Countrywide Horror Story

[Miriam Gaddis]

In 1998 I purchesed a VA Foreclosure as an investment, and was collecting rent from it. The VA sold the loan to Season's Mortgage, then Season's sold it to Countrywide Home Loans. I had a fixed 30 year loan for $708 a month, which was well inside my means (in fact, for almost a year I made double payments, one going entirely to the principle). My payments were set up to go out each month on the 24th, which meant the payments would be 2-3 days early since they weren't due until the 1st.

In May of 2002 an electronic payment was rejected. When I called Countrywide to find out why, they said I never MADE the payment. I then called Wescom Credit Union to find out why my payment didn't go out that month, and they said it went out fine, but that Countrywide had sent it back as rejected. I asked if they could send it out again, manually, and they did. I called Countrywide back to let them know the payment had gone out as usual, in full and on time, but that it had come back as rejected, and that I was having it resent. Well, it came back as rejected again.

I called Countrywide again. Customer service said I didn't make the payment. Was transfered to the loan department who also said I didn't make the payment. Was transfered to the collections department who also said I didn't make the payment. They asked how the payment was made, I told them it was an electronic payment, and they said that that was the problem, and that they didn't accept electronic payments. I told them all my payments had been sent that way for years, and they said "well maybe that's your problem!"

I argued with them back and forth for a month. When my June payment went out, it was accepted. But they applied it to May, added a late charge of $45, and said that my June payment still hadn't arrived. ARG! I had Wescom manually send out another payment (along with the late charge) which was accepted. I THOUGHT that was the end of the matter. But then the July payment was rejected, Aug was accepted, Sept and Oct rejected, Nov and Dec accepted, Jan 2003 was rejected, Feb was accepted. Then in March 2003 I received foreclosure papers.

I have had to fly out to Florida from Arizona for a 12 hour derogitory, then again for a hearing in a Judges quarters, at a cost of over $3k each trip for motels, airfare, meals, rental car etc. I am still in litigation with them after four more years. They have added 5 years on to my payments, they have added $70k onto my loan amount for their costs, doubling the amount of the loan and the monthly payments, not to mention the costs of lawyers fees. I'm to go to court sometime this year. I'll let you know what happens.

And this is only ONE issue I have with them.