Ask The Money Coach

Posts Tagged ‘Banks’

Q: My Mortgage Company is Giving me the Run Around. I’m in Foreclosure But Can’t Get a Straight Answer About My Options or Payment Plans. They Say I Owe $5,300, but They Say I Have $2,400 in Money That They Have Not Applied and $3,048 That’s Up in Their System Through Western Union Payment That They’re Sending Back Because It Wasn’t the Right Amount. What Should I Do?

A: My best advice is to keep very detailed records of all your transactions, conversations, payments and all correspondences with your lender. Sometimes, mortgage companies and banks will refuse partial payments. And rather than cash a check that they deem to be less than the full amount due, they’ll return the entire check. It sounds like something to that effect may have happened in your situation – at least with that roughly $3,000 payment they’re allegedly going to return. I noticed that the full amount of money in dispute — that $3,000, plus $2,400 that supposedly has not yet been applied – actually equals a little more than the $5,300 that they claim you owe.

I know it’s frustrating to get the run around and to not have clear answers. But I think you really do know (or should know) if you are in arrears or aren’t. You said you’re in foreclosure. And I assume that’s because you’re behind on your mortgage. Are you behind solely because of these disputed payments, or is there something else going on? If your payment delinquency is only due to these outstanding payments that you’ve made, but have not yet had credited to your account, then I would get some legal help in dealing with this matter. Reach out to a free legal aid clinic in your area, or turn to a reputable foreclosure prevention group for additional help. One good anti-foreclosure group is NeighborWorks (http://www.nw.org).

NeighborWorks is a national non-profit organization that employs a team of mediators to act as go-betweens for lenders and borrowers. NeighborWorks counselors often work out deals for homeowners. They also run the popular toll-free foreclosure prevention line: 888-995-HOPE.

Related articles

• How do I know if someone offering me a mortgage is legitimate or a foreclosure rescue scam? (askthemoneycoach.com)
• Foreclosure Rescue Scams: How to Recognize Bogus Mortgage Help (askthemoneycoach.com)

Related Questions:

• will my mortgage company work with me when im in foreclosure
• options when im behind on my mortgage
• neighborworks nonprofit
• my mortgage is giving me the run around for foreclose
• my mortgage companyr refuses to foreclose what are my options
• my mortgage company is giving me the runaround what can i do
• My mortgage company is giving me the runaround
• my mortgage broker keeps giving me the runaround
• my linder is gving me teh run around on my new mortgage around
• MORTGAGE LENDER RUNAROUND
• should I dispute credit card accounts on my credit report that shows pays as agreed?
• verification that a mortgage company owes my loan

Q: I Have a Visa Credit Limit of $1,325 with a Balance of $691 at 23.9%. I Pay an Annual Fee of $8.50 a Month. I’ve Had This Card Since 2004 and Have Always Paid This and All My Bills on Time. I Called to Ask For a Lower Rate and a Lower Annual Fee and Was Told All Rates Were Fixed and Can Not Be Changed. This is My First Card I Want to Eliminate. I Have Other Credit Cards I Want to Pay Off Too. Should I Pay the Minimum on My Other Cards So I Can Pay Off Visa Faster? And When It’s Paid, Should I Cancel the Card?

A: Except under certain circumstances, I generally don’t recommend that people cancel credit cards, especially in the current environment because doing so can hurt your credit scores.  Regarding paying the minimums on your other cards, yes, that can be a smart strategy if you want to put more effort into knocking out that Visa card more quickly. Read this article also, in which I offer negotiating tips to get your credit card interest rates lowered. However, if the company doesn’t budge on the high interest rate or those nasty monthly/annual fees, you might consider canceling the card — but only if you have another credit cards and other accounts with a longer credit history. If you don’t have another card, just wait until you get a zero balance on your Visa card. Then apply for a national brand credit card with no annual fee and a decent rate. When you get approved, then you can cancel the old Visa card. This way, you won’t be held hostage to a credit card that isn’t doing you much good.

Q:How Can My Husband and I Lower Our House Payments? In the Past Four Years, We’ve Refinanced and Then Two Years Ago We Were Close to Foreclosure and Got a Loan Modification and Lower Rate. Even With the Modification, Our Payments are High.

A: I think you have to seriously consider whether you can afford your current home. Based on your email you’ve done three things to lower your monthly housing costs: refinanced, got a loan modification, and you also mentioned getting a new county assessment on your property. Since you stated that the new assessment found that your house was thousands less than last year, I assume that your property taxes were also reduced. All of these sounds like reasonable strategies to have a more affordable house payment. But it concerns me that even after having done these three things, you still find the house expenses to be “high.”

You certainly can try to refinance your home again. Since it sounds like your last refi happened four years ago, rates are much lower now. If you have great credit and at least 20% equity in your home, you can get a 30-year mortgage at around 5%. If you live in an expensive area, and have a jumbo mortgage (i.e. a loan above $417,000), your rate will probably be around 6%. Before you look at a refinance though, do take a good, hard, honest look at your overall financial picture. If you come to the conclusion that the house is simply too expensive given your combined incomes and your other bills, consider selling and finding less expensive housing. There’s no shame in that.

Recommended Reading

• Foreclosure Rescue Scams: How to Recognize Bogus Mortgage Help (housingwatch.com)
• Why You Should Give Reverse Mortgages Another Look (askamoneyexpert.com)

Q: How Can I Re-Establish Credit With Bad Credit? No One Will Give Me a Credit Card.

A: To re-establish credit after you’ve had credit problems in the past, try these three strategies:

1. Open a Secured Card.
With a secured card, you put up a certain amount of cash into an account – perhaps $500 or so – and that becomes your credit limit on the secured card. Apply for a single secured card; you’ll get it just by forking over the cash as I described above. Then simply on-time payments for 6 to 12 months. This will definitely help you boost your credit scores because it will generate some positive payment history for you. It will also help to offset somewhat the past negative marks in your credit files. Before opening a secured credit card, just make sure the bank that issues the card does, in fact, report to the credit bureaus.

2. Clean up Negative Information and Mistakes in Your Credit Reports.
Get your TransUnion, Equifax and Experian credit reports. You can get one of each report free each year from www.AnnualCreditReport.com. Dispute any mistakes you find. Also, contact your previous creditors and offer then a small lump sum payment to settle your debts, in exchange for them removing the negative information on your credit reports. Only do this for recently delinquent accounts (i.e. those from the last two years). Also, only give up cash payments to those creditors who agree, in writing, to delete black marks from your credit. If they simply note the account as “Paid” but leave the old, negative information there, that won’t help your credit.

3. Pay Your Existing Debts on Time.
I know you said that no credit card companies will give you a regular card. But it’s likely that you have some existing credit accounts. Whether you have other credit cards, a mortgage, an auto loan, student loans, or other debts that are being reported to the credit bureaus, be sure to pay all those bills on time – every month without fail. The single biggest determinant of your credit score is your payment track record. That accounts for 35% of your credit score. So simply paying your bills in a timely fashion will improve your credit rating over time.

By using these three techniques, you will see your credit scores improve in a year or less.

Related articles

• Key Differences Between Equifax, Experian and TransUnion Credit Reports (askamoneyexpert.com)

Related Questions:

• reestablishing credit
• how to re-establish credit
• how to establish credit with bad credit
• re establish credit
• how to re establish credit
• re establishing credit
• no one will give me a credit card
• how to reestablish credit
• re-establishing credit
• re-establish credit
• who will give me a credit card with bad credit
• who will give me a credit card