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Loan Modifications and Credit Scores the Dirty Truth

January 8th, 2010 No comments

Do loan modifications affect your credit score? Should they? Why should you care?

Credit scores are a numerical value credit bureaus place on a borrower as a way of measuring their reliability. It is in the interest of lenders to report any delinquent activity to the credit bureau. In fact some would argue that it is in the interest of everyone as delinquent borrowers make loans more expensive for everyone by forcing lenders to increase interest rates to pay for bad loans. This is why potential borrowers that have bad or low credit scores find it harder to get loans approved or have to pay a premium for the privilege.

Borrowers that don’t make one or various payments are marked by a special code that informs other lenders of the situation. Borrowers that are granted a reduction of their loan balance or monthly payments due to financial difficulties are also marked with a special code called AC. This code can reduce the credit score of a borrower by anything between 30 and 100 points and tells lenders that the borrower had only made a partial payment.

The problem arose when troubled borrowers entered the loan modifications sponsored by the government and were granted loan modifications without ever having missed a payment but were still marked with AC as it was the closest fit in the “system”.

The Obama Administration felt it was unfair to harm the credit scores of borrowers that sought a loan modification. Therefore a new code “CN” was thought up which will not have an impact on credit scores for now.

The question is if this will change. Will the code CN affect the credit score of borrowers in the future? This is still to be determined. It will depend on if FICO, the company behind the most popular credit score formulas, decides the appearance of CN in a credit report increases the chances or is predictive of delinquent behavior.

It is worth noting that borrowers that enter into a loan modification are asking for a reduction of their loan and are therefore not wonderful news for lenders that are looking for reliable customers. It is not at all clear to me why it is wrong that their credit score is somewhat affected.

However what is certain, and this is what worries the Administration is that borrowers with a good credit history will shy away from a loan modification that threatens their credit. Lenders might argue that borrowers who feel they have a choice and prefer not to enter into a loan modification that would damage their credit don’t really need it and can very well pay the full loan, thank you very much.

How you feel about the matter may very well depend on which side of the fence you are looking from. The Obama Administration wants to give HAMP the best chance possible and is eager to erase any bad publicity the program attracts even if this means fudging credit reporting codes. Whether these measures are long lasting or not will depend on the performance of borrowers that enter into a loan modification, it must be said at this stage that things don’t look all that good.

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Loan Modifications: What to Do When Banks Don’t Play Fair

September 19th, 2009 No comments

They say that crisis bring out who we really are. If that is so, things are not looking that hot in the financial sector. As the credit crisis deepens banks are acting more and more conservatively when it comes to loan modifications and mortgage refinancing.

Some would say that bailing out homeowners is wrong. We should all be responsible for our decisions and there is nothing wrong in renting. I would have to agree with this. My parents have worked all their life, still rent a humble apartment and are probably the happiest couple I know.
Having said that if the government have decided to provide breaks for families that are struggling to pay their mortgages and are willing to pay mortgage providers for the privilege the least banks and servicers can do is take the cash and help out as much as they can, especially as they have been recently recipients of bailouts themselves.

Instead of showing empathy to the situation of desperate homeowners that are scared of losing their homes they are acting as what they are, profit based organizations. No surprises there, a capitalist economy is based on the assumption that companies are going to do what is best for them, not for the greater good. However that does not mean they should be allowed to break the rules and stall procedures for their own advantage.

Banks that don’t seem to understand the rules of the game.

What is especially scary is when banks don’t seem to understand the requirements for a government sponsored loan modifications. As an example, a recent story was published that involved Citimortgage loan. After an arduous procedure the homeowner in question was able to qualify for a loan modification and enter the 3 month trial. His mortgage was reduced to $1503 from $1727 a great difference for a family with three kids under the age of 5.
Just before final approval was achieved Cit changed the monthly payment to $1817, a $90 increase to cover an increase in the insurance, even though they had not been approved for the loan modification. If they had have been approved for the loan modification there would have been no grounds for increasing the insurance as both the taxes and insurance are included in the reduction of monthly mortgage payments to 31% of the monthly income.

The homeowner then contacted the bank and was told that because he had recently filed bankruptcy he was no longer eligible for a loan modification. However there is not information in the loan modification literature provided by the government on bankruptcy disqualifying a homeowner that can afford the modified payments.

Contacting the government programs and asking for their help and assistance is probably the best way forward in these circumstances when banks are unwilling to budge.

Stalling to the eleventh hour.
Another practice that seems to be popular with mortgage providers is to stall proceeding until the last minute. That was the case with a homeowner whose mortgage was owned by Wells Fargo. Paperwork was lost twice (which seems to be a common happening with loan modifications) and resubmitted by FedEx at the homeowner’s expense. Once the homeowner contacted Wells Fargo they were required to fax further information even though they had been assured that they had all they needed. It does seem disturbing that the homeowner was the one that had to contact the bank to find out they needed to send further information.

After stalling a reply for months and when the mortgage was close to foreclosing the homeowner was told they did not qualify for a loan modification but that they could offer a $11,000 loan. Why a homeowner that is struggling to make payments on his mortgage would want another loan on which to make monthly payments, I don’t know. This does seem to be a bad way to carry business, dangerous to the economy and homeowners.

The only way to fight these abuses or mistakes is to arm yourself with information. Contacting government organizations is the best step. Explain your circumstances and ask what your best options are. In this case free advice is the best money can buy because it is unbiased which is much more than can be said of most loan modification companies.

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Loan Modification or Debt Consolidation, what are the choices?

September 8th, 2009 No comments

The current credit crisis has caught the whole world by surprise. Loans, credit cards, mortgages and the secondary loans that they secured all trembled when the whole world got a reality check on the world economy. The prices of homes seemed to never stop rising and banks were fighting each other to lend out money without caring too much about credit rating and income / expense ratios.

Of course when mortgage securities failed, people couldn’t afford to pay their credit cards, loans and mortgages and homes started to lose value things got bad. Millions of families now face losing their home. Many would say that it is part of life. That owning a home is not a civil right, it is a privilege and there is no shame in renting. I wholeheartedly agree, I have rented most of my life and my parents at 67 still rent and they are the happiest couple you will meet.

However 9 million families facing mortgage foreclosure is a big number for any economy to face, even the United States economy. The effect on consumer spending, and the economy as a whole is huge and there is also a case for the government to try and stop some of these foreclosures for the greater good.

This has caused the government to start a number of loan modification programs to try and alleviate the situation. However the progress has been slow and some feel that the measures taken are simply not what the economy needs. Some have pointed out that the we are facing a credit crisis not a housing or mortgage crisis. You could compare it to giving away water to people in a sinking boat. The water is going to help but what they really need is a raft and some water.

Loan modifications help home owners that tied themselves to a bad interest rate to have access to premium interest rates and reduce monthly payments. It also provides bonuses to borrowers and lenders when the loan modifications are successful. This is useful and has helped many. However if you are financially underwater with other debts and loans, getting help on one of these debts might not be enough to make a difference.

Debt consolidation can provide a more suitable lifeboat for those that are crushed by numerous debts that drain their monthly income. Debt consolidations consist of a large loan that pays for all the debts a borrower has. Debt consolidation loans typically have a lower interest rate than car loans and credit cards although generally higher than premium mortgage rates. The new debt consolidation loan helps to put all debts into one manageable monthly payment that can provide real help to borrowers. The only problem is that they can be very expensive and cause borrowers to re-mortgage their home sometimes putting their home at risk for loans that did not have a home as security.

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Loan Modifications: Travesty or Social Responsibility

September 2nd, 2009 No comments

The Government is making all kinds of efforts to help home owners modify their loans so that monthly mortgage payments are more affordable. Forecasts predict that upto 9 million home owners will end up losing their homes when their mortgages foreclose.

For the last year I have been reporting on the different measures the government is implementing to extend loan modifications to as many people as posible. For instance, now you don´t even have to be behind in your payments to qualify.

However some feel that this is not enough. For example one of the requirements to apply for a Home Affordable Mortgage Program is that your mortgage is over 31% of your income. If your mortgage is 31% or less of your monthly income then you will not qualify for a mortgage modification. This requirement makes it imposible for home owners is trouble that have other loans besides their mortgage and cannot afford to pay their debts.

There are at least to school of thoughts on government sponsored modifications. One group, which we will call the ¨Who cares” group will say that owning a home is not a right but a privilege. The other group we could describe as the ¨Poor Borrowers” suggest that protecting home owners that have overspent or fallen in financial dificulties is the Government´s responsibility.

Last week one blogger commented on an article I wrote explaining how many borrowers cannot benefit from HAMP, the Obama Administration Loan Modification Program because their mortgage payments are too affordable to qualify, while their total debts make it imposible to get to the end of the month.

The bloggers comment was that it was bad enough we are bailing out home buyers at all and that suggesting we should bail out home owners whose mortgage payments are less than 31% of their income and that have still found a way to get in the red with other debts was a travesty. I could easily agree with him. I have made bad financial decisions in the past and nobody offered to bail me out. It is only right that we pay for our own bad decisions just as we profit from our good choices.

However the side of the store is the overall effect to the economy if 9 million people foreclose on their mortgages. What would be the effect on construction, credit and related services if such a large percentage of home owners foreclosed in one year. Viewed from this perspectiva bailing out home owners is more about helping the economy as a whole than specific individuals.

Of course many of us disagreed when massive bank corporations recieved bailouts to save them from the credit crisis. It would seem reasonable to allow the market forces to take their course whatever the consequences for a particular company is.
I couldn´t agree more, but what would have been the effect on the World economy if dozens of the world´s biggest banks had fallen into bankruptcy at once?

That is the paradox goverment policy makers have to deal with. To let market forces deal with people´s mistakes and problems or bail them out.

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