Countrywide

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Once, just once, I mailed the payment without a stamp. It set a chain of events in motion that pointed out how ignorant, intolerant and greedy Countrywide is. Had been a Countrywide customer for four or five years, paid regularly, NEVER incurred a late fee, and often paid extra principal. NONE of that meant anything to Countrywide.

They called because the payment was late, but not yet overdue. I was puzzled, since I was sure I mailed it. Or did I misplace it? Or did the Post Office lose it? And how would we prove it? My husband assured them we would look for it, and if it didn't turn up, we would stop payment and send another check.

When it finally did turn up, returned because of insufficient postage, as proof of the mistake, I took the entire payment, including the envelope stamped with Insufficient Postage, and enclosed it in another envelope along with a letter explaining what happened AND a second check for the late fee, since it was now overdue. I was VERY apologetic and took full responsibility for the error, adding that the late fee was enclosed as a show of good faith, and thought all was taken care of.

For month #2, we did not receive the monthly coupon but I sent the payment in anyway, and on time. I made sure there was a stamp! Before mid-month, we got another call that our payment was late! We assured them payment had been sent but by now we were VERY confused.

Then the next coupon for month #3 arrived and it billed us for the regular upcoming payment plus TWO months past due payments plus late fees for both months! It threatened legal action! About the same time, we received a letter from Countrywide with our uncashed checks for the previous two months enclosed. What was going on? Oddly enough, the extra check for the late fee for month #1 was not included and had been cashed, even though we were still assessed that first month's late fee in the bill along with a late fee for month #2. What a mess!

My husband, who has much more patience with fools than I do, called Countrywide to ask what this was all about. It seems that when he said we would stop payment if we couldn't find the check, all that Countryside heard was that we were stopping payment. So, when they received the original check, they thought payment had been stopped and returned it. Why they returned payment for month #2 is beyond me, BUT, by returning it, they were able to charge us a second late fee!

It took almost four months to iron out all the kinks, including convincing them that we had already paid the late fee for month #1, and shouldn't have to pay the late fee for month #2 since we sent it in on time and Countrywide erred by returning it to us.

Since then, every interaction with Countrywide has been a mess. Countrywide once claimed that I wrote the wrong amount on a check and charged me the extra amount plus late fees. At first I refused to pay until the check was returned so I could verify that the mistake made was mine and not theirs. But the check never materialized. Not sure if it was "lost in the system" or fell victim to the Anthrax attacks since our post office tested positive for Anthrax and all mail was diverted for irradiation and some was lost.

While this dispute was going on, one payment was sent via FedEx or else it would be late. Records show it arrived there on the 16th, the usual payment deadline, but we were still assessed a late fee. Of course, there's no proof that the 16th was the deadline since the only place it appears is on the coupon that's returned to Countrywide. I was too aggravated to fight with them over it. But, from then on, I make photocopies of every coupon and every check I send to Countrywide, in case the payment or due date are ever in dispute again.

And I'll spare you the details of how we were overcharged for property taxes and it took over a year to fix that, get our money back, and get the monthly payment back to where it was supposed to be! I'm sure during all this, Countrywide has overcharged and/or cheated us but I'm not hiring an accountant to figure it all out.

I can't wait until we can sell this place and NEVER have to deal with Countrywide again! Since Countrywide bought out our original loan, I only hope it does not contain the same pre-payment penalty clause about which others here have complained.

Recommended
No

We have been with Countrywide since 1997 and have been very happy with their services. We have refinanced with them once during that time and also have a HELOC with them. Our problems didn't begin until we recently decided to take advantage of the dramatic drop in interest rates. We checked the on-line rates with Countrywide and they were well above what we saw advertised in the local news papers. After contacting a local mortgage broker and getting what seemed like a fantastic rate as well as receiving the good faith estimate of closing costs, we phoned Countrywide to see if they would compete to retain our business. No luck...good bye.

Since we were happy with the service we had received over the years we decided to keep our HELOC with Countrywide but would move our first mortgage to the company providing the best interest rate. This required getting a loan subordination on the HELOC. After contacting the subordination department at Countrywide and receiving a blurry fax with all the instructions of what was required ($100 processing fee plus $50 for FEDEX services to and from Countrywide) I was told it would only take about 10-15 days to complete the process. Unable to clearly read everything on the fax they provided I neglected to provide a title report with my original application. The law firm we are using for closing quickly faxed the necessary documentation to Countrywide and attempted to call and confirm that it had been received. The law office was told that they were not allowed to speak with the subordination representative so there was no way to confirm that the title report had been received. Both the law office and the mortgage broker attempted to call the Countrywide Customer Service department and the subordination department on several occasions and each contact resulted in rudeness and incorrect or no information being made available to the inquiries. I followed up with emails to the customer service site, providing my name, address, and account numbers. This resulted in being told that Countrywide could not identify me from the account information I had provided. I followed up by resending my original email and by cutting and pasting the monthly statement pages from the Countrywide online site to prove I did have active accounts. Two days later I received a cheerful return email notifying me how happy they were to respond to my inquiry, however, all questions pertaining to subordination of loans must be directed to the Loan Subordination Department and that after leaving voice mail they would contact me within 72 hours.

45 days have now passed and my most recent contact has been another phone call from Countrywide notifying me that they had still not received a title report from me and that the process could not be concluded without that document. My law firm confirmed that the title report was faxed to them over a month ago and that it was a current report.

With no other recourse and facing the potential of rising interest rates, we have been forced to move both the 1st mortgage and the HELOC to another company. None of this would not upset me as much if it had not been for the fact that phone calls from my mortgage broker, law firm and me were all ignored as were my emails. Countrywide placed the blame for the delay on me for not providing information which they have possessed for over a month.

The HELOC would have been in effect for the next 20 years and they would have continued to draw interest on the balance that I carried as well as any future draws against that loan. Now they will receive nothing except my bad report on their performance along with the $100 processing fee which they will not refund.

Good bye Countrywide...you need to send you customer support representatives and everyone you employ that has contact with your customers or their agents to charm school. This has not been a good lesson on how to treat people...especially people that you are making so much money from.

Recommended
No

Approximately one year ago, I bought my first home. I worked with my credit union and Quicken Loans as brokers. Many Countrywide reviews point out their rates are higher than the lowest market rates, but their rates were just as low in my case.

During the closing on my house, there were a few glitches where the title company and realtor blamed the credit union for some missing information. In my opinion most miscommunication was on their end and not my credit union or Countrywide.

Countrywide has many online services I have found extremely helpful. I use their "Mortgage Pay on the Web" to schedule withdrawals directly from my checking account each month. I can specify what day I want the transaction, set up any bank account to withdraw from, etc. Even better, I can specify extra dollars to go directly to principal or escrow.

The loan history online is extensive and helpful. The interface is only mildly clumsy, and a lot better than most financial web sites I use. I receive e-mails whenever action occurs on my account, such as a tax payment, mortgage payment, etc. I have never been spammed by Countrywide.

Here comes the bad news...

My mortgage was required to carry flood insurance until FEMA issued a letter removing my property from a flood zone. Once this letter was approved, I could remove the insurance and get a refund. FEMA took about 3 months to write the letter.

When I received the letter, I e-mailed Countrywide via the website asking them how I should send them the letter. About 4 days later, they sent an address and/or fax number and whom it should be sent to. I did both, mailed and faxed the documents and asked for confirmation they received it.

2 weeks later, I had heard nothing.

I called customer service, resulting in a 30 minute wait before I could talk to someone. I explained the situation. I was told they could not help, but they would transfer me to the insurance department.

Click. "Countrywide Insurance." I explain again. "Sir, we _sell_ insurance, we have nothing to do with mortgages" I am curtly scolded. I explained I was sent there _by_ the mortgage department. I am told to call them back. I explain the long wait I've been through, and can't they just transfer me? An audible sigh, then click. Then dialtone.

I call back, wait about 30 minutes, get a CSR. I explain the situation. She tells me there is no fax or mail from me, I should resend. I express fear that the result will be the same. She happily volunteers to call me tomorrow and verify that it arrived. I agree to this.

She never calls back.

I mail and fax again, then e-mail asking to please be notified if they receive anything. About 10 days later, they verify they received the docs. About a month later, they deny the insurance waiver because FEMA made a mistake when they filed the letter.

The realtors notify FEMA, who fix the mistake in a month or so. I have another letter.

I walk in to the local Countrywide office this time, bypassing the web. "Sorry, we only sell mortgages, we cannot provide customer service." But can't we work something out so I _know_ Countrywide has received my docs when I send them? "No, sorry, but I can give you the 800 number." Same as the web.

I mail and fax again. I e-mail again, asking if they received the docs. A week later I e-mail again. About 2 weeks later I e-mail again, this time asking only "Did you get this e-mail? Please reply. If you are unable, please forward to a supervisor who can reply." I repeat about 4 days later, stating I will consider the e-mail address bogus if I get no response.

I get an answer to my "supervisor" e-mail finally. He confirms they got the letter and they are waiving the insurance requirement.

This is about 9 months after my house closed (not all their fault, but they sure didn't help speed anything up.)

I pray I never need to deal with Countrywide customer service again.

Recommended
Yes

Unfortunately, Countrywide Mortgage bought out my mortgage from another company only 2 months after we bought our home. I did not really know anything about being a home owner, but upon inquiry as to why this company now held my mortgage, I was told that this was very common. I did not know to study the documents, to check to be sure that everything was the same as my original mortgage company. I did not check into this, and once it was too late, discovered that we no longer had unemployment coverage, nor title insurance. I wish this was the worst thing that happened, but it is not.

The details

My husband lost his job (another casualty of the tech industry). I contacted Countrywide to find out what paperwork we needed to file for our unemployment coverage. I was told that we did not have unemployment coverage. I had my original mortgage paperwork, and in that loan, we did. They said that they were not required to pick that up. I told them that we would do what we could to keep the payments up. After 3 months, my husband had not found work, and I was in my last few weeks of college. I was hired by a school outside of the area, so we decided to sell the house. Seeing that we were 3 months behind on the mortgage, a realtor would not help us. The house was not worth the kind of money it would take to catch up the mortgage, market the house, and close the deal. One day a man came to look at the house and offered us a way out. He said that he had a buyer for the house (he claimed to be a broker), and asked if we knew about Quit Claim. We did not know so he explained to us...

The plot thickens

He told us that in order for us to get out from under the house, we could quit the claim and he would buy out the mortgage and we would not have any closing costs that way. This sounded perfect, but we were behind on the payments. He said that he would pay the 3 months we were behind, PLUS he would pay the next month in case it took a few weeks to get all of the paperwork done. We agreed that this sounded like a really good deal for all- the buyer could move in right away, and we could move without having lingering business. We met this man down at his lawyer's office a few days later and signed the Quit Claim Deed, and collected a check to Countrywide for our account in the amount of 3500 dollars. We mailed the check, turned over the keys to the house, and we left South Florida. We left a forwarding address and phone number. A few weeks later we learned from a former neighbor who had seen this broker at the property, that the 3500 dollar check bounced, but not to worry, it would be taken care of. We did not hear from him or from Countrywide again.

Say WHAT?!?

I received tax paperwork on the house. I thought that was odd since we did not own the house any more, so I called Countrywide. I asked them what was the status on the account. I was told that I still owned the house and that it had been foreclosed. WHAT? I explained that we had signed a quit claim deed and we did not own the house any more. As a matter of fact, the man with whom we signed the deed, he had the house listed with a realtor and had renter in there! In the course of the move, I lost a box with my important papers in it, and the Quit Claim deed was lost. I asked Countrywide what I needed to do and they told me that as long as I could produce the Quit Claim deed, that I would be absolved from the deal. But they had NO RECORD that I quit the claim. They informed me that there had already been a hearing on the foreclosure. I asked why no one had contacted me- where were these papers sent? They told me that my check had bounced and I had never contacted then again. I asked them if they had attempted to collect on the NSF check, and they told me that they had not. I asked if they had a copy of the check, and they told me that they did not. I told them that I felt maybe I was a victim of a scam, and I needed to speak to someone about my title insruance, and they told me I did not have title insurance.

Now what?

I fell in to a bit of a panic mode when I could not produce this quit claim deed. I did not remember the name of the attorney where we signed this paperwork. We live 6 hours away, I did not even know the man's name who bought our house- he had a nickname that we referred to him as. This whole situation was starting to look grim. I am a bit computer savvy, so I started searching the area, hoping to find the name of this lawyer by referencing the address where we went to sign this paperwork. In the course of my searching, I went to Broward County Court Records. By some stroke of luck, I found a copy of the quit claim deed right there- big as life. Not only did I find the quit claim, I also found record of a lawsuit between Countrywide and "Everett Reynolds" (this was the guy who took over our house!). The disposition of the case was "Notice of Dropping Party Defendants" and it lists my husband and myself and it says that we are "hereby dismissed without prejudice."

Playing Stupid

I called Countrywide after I had the document that I needed to produce. I asked how was it that they had no documentation of this quit claim deed, yet they had the name of the party with whom we signed the quit claim deed. Apparently, no payments have been made, and the 3500 dollar check was not made good- and all of this happened 6 months ago. There has already been a court date and a sale date has been set on the house. Countrywide has a lawsuit against Everette Reynolds, who NOW owns the house, AND a lawsuit against us, who the also say own the house. I told them that I wanted my credit fixed and for them to leave me alone because I had proven what I needed to prove.

So.... what happened then???

To date, I can not get anyone at Countrywide to respond to me. I called them a bunch of scam artists. I admit that there are some shady things going on here and we are not totally without fault as far as following up, but my husband and I did what we thought was legitimate. We handed over all paperwork on the house, and were told that the mortgage was bought out and we no longer had any business with the house or with the mortgage company. The fact that this putz did not make the payments is their problem and his problem! They told me that all I had to do was prove we quit the claim. They are now telling me that the mortgage is not satisfied. What the hell does that mean? How can they have foreclosure proceedings against 2 people over one house?

What to do now....

I really do not know what to do. I have called and asked what to do, I get put on hold and no one comes back on the line. I write and ask what to do, and no one responds. I do not have the money to hire a lawyer, I do not know what to do. All I know is that this company claims to have no record of this deal, yet they know who owns the property now, and they have filed a suit against him and against us. What, are they just waiting to see which one of us is going to be held liable first? These guys are awful..... they do NOT care about customers. They even requested a sale date on the house WHILE I was in the process of getting the information together that they requested. This was our first home, and we are not sure we will EVER buy a home again.

Disclaimer

Before you write and chastize me for being stupid for doing this deal, stupid for not having copies of everything, and following up incessantly to ensure things were handled... I KNOW.. we know.... we have gotten this lecture from both sets of out parents.... and we are in our mid 30's! :)

I will follow up here with another review once this situation is settled.

Recommended
No

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I recently moved and found myself searching for a mortgage. My prior mortgage and second were with Countrywide. I found my initial experience with Countrywide to be very beneficial and the broker assigned to our loan was helpful for our situation. Based on our good experience with the first, we chose Countrywide for our second. That is when the problems started.

Countrywide attempts to keep the two loan programs separated, however their computer systems and/or accounting offices often times do not follow that practice. On three occasions within the first year of our Home Equity Line, we encountered "computer glitches" that caused additional bills to be generated against the account. Each time when the situation was brought to Countrywide's attention, I received a letter stating that the bill was an error and that it would not be reported to credit agencies.

After the third incident, Countrywide "shopped" our loans on the open market (a standard practice in the primary mortgage market). Unfortunately, this typically seamless event also caused me to be billed $90.00 for "Credit Services." Countrywide again apologized and credited the "erroneous" bill.

Needless to say, more than any opinion I can write, when I got my current jumbo and second, Countrywide did not even get a look from me due to poor problem resolution, faulty computer systems, inappropriate handling of receivables, and generation of erroneous bills/statements.



Recommended
No

My ex and I purchased a house through countrywide 3 years ago. It took them forever to get the financing done. Then last June (99) I bought my ex out and financed through countrywide again. I went to closing and paid all the closing costs, and signed all the doc's.
Jan (2000) my house caught fire and was destroyed beyond repair. I called the insurance company and they told me they did not have a policy in my name. So my ex called, the policy was still in his name the financing was still in his name but the house deed was transferred into my name. Now because of Countrywide did not complete the paperwork the insurance that I have paid for for the last 6 months is no good.
The house is unlivable and thanks to countrywide I have no home no insurance and as far as the insurance company is concerned they have no interest in my family or the contents of the house. So, now I have to sue countrywide to get the house and contents taken care of.
I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy much less a friend.





Recommended
No

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I just refinanced.
The last transactions I have had with them, was when they gave me the option of paying the shortages to my escrow account, or of allowing them to charge me extra to make up the difference. I opted to pay the shortage. They took my money, and then increased my payment anyway, to cover shortages that no longer existed. They are a conniving bunch, and none of them seems to talk to another of them. They are all about extracting money from your pocket, and avoiding your questions it seems. They also continued attempting to debit my bank account after the attorney advised them the payoff was in transit.
All below is my previous opinion.
My mortgage was sold to Countrywide, and I immediately signed up for their Payplan26, biweekly payment plan, that literally cuts 7 years off of a 30 year note because you make 26 half payments a year rather than 12 whole payments.
You have to pay a full month in advance, and authorise them to debit your account. You don't seem to get that first payment credited against your continueing interest, and they charge you a couple of bucks each time they tap into your money.
The first biweekly debit each month is held by Countrywide, and not credited as a payment until the second debit is received by them.
They literally get to use quite a bit of your money, and everyone else's on the plan for 2 weeks of each month interest free. They should be making a killing here.
Still I like these mortgage prices better than my last one by a bunch. They are certainly not the only Co. with a biweekly pay plan though.
Customer service is awful. I have never yet been able to get thru to anyone on the phone # they give out. It is push 1 for this and 7 for that and 2 for something else, until you are put on hold, and then often cut off. Time and time again.
I started out getting requests for copies of my insurance from one office telling me that other wise they would provide me with alternate coverage that would cost more than my current rate. All the while, their web site showed all of my insurance info current, includung all the info the told me they didn't have, and they were trying to sell me insurance, telling me their prices were more competetive than my current provider. I faxed them copies of the info they requested day after day for weeks before I ever got an acknowledgement.
We got past that, very slowly as they often take 3-4 weeks to respond to an Email, and often ignore the entire point for the first several queries.
I finally got everything straight, and the sour taste is fading, and they do draft my account on time everytime, so I have learned to live with them.
I am waiting to see if I get my tax info from them on time.
I have now corrected all of the spelling errors Epinions has pointed out that I am going to correct at this sitting.
Thank you


Recommended
No

Our 2nd mortgage was sold to Countrywide, and immediately we started having problems with payments posting on time. Every month we kept getting late charges. Their accounting system would say they did not receive a payment until a week after my checks had cleared. I would call them up to clear the matter up and they were generally helpful. I did get very frustrated at them always telling me as "As a courtesy to our customers we will remove the late fee, but in the future, please get your payments in on time.". Basically they never acknowledged that they had a problem on their end with their payment system, even after I faxed them my bank statements showing them the cleared checks with their endorsement on it.

It came time to re-mortgage and we needed to subordinate the loan. With a FICA score of 750 we were denied subordination because of insufficient FICA score and constant late payments. We contacted them again to try and clear this up, and got them to fix the late payments by showing them(again), the bank statements with their endorsements on them, clearly cashed before the due date. However they still said my FICA score was too low. When I asked how high it had to be, they would not give me a straight answer. With a 750 score I've never been declined for any credit in my entire life. Subordination cost $100 which is non-refundable.

Finally we just decided to pay off the 2nd mortgage so we could get on with re-financing. On their web site it you can obtain the payoff amount, routing number and account to wire the money to. This was a nice and easy feature they provide. I wired them some $20,000 from our checking account, and although my bank said the money had been transferred, Countrywide had no record of the transfer. We spoke with a customer service rep, who assured me it would be looked into. We asked her to call us back the next day with information on what was going on. She provided us with her extension and name so we could contact her if necessary. Two days passed and we had not heard from them, so we called back the nice lady we spoke with and her extension did not work, nor did anyone know of her, or have any record of our conversation on the phone. The nice lady I was speaking with now assured me that they would get back in touch with us and apologized for the mishap(these mishap's seem to happen pretty frequently with them).

A week after the the wire transfer to their account they finally "found" the money, but at this point, 7 days worth of interest had accrued and the account was not showing paid in full, so we still could not proceed with our re-financing. We finally faxed them our bank information showing the wire transfer(which they can't receive for 2-3 business days for some silly reason).

All in all, it seems like they went out of their way to block us at all costs from re-financing. If you do get sold to them, keep all of your records. We had clauses in our original 2nd mortgage that Countrywide was trying to not honor. Be prepared for lots of issues should you try and leave them.



Recommended
No

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I refinanced my home with Countrywide home loans about 2 years ago and wouldn't do it again if my life depended on it. The initial phase was a breeze, but after that you can give up.

I attempted to send the first two payments to the address given in the closing documentation. I say attempted because they were twice sent back with a letter saying I didn't have a loan with Countrywide. i made phone call after phone call to get this corrected and was told that i shouldn't be concerned until I received my payment book.

Three months later I was sent notice that my loan was in default. yep...I knew it was going to happen, so I sent copies of all the letters to Countrywide and I was told not to worry. Well you should worry. after faxing copies three time to different people and calling over 15 times I gave up. I never could talk to the same person twice or even the same office.

In order to keep my credit rating good and get past the problem I finally had to come up with the two payments that Countrywide said i shouldn't worry about. If I had it to do over again I would go elsewhere.



Recommended
No

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Well, let's see.... we applied for a refinance on April 15th.... promised loan would close 1 st week in May...didn't even get to sign papers until May 25th!! (kept getting the run around). We signed papers on the 25th and we await our 3 day grace period...where's the check??? Okay now they tell us something about some more papers, then it's another document, and yesterday (June 2nd) we are told the papers we signed are not good due to the top being cut off.....we had been promised funds 5 different days! Now all of a sudden the papers are no good and they want us to sign again and that will take another few weeks. Fortunatly I was able to argue and get out of this whole deal!!! If my papers are not good enough to fund money then they are not legally binding to us!! They took forever to get title, and they want to blame everyone else for their mistakes! BEWARE!!! They make promises but never come through with them. They don't care about you!! Now let's see how long it takes to get my appraisal from them, which I have paid for so I can go through a more legitimate company!! I can't state whether interest rates changed or not through them since we have yet to get an official loan. I do know that the night before settlement we were given what was supposed to be an actual amount of cash out.....that changed the next day when signing papers by about $700...seems their closing costs increased in less then 24 hours.

by charmander3192(update 6/4/03)
There is just too much information to write that will tell you about the problems I had with Countrywide. I did read other reviews before I posted mine. The only thing I can add now is that last night the VP of Countrywide called me to apologize for all the problems. They have decided to compensate us for all we have been through is we resign new documents. The only thing is there have been 3 major problems on their end since this whole refinance thing started so I don't know if I can trust them. How do I know there won't be more problems?

Recommended
No

When i bought the house they offered me the best rates i could find, their loan officer was very sweet and helpful. Also they had minimum paper work which i really appreciated.


When i sold it they gave me the worst headache. It started when i got the papers of the closing settlement. Their was a prepayment penalty charged to my account. So i called up my loan loan officer, she was very sweet on the phone and she agreed that i should not have been charged the prepayment penalty. She also agreed that she had in fact told me on closing that there would be no prepayment penalty charged if i sell my house.

She told she would call me back as soon as she hears something from higher management about the penalty. She never called back. She took my number, but never had the courtesy to return my phone call. I called her back again, she listens to me, says she will speak to management, takes my number down and never calls back. This happened at least 10 times. Finally i gave up, i mean what do you do if you meet such people.

So now i try calling the customer service on the 800 number of countrywide. I told them my loan officer said there will be no prepayment penalty as that is what my Loan officer had told me verbaly at closing.

they showed me in a small writing in the agreement that i had signed to pay a prepayment penalty. So even though the loan officer had verbally told me that there would be no penalty. yet i had to pay it.

Their customer service person even banged the phone down when i asked to speak to a supervisor. Saying they were not available.

NEVER NEVER get a loan from them. HORRIBLE Customer Service, terrible management. Well Again you get what you pay for.....

Get a cheap loan and deal with the sharks.


Recommended
No