More Foreclosure Review Deal Checks to Be Mailed

The checks for Morgan Stanley or Goldman Sachs borrowers under the settlement will soon be in the mail, according to the Federal Reserve. Announcing this, the Fed said that 220,000 borrowers with a loan in any stage of foreclosure in 2009 or 2010 serviced by the following subsidiaries of these firms, Litton Loan Servicing LP or Saxon Mortgage, will have their checks mailed on May 3. In case you don't have a calendar handy, that's this Friday! Total value of these checks will be $247 Million. As in all previous settlement check mailings, any questions on a particular check should be directed to the Paying Agent, Rust Consulting, at (888) 952-9105. Also, a word to the wise. As with everything involving money, the scam artists will also be crawling out from beneath their nearest rock to try to scam you out of your check. BEWARE if anyone tells you to call a different number, or suggests they can help you with your check for a fee paid up front. There is only one number, shown above, and no fees are required to get your check if you are, in fact, entitled to one. If someone shows up telling you otherwise, tell them to take a hike. As always, Good Luck.

More Foreclosure Settlement Checks Mailed

The latest update on foreclosure settlement checks is as follows. The third batch has been mailed out, as of the end of last week.Valued at $794 million, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said these went out Friday. This sum was the total of 927,000 thousand checks at this latest mailing. To date, according to the OCC, a total of 3.7 million checks worth a total value of $3.2 Billion have been mailed. As with previous mailings, there may be some individual questions from homeowners or former owners. In such cases, the OCC advises borrowers to direct their questions to Rust Consulting, the paying agent, at 1-888-952-9105. Maybe the check really IS in the mail! Good luck.

Republicans Try to Void CFPB (and help their banker friends)

Well, politics has once again reared its ugly head! The sitting chair, by recess appointment, of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), Richard Cordray, gave a report on his agency and consumer finance to the Sdenate Finance Committee, and was scheduled to do likewise to the House Committee in the same are. However, the committee chair, Rep. Jeb Hensarling (Republican of Texas) refused to allow the testimony. Why? Because the legislator claims that Cordray's appointment is unconstitutional and thus, Cordray isn't a valid head of the CFPB. Thus, according to Hensarling's twisted logic, Cordray cannot legally testify before the committee. This is the latest way the pro-bank Republican members of Congress are trying to render useless the legally created CFPB. Why? Simple. No CFPB, no independent consumer oriented oversight of the finance industry. Write your Congressman and Senator and make it clear: continued shenanigans such as this and there'll be a new member of Congress/Senator after the next election. Then work to make it happen!

More Settlement Checks Mailed

Well, if you've been following this site, you know that the first batch of foreclosure settlement checks was mailed out a while ago, with some of them bouncing on a technicality. You also know that the balance are to be mailed "soon". Well, for at least some of the checks, if not quite all, the second batch has now been mailed. This news comes from the Office of the Controller of the Currency, the Federal agency that oversees the operation of all federally chartered banks in the US. This latest group of checks totals 1.4 million checks, totaling $1.2 Billion in settlements. When added to the previous batch of checks, the total number sent out to homeowners is 2.8 million checks totaling $2.4 Billion. By the end of April, 4.2 million homeowners should receive a check, with the total payout by then equaling about 90% of the final expected total amount. If you have any questions about your eligibility or your check, call Rust Consulting, the paying agent, at 1-888-952-9105. And, as always, Good Luck.

The Check Is In The Mail--SO WHAT!!

It seems that some of the payees of the recent foreclosure settlement between the 13 major lenders and servicers has run into a glitch. As noted here previously, checks were being mailed out to those who were authorized to receive them, and varied in size from a few hundred bucks to thousands. Rust Consulting was the paying agent for the settlement, as had also been noted here. The actual paying bank was Huntington National Bank, a good quality regional bank based in Columbus, OH. Unfortunately for some payees, a number of the checks bounced for insufficient funds. At least that's what the payees were told by their own banks when they tried to cash or deposit the checks. Out of a total of 1.4 million checks sent out, only a relatively small number bounced, but if the rubber check was yours, it clearly wouldn't make you feel any better to know that most of the checks sent out cleared. However, according to both the Fed and to Rust Consulting's senior VP, James Park, the causes of the glitch have been remedied and all checks are now being honored. In case you have any problems with your check, or haven't received it, call Rust at 1-888-952-9105, any time from Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. or on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. EDT. According to Rust, about 90% of all payments should have been mailed out by the end of this month, with the remainder being sent in mid-July. One important note: if your payment is coming from Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley, no payment date has yet been scheduled, so you may have to hold on for a while. If I hear anything on this, I'll of course post it here immediately. Meanwhile, as always, Good Luck.

Scams--BEWARE!!

I know I've written about this before, but, as time goes on, people either sometimes forget the message or hadn't seen the original one. As with any serious issue, along with legitimate assistance to people in trouble, there are those others who, like maggots, crawl out from under the nearest rock beneath which they have been hiding. In this case, it's foreclosure relief scams. Although the numvber of forecloseures are decreasing from their highs of a couple of years ago, the number of scams reported has increased dramatically! It's as if these scum realize that their time at the trough of other peoples' misery may be coming to a close, so they want to make sure that they don't miss a chance to screw anyone, possibly you, out of their homes. Latest stats out show that, according to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), while total cases dropped to about 69,000 reported cases of all types in 2012, the number of scam 'rescues' appears to have reversed itself. In the last reporting period, an increase in rescue scams of over 54% from the prior year was reported. So, the word here is: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you still want to avail yourself of a 'wonderful' offer to avoid foreclosure, ask for references from the person making the offer and ask for time to check them out with local police and regulatory authorities, as well as local banking officials. If the offeror tells you there's no time for such checks, or you have to act now or you'll lose your chance, let him go--this is the first sign that the only one he's truly interested in helping is himself. As always, Good Luck.

The Check's In The Mail!

I wrote here not too long ago that settlement checks from the unprecedented foreclosure settlement would be sent to a large number of borrowers who were, or may have been, wronged by their mortgage lenders. The checks, ranging from a minuscule $300 for those who were wrongly denied a loan modification, up to $125,000 for military who were wrongfully foreclosed in spite of the federal law prohibiting such action against an active duty service member, as well as a similar amount to 53 homeowners who were wrongfully foreclosed upon even though they weren't in default on their loans at all, will begin to be mailed this week, according to both the Federal Reserve and the US Comptroller of the Currency. Final checks will hit the mail in mid-July. If you have any questions about your payment eligibility or the status of your check, you can call the paying agent, Rust Consulting. Their telephone number is: (888)952-9105. As always: Good Luck.

Dual Tracking Still Exists in California!

It's illegal; it's severely criticized and it's still happening! Dual Tracking is a process by which lenders dealing with distressed housing simultaneously consider loan modifications while continuing to move the same property along in the foreclosure process. The problem with this procedure is that a borrower can be right in the middle of a potential successful loan modification of their mortgage, thinking they're safe for the time being from the risk of foreclosure and, BOOM--they find they've been foreclosed upon. The reason is that while they were faithfully, and in good faith, working with one individual representing their lender, someone else working for that same lender was moving the foreclosure along because he had neither received any new payments nor been informed that his institution was engaged in considering a loan mod for the homeowner. When the time to foreclose came, he foreclosed because no-one told him to do otherwise. He was on a dual track. Under both the recent national mortgage settlement with the largest mortgage lenders and the California Homeowner Bill of Rights, dual tracking is supposed to cease. The CHBR is state law, and bans the process after January 1, 2013. A survey by housing counselors in the state shows that four of the five biggest lenders are still regularly dual tracking their borrowers. In sync with these violations is the fact that once a homeowner requests a mod, they are to be provided with a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) who will be the only individual they have to deal with during mod negotiations, thus avoiding the potential risks entailed in dual tracking. The counselors found that in many cases, the SPOC was either very difficult to contact or didn't know either the status of the borrower's case or was uninformed of the methodology and/or procedures related to the process, and thus couldn't provide the homeowner accurate and complete information even when the borrower could reach the SPOC. If you are facing possible foreclosure, are located in California and are also trying for a loan modification, call your SPOC to be certain that individual is on top of your case, and that there is no dual tracking happening to you. Specifically ask him/her to confirm that no foreclosure process is currently moving on your home if you are anywhere in the overall mod process. If you are unable to ascertain this from your SPOC, cannot contact your SPOC, or get no response at all, contact your state legislator, the California Banking Commissioner, and, if you don't mind the publicity, your local newspaper and/or TV station. Let them know the issue and ask for some assistance. As always, Good Luck.