“Hello,

I am writing you to see if you would be interested in a follow-up story regarding certain comments made by JP Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon. In an interview with The Huffington Post’s Marcus Baran in February 2009, Mr. Dimon said “I don’t think just because someone’s underwater they say I don’t have to stay there. But they’re supposed to pay the mortgage, and we should teach the American people, you’re supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them. Because you have a mortgage doesn’t mean you should run away as it goes down.”

Well, it seems as if Mr. Dimon’s bank does not follow such principles. Unfortunately, I am one of the many unemployed in this country, despite all efforts to find employment, yet have still managed to pay my bills on time, including my mortgage payments. Thank God for my family, who have helped us through these trying times. Despite family assistance, I am going further into debt as there simply is not enough money at the end of the month to support my family, but I deem this to be the lesser of two evils at this time as I wish to keep my good credit rating. So, that’s my situation in a nutshell.

The issue I have with Mr. Dimon pertains to how his comments made to The Huffington Post conflict with the policies of Chase, my mortgage holder. I have been trying for almost seven months to get a simple forbearance from Chase only to be shuffled around from dept. to dept. always resulting in the same negative response. I have spent countless hours submitting and resubmitting documents that were already submitted. I have spent many hours on the phone with various members of Chase only to be continuously turned down for forbearance and remodifications, for various reasons. I have spent the past six weeks or so dealing with Jamie Dimon’s assistants and the Executive Response Group only to receive the same response, “we cannot help you unless your situation changes”. Ah, what needs to change you may be wondering. Well, Chases’ Loss Mitigation Dept. will assist me if I do not pay my mortgage. That’s right, Chase will help me providing that I refuse to pay my mortgage but as long as my mortgage remains current, there is nothing that Chase will do. Herein lies my issue and again, it’s not that I can afford my mortgage it’s just that I am going further into debt to pay it.

Mr. Dimon said “But they’re supposed to pay the mortgage, and we should teach the American people, you’re supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them.” yet his bank is telling me that if I do not pay my mortgage I can get assistance. Now, I am not looking for something for nothing but only a forbearance, to be paid at a later date or loan remodification of some sort, as has been made available to many to help through these trying times. I have tried to get Mr. Dimon on the phone yet he will not take my call. I am told that he knows of my situation yet he will not explain the inconsistencty between his statements and his banks’ policies.

I want to know why I am being penalized for paying my morgage on time when the CEO of the company says that “we should teach the American people, you’re supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them”, yet by meeting my obligations. I am being refused a forbearance. I would like to be able to pay my bills on time, as suggested by Mr. Dimon, so as to maintain my credit scores and still receive some basic assistance available from Chase. Or, I would like to see Mr. Dimon amend his statement to that which represents the policies of his bank. Something to the affect of “Although we should teach the American people, you’re supposed to meet your obligations, not run from them, we at Chase will only help you if you do not meet your obligations and under no circumstance will we offer you any of our readily available assistance if you pay your bills to us on time.”

This to me would be much more accurate. But that’s just my humble opinion. So, to put it plainly, would you be interested in helping me by calling out Mr. Jamie Dimon?

Thank you and I look forward to your response.

Regards,
Alan”