right hand" at Wells Fargo and they tried to rape me and charge me $3,794.75 MORE with an overpriced insurance policy of their choosing. Why? I suspect that Wells Fargo has some interest in QBE Specialty Insurance Company in some way. It took several phone calls and e-mails to get the $5,471.75 removed, but it did not end there. No, the people at Wells Fargo were determined to charge me something and they did! Wells Fargo charged me $494.87 for 30 days of Insurance from QBE Specialty Insurance Company and they took it without my authorization from my Equity Line.
My Equity Line had been frozen for two years. Wachovia closed it when the housing market took a dump in 2008 and I cannot even make online payments to pay it back, I have to call and have them do a transfer. Yet, Wells Fargo was able to take $494.87 from it. Like before it took over a month of calls and e-mails to get that charge removed.
Right from the start of my unemployment I was trying to get one of those "loan modifications" I was hearing about in the news. After all Wells Fargo got 25 billion in TARP funds, surely they could help me, right? Wrong! I was told No several times. I was told No because according to Wells Fargo "unemployment and unemployment compensation do not count". Still I persisted and I got a Special Forbearance, or as I like to call…
Lie Number 2:In October 2010 I had sent Wells Fargo all the information they wanted. They got 3 years worth of documents including bank receipts, income tax filings, utility bills and everything else they wanted. They rejected me because they said I had a deficit to American Express of $4,939.00. Except I had NOT had an American Express Account of ANY kind for several years and that charge was NOT mine.
I called American Express who acknowledged that it was a mistake and the charge should not have been on my Credit Report and had it removed, they also notified Wells Fargo, and since that was what I was originally denied for, Wells Fargo might be able to help me now.
A
Special Forbearance Agreement was sent to me from Wells Fargo shortly thereafter. Special Forbearance meant that Wells Fargo would agree to reduce my monthly payments to $537.01 for 3 months to see if I could make those lower payments and could lead to permanently lowering my monthly payments. The way the agreement was written it looked to put me in default right from the start as it required back payments to be paid, I called and was told by Wells Fargo that was not the case, I now call this….
Lie Number 3:The Wells Fargo agent I spoke with said that past due payments would be applied to the end of the loan and to make the 3 special payments as stated in the Special Forbearance Agreement. I was still making $275 per week on unemployment and these reduced payments would be hard to make, but I made them on time as required.
The Special Forbearance payments were NEVER applied to my Mortgage, all $1,611.03 of it sits unapplied in Wells Fargo Limbo and Wells Fargo refuses to tell me why. To further add insult to injury during the Special Forbearance my regular monthly payments not only did NOT go down, they went UP due to something being wrong with the Escrow. Now comes what I call…
Lie Number 4: Wells Fargo says they rejected the Special Forbearance after I accepted it because they did not get additional information, which they already had got in October and I have the FedEx Tracking Number and Receipt to prove it. So even though I held up my end of the Special Forbearance Agreement, Wells Fargo reneged on theirs as I was making the special payments. I now have until March 15th 2011 to pay $2,283.03 in Certified Funds to bring my Mortgage current or else face acceleration and foreclosure.
Summary:I'm not alone, I'm sure a lot of people get lied to by their banks. I feel it's a story worth sharing, a story worth repeating. It is a warning to all others not to let this happen to them. We have over 15 million American people unemployed and have 2 to 3 million foreclosures a year and nobody, not our elected representatives, and certainly not the banks, which pay to get said representatives elected, want to help.
In my opinion, if Wells Fargo truly wanted to help they could, they could modify the mortgage to help me since that is what President Obama asked them to do over a year ago. Apparently, John Stumpf lied to the President the same way his bank has lied to me. However, it is clear that Wells Fargo does not want to help and will not help. I wonder how many more homeowners like myself have been lied to by Wells Fargo? How many more are they refusing to help?
Along the journey I found out a lot about Wells Fargo including some stories they are probably not too proud of.
More About Wells Fargo:1). John Stumpf, Wells Fargo CEO 2009 Total Compensation: $21,340,547
According to The New York Times, Wells Fargo's CEO John Stumpf was the highest paid of any financial industry executive in 2009. He received $21.3 million in 2009 total compensation, $6.5 million more than he received in 2007 before the financial crisis unfolded. Of that, more than $10 million was in the form of "retention performance shares" paid after Wells Fargo was free from TARP compensation limits. By comparison, the average worker made $32,048 in 2009. John G. Stumpf made 665 times the average worker's pay."
Sources:
http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/pay...http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/pay...2). Wells Fargo takes 25 billion in TARP funds and the only plans they had for it was throwing the already super rich Wells Fargo executives a really big party. They only stopped the party plans when it went public. Wells Fargo: Forced to Take Stimulus Money, Does What They Are Told to do, Now in Troublehttp://bungalowbillscw.blogspot.com/2009...Wells Fargo Cancels Plans To Spend Stimulus Money On Giant Partyhttp://patdollard.com/2009/02/wells-farg...Wells Fargo to repay $25 billion bailouthttp://money.cnn.com/2009/12/14/news/com...Stumpf was one of 12 bank CEOs present at the White House Monday (December 14, 2009) where president Obama urged them to make more loans to small businesses and modify mortgages to aid struggling homeowners. Except to people like me I guess, right John?
3). At least one Wells Fargo executive was known to throw lavish parties in foreclosed mansions that Wells Fargo now owned and one executive was fired for doing so. "In Malibu, Calif., Wells Fargo executive Cheronda Guyton occasionally occupied a $14.9 million beach house to host swanky social gatherings, according to newspaper reports. One catch: the property's former owners had lost the home to foreclosure after they were victimized by Bernie Madoff – and the estate was claimed by their bank – that's right, Wells Fargo. When residents within the gated community glimpsed the parties, they got Guyton's name from security guards and turned her in. Wells Fargo fired Guyton in September 2009." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39312450/ns/...4). Philadelphia Man Forecloses On Wells Fargo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/02/17...By far my favorite story and inspires me to do the same thing.
Wells Fargo has the slogan
"Together We'll Go Far". Well no, not from what I've seen you won't go anywhere. In my opinion I think a more accurate slogan might be "Lies, Lies and More Lies", but that might not look good on their letterhead.