How many times will Countrywide get away with lying to consumers?
My story unfortunately is typical of how Countrywide does business. My wife and I were in the process of selling our home and buying another 2.5 years ago. We shopped lenders and Countrywide, through one of its brokers, offered us a fixed 30yr if we agreed to pay 1% origination and a 2% loan discount fee. We were happy with the offer and received our GFE and loan commitment to show the sellers. We even referred the couple who was buying our home to Countrywide in hopes that if one lender was involved everything would go smoothly.
After a few false starts we made it to the closing table. We asked for the final HUD several times starting the day before but were always assured it looked like the GFE and that it wasn't ready yet. We sold our home in the morning and were told the paperwork for the new home was not ready. Late in the day, in fact after business hours the "docs" arrived.
To our shock everything we were told and assured of turned out to be a lie. So there we are sitting at the table, having sold our home earlier in the day, faced with the old "bait and switch". Keep in mind if the HUD would have been delivered the day before we would have been able to postpone the sale of our existing home, but due to the I believe intentional deception by Countrywide we were stuck in a no win situation.
In our state if the buyer backs out of a real estate contract with out just cause he will lose the deposit, is obligated to pay the commissions earned by the agents, is obligated to the title company for all work done on his behalf and the seller can sue for damages and/or performance. So in our situation we were de facto homeless and faced with thousands of dollars in lost deposits and the very real possibility of legal action by damaged parties.
So even though we paid extra points for a 30yr fixed, which by the way they still charged, our 30yr fixed 5.875% turned into a 3yr ARM starting out at 5.875%, adjusts 1.5% up (can never be less than the starting rate) every 6 months based on the LIBOR exchange (6 month rates) with a pre-payment penalty of 5% the first year, 4% the second year and 3% the third year.
Countrywide engages in deceptive and I believe criminal activities. We have contacted Countrywide by phone and in writing but they refuse to release even basic information. We have tried to negotiate a way out from the very beginning but were told they only service the loan and can't tell us who owns the loan. I have no problem with paying reasonable closing costs to get out of this loan but Countrywide wants nearly $15, 000 in cash for fee's on a $195K loan. But when we have tried to re-finance through other lenders Countrywide all but refuses to release payoff information. It's so bad that lenders have told me they don't even bother with Countrywide customers.
Countrywide could solve their problems over night but refuse to because they make money off of the very mess they created. What Countrywide has done is intentional, has a pattern of deception and I hope the State AG's take action like they did against Ameriquest.
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