Let’s get one thing clear here, 995 Hope is funded and supported by mainly banks and lenders. Not consumer rights activists, not Bill Gates and certainly not Warren Buffet.
The very banks and lenders that sold you the toxic loan that has caused you some serious stress and grief, are now posing as Hope Now ”do gooders” by giving millions to fund this national campaign to help homeowners fix their loans and save their homes.
Click on this link, Hope Now members , to view all the banks and lenders that fund the hot line.
Excuse me, but I certainly do not think that an organization that obtains it’s donations from banks and lenders are truly looking out for the consumers best interests. These counselors are not trained in identifying predatory lending and mortgage fraud. They are not examining their clients loans to see if they are lawful and not fraudulent. They do not have the mortgage and legal skills to combat and remedy these predatory lending situations.
So, 995 Hope’s attempts to be of service to the consumer/homeowner, are actually being an extreme disservice to our communities by not enforcing these consumer protection laws and going after these very banks that are causing this crisis.
My guess is that this is all part of the master “lender plan.”
I wonder when these lenders and the merry Hope Now coalition members thought of this “new marketing propaganda gimmick” to mass promote a number to the American people and have it disguised as a non-profit that is here to help you save your home?
How clever. They duped you once by selling you a toxic loan and now they are going to dupe you “again” by having you call this hot line for help.
I say call 888-SCREW HOPE NOW!
CNBC Article on 995 Hope:
The government’s flagship program to give struggling homeowners relief from overwhelming mortgage payments has left hundreds if not thousands of callers frustrated by long wait times, lack of follow-up and relatively minor loan modifications that have failed to help.
A story last week on msnbc.com generated hundreds of e-mail responses from readers who have called the heavily promoted hotline. Almost all the callers said they encountered a variety of roadblocks in their efforts to save their homes.
This is something I have known for quite sometime and here is a recent comment from a reader of my blog on their experience with the 995 Hope Hell!
Called them.. they were more interested in pushing a DMP to me than helping me with a workout of my loan. Basically told me to call Homecomings. What a joke! Ive been calling Homecomings who basically said we cant help you. Well fine homecomings you can take a 100k bath on my house.
More from CNBC:
But the Hope Now hotline has left many callers frustrated and without hope, judging from e-mail correspondence. Readers report difficulty getting through to hotline counselors, cursory reviews of their cases, lack of follow-up, confusion over who is eligible for help, and, for those who did reach lenders, relatively minor loan modifications that weren’t sustainable over the long term.
“I was fortunate to find a helpline like HOPE, which helped with the depression I was going through of losing my home,” said a reader named Yenny from Roselle, N.J. “The problem is the loan modification that I just got from my lender is higher, and I cannot afford it. What do I do now?”
Here is another 995 Hope Unsatisfied client:
I called this number prior to contacting countrywides loss mitigation department because I wanted to see what they can help me with since they were a third party and maybe they could help me out, but they were no help at all. The person I spoke with said well your not delinquent and most likely your mortgage is only serviced by countrywide and the investors own it so they will not be able to do a modification.
Her solution to me after about 2 minutes into conversation was that we could go over my financials and she could help me decide what bills to get rid of like cellphone cable etc she said
. I told her no thanks and called countrywide who is looking into a loan modification which I have faxed over documentation and hopefully they will be able to help me after all the bad things I see on them. Just wanted to share my thoughts about that number and their service.
Kristin
Here are some more reads on the hotline and Hope Now:
Please do not call 888-995-HOPE for Hope Now, if you are not late on your mortgage
995 Hope – Do not call them for help or hope
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Isnt it interesting how they cant seem to show the data for who they have helped. I called months ago and was told my bank was not participating, wtf!! So they transferred me to CCCS Atlanta to look at our finances and tell us basically that we were in over our head and let us know if there is anything else they can do for us.
What a joke! Bush admin. is oblivious, hey dubya why not go out with a bang and help those that really need it instead of helping your buddies!!
Yeah,
I got the same thing, they told me not to pay my unsecured debt and send more to the mortgage company. I wish I’d have gotten the mortgage on my credit card, I’d call them and tell them I got scammed into buying one house for the price of two. Not paying my payments on $8000 worth of unsecured debt is going to make up for the $150-200k I’m upside down in this house.
I’m glad that was a toll free call.
The HOPE NOW ALLIANCE is the biggest JOKE of this century….
They are just there because they have to be there….. they really don’t do anything. They are least ineterested in what one is going through & have least interest in helping.
Another big joke.. Asking a homeowner in trouble to prove his income….. when that person got a loan with no income document, that was his best time. Now in his worst time, the lenders ask to prove the income.
The bank & lenders will lose 50% of the loan, approx $200,000.00 on an average loan in california, but will not help the homeowner by working with him.
This is all a big conspiracy to get more & more people in foreclosure.
Are you suggesting the HOPE NOW Alliance is responsible for your inability to service your mortgage debt? Do you want us to believe you were all victims? What about your responsiblity to identify, evaluate & measure the risks associated with mortgaging your property? How about some accountability from you, and some ownership for the decisions you made and were responsible for?
So it is with great relief that i continue to learn of the limited effectiveness of the Alliance’s ability to prevent foreclosures and house price declines. This is a voluntary private industry led bailout, and loan servicers are under no obligation to participate or perform responsibilities other than those outlined in servicer agreements. And you guys are already being bailed out by ~5% YOY inflation rate, no doubt an attempt by the Fed to blunt the effects of real house price declines. The correction is ongoing, accept it and capitulate.
The problem is not that people are bad and got more than they could afford. The problem is taht naive homebuyers went to mortgage brokers who gave them sweet words and said this is waht you can afford. I did not know how to calculate mortgage payments and how to calculate income ratios, I relied on a lender to tell me this is how much home you can buy and I followed his advice. Property values fell and I have a subprime loan and negative equity. Hope now did nothing for me because I was not late and they sent me an application for CCCS in california when I live in Maryland. What a joke that was.
Jenny, you bear all responsiblity for the risks you assume when mortgaging your home. That you did not understand those risks and were unable to determine the amount of house you could afford does not absolve you.
hey gary the hope LESS, hope was created to give good press and help slow the drop in stocks, no one cares about all the deadbeats losing homes, Paulson donated 16 million to a lobbyist against the foreclosure bill meanwhile they are still tallying his 30 plus million he made on hedgefunds betting against mortgages, how nice, yet an fbi agent can not have a second job but a treasury secretary can manipulate the system nicejob, guess how many maggots will be outta there in NOV this year ba bye
I just had to reply to this one. I called them in hopes that they might be my last hope to help me negotiate a loan modification with CW. As usual, I received the same ole same ole. . . I’m sorry, but your situation is beyond our scope. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve heard that before, thank you folks for a big fat nothing. I’ve come to the conclusion after months of attempting to get assistance that all these organizations do, along with the lenders who are making the media and congress beleive that they are bending over backwards to help struggling homeowners is plain old lip service and nothing more. They are cherry picking the easy ones and leaving the more complicated to fend for themselves because they’re too overwhelmed or perhaps, just plain lazy?!
You know, Gary,
You sound like a very smart guy. But not everyone has the time, knowledge, or smarts for all things in life’s challenges. That’s why we pay for advice. Yes paid. But you must be knowledgable in all things. You don’t need anyone’s help. You can tear your car’s engine apart and than put it back together again. You understand all tax code. I suppose you can even cure cancer, if God forbid, you got it! You even can cook Thai food!!
I sure hope so because if you can’t, you’re going to be in trouble one day.
We can’t all be experts. We all need good advice from time to time. Even you…:^) Andre
I also called Hope Now and it was a total joke. I got transferred and then connected with a girl that sounded like she was on drugs. She said she could help me with a budget. I said I do not need a budget, I need help with my mortgage and mortgage company, Citimortgage that is supposed to have an alliance with you to help people stay in there houses. She said, it sounds like you need a tax attorney and we don’t have any of those. That was her advice. I also called Project Lifeline and that is a joke too.
The government should be ashamed.
So, I decided to call Indymac to find out how they can help me with my ARM loan. After 10 mins on the phone, the rep suggested “If you can’t afford to make your monthly payments, you should consider selling your home” I soon realized this was going to be a waste of time.
Nothing at all except asked for my mothers maiden name,ss # dob but when they got to mothers maiden name I PUT A STOP TO IT
one thing I got out of this phone call from hope-995 is they are not very experianced at what they are doing and that can put some homeowners in a bad situation.
Gary,
What is your problem! Andre is on the right track. You sit there all high and mighty making people in a bad situation feel worse. Does that DO IT for you or what! Yes, believe it or not, a lot of people got “sweet talked” into the loan they have now. Hard working, good, honest, parents with kids being told “Yes, you can have the American Dream too!” Bullcrap! Not everyone, not most people, can fully understand the terms of a loan even if they read every page. I was lucky. I was not duped or lied to or swindled(at first). But, things happen. Within a two year period; divorced, remarried, wife broke back, son swan dive into 8′ deep concrete skate area, daughter nearly bleeds to death from oral surg. complications, wife falls off ladder and needs surg. on thumb, out of work again, I’m out of work @ 44, 3 teens and one younger need everything(books, clothes, food), one car totalled, a stack of medical bills that goes from the floor to one foot short of the ceiling(8 feet),and on and on, and ARE YOU READY GARY? My mailman was too busy getting drunk to deliver the first two notices that our Mtg. pmt. was overdue!!! Yes, my wife offered to do the bills since she couldn’t work and thought it was an auto-pay. So of course I explained this to Countrywide and told them the local postmaster could verify. They told me if I paid one cent less than the payments, plus interest, plus late chgs., plus attorney’s fees, it would be returned to me as NON-PAYMENT! Of course they would see me next month at the forclosure sale. There’s more but I don’t want to make you cry. Oh, sorry, forgot I was talking to the heartless schlubb that writes know it all put-downs to average people who don’t know how to go through life without making a mistake, or not be as smart as you, or have things happen to them without any control over it at all………IDIOTS!!
I would have to agree not to call HOPE. I actually work there. From the day I started I felt so guilty because there is no help. I feel HOPE was set in place for people to leave the banks alone. We are like an escape goat for the banks. I feel sorry for some people because they are loosing their homes through no fault of their own. Others I just want to tell them to get a life. Several times I have tried to schedule people for an appointment and they tell me they can not have that date because they are going on vacation. Now realize that they have not paid their mortgage and are going on vacation with the money.
But either way they is no help for anyone. None of the banks are doing the Bush or Obama plan that was set in place. Remember that it is not mandatory for the banks to participate. It is voluntary and none will acknoledge the plan. When mentioned to the bank they all say they will have the information in about two weeks. They have been saying two weeks since last year.
I hate my job because I have to give people false hope. I feel very low. But it is about the only job available in town right now and I also have a mortgage to pay.
I too, called HOPE in February. I was on the phone for 2 hours. They claimed they would contact Wells Fargo and send me a budget. I got a letter from WF a few weeks later claiming they would get back to me in the next 30 days. That was about 60 days ago. We are facing foreclosure or bankruptcy soon and can’t get anybody to help us. The budget the lady from HOPE sent me said give up our only social outlet(bowling). That to me is not a solution. That’s a cop out. I am glad to know we’re not the only ones out there going through this.
Thanks everyone for all your inputs on this subject. I also have a loan through wells fargo and it is rather surprising that they would rather let your loan forclose then give you a modified loan they you are certain to afford. I have only been in my home for 3 years and see other homes going for half what my mortgage is, with owner financing. Has anyone tried going this route and would you suggest it? I would hate to forelose but if they bank is not willing to work with me then they must be in a better postion then me.
I called HOPE NOW, they saved my home, my mortgage payments reduced from $2302 down to $990 a month.
You all are just the few that weren’t helped. My neighbors home and a few of my freinds that all called HOPE had their mortgage payments reduced in just one month after calling.
Thank you HOPE!!!