Countrywide in Trouble!!!

[Anonymous]

While I sympathize with anyone who is losing their house, I feel compelled to make a couple observations, to wit:

1) This is a capitalist country. Loan companies like Countrywide are not in business to "help people buy a home" or "help make housing more affordable." They exist to loan out a commodity--money--and to make interest--profit. This makes them no different from any other company.

2) Anyone engaging in a transaction involving a significant amount of money (like five or six years' salary) needs to READ and KNOW what they are signing. Period. Forget what people say. If you don't understand the document, find someone you can trust who does. Don't take the other guy's word for it. (This in no way condones poorly trained representatives who are unable to explain paperwork, or, worse, loan agencies consciously deceiving consumers...the latter especially should result in a substantial fine or even jail time for repeated, egregious offenses.) But if I'm putting $200,000 on the line, I'm going to know what I'm signing or find someone to educate me and cross-check facts.

[Anonymous]

I know what you guys are saying- trust me- I know. I am a total stickler for reading every single line of contracts, etc. And I know that the phrase "caveat emptor" buyer beware is what we need to go by.

My POV is this though- when you have a person come in, and say straight to their face- I want to go fixed- I don't really trust this- and they say back to you- trust me, this is the best way to go- then I feel like they are preying on people's ignorance and lack of education in this area. Again I know my fault.

But are we to say that in every financial engagement in life- that we are never to trust anybody- and because we all know that we are capitalists that we have to go through the rest of our lives never trusting any type of financial business and that it is ok for them to conduct business like that?

I think not. I think we need to hold predatory lenders accountable for their actions because there is a line of decency that can be met, and there is a way to conduct business, make a fair profit- and still live by the golden rule.

JC Penny- my first job- the founder used to have a motto. His was- between the wholesale price and the market price there is a price in the middle that will allow for a profit w/o ripping off the consumer. He promised excellent customer service and abhored treating customers badly- because good customer relationships kept a business alive-while cheating customers would only cause one to lose them- and thus lose the customer to another business.

There are examples of businesses that use a "golden rule" philosphy and are market leaders in their areas- ie. Starbucks, Southwest and Whole Foods.

Their premise is that their is an amount of fair profit to be made w/o ripping off the customer, treat employees like gold and they will stay w/ you- give employees partial benefits because they will stay with you- and people will be willing for higher prices if they know there is quality and value in the product.

I believe that one can conduct business faithfully and honestly and still make a profit. To say that we should allow busineses to rip off people because that is their capitalist right is not ethical. And yes, there can be ethics in business.

[Anonymous]

Family,

Let us not refer to each as stupid please...  Let's use our words..

Thanks

[Anonymous]

It is true everybody is ultimately responsible for their own financial decisions. However, when a company does things like making a change to the loan (APR/Fees etc) right before closing and after a customer has already given notice at their current residence, the customer no longer has a choice to accept the changes or not....unless they want to be homeless. It serves these lenders right that too many of their customers are going bad on their loans. Now I'm not saying CW is an underhanded scummy lender but I know this is something that happens to MANY subprime borrowers. CW has a BIG presence in the subprime market and at the very least they are guilty by association in my book.

[VLGaffEsq]

Netpanther...I hear everything you are saying, and I tend to agree wholeheartedly with you.  You articulated your position as a matter of fact and in a straight forward manner, and it should be respected as such.  I agree that businesses are in business to make a profit, but those who will always do well are those companies which ALWAYS take excellent care of their customers!  (See Nordstroms and Starbucks, and Dell several years ago...).

[SpecFile]

Countrywide is not going away anytime soon.  BofA just bailed them out two weeks ago with 2 Billion and are now a preferred lender to Countrywide as a result.  There have been talks in the past of a merger between the two and I think this bail-out just might be the beggining of it all.

Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118781794985005692.html

Also:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070823/bs_nm/countrywide_bankamerica2_dc

Message Edited by SpecFile on 09-09-2007 02:31 PM

Message Edited by SpecFile on 09-09-2007 02:33 PM

[Anonymous]

Full Spectrum which is a wholly owned subsidiary of CW is SCUM.  They exist only to make their numbers and a profit at any cost.  To this end, the FTC should look into them for raqueteering and unfair business loans.  They marketed sub prime loans to people who many couldhave qualified for better terms.  Have you seen some of these loans? I've looked at a friends and they are loan shark terms, most all of them have 2 yr pre-payment penalties guaranteeing almost to make it impossible for them to refinance before the 2 yrs.

Some of them have balloons attached to them and many of them have arms that reset every 6mths and terms at 1/5pt per 6mths not to exceed 15.3%, now tell me if that is not loanshark terms.  And they wonder why many are foreclosing!

Why do you think in that article they are going back and targeting those people with those terms to refinance because they know that those loans are ticking bombs!

What ever happened to a company having ethics! I'm all for capitalists market and free markets but what this subdiary did was prey on a segment of the population.  I'm sure that many like the poster was not comfortable withe those terms, expressed that feeling and were brushed aside and made to feel that all was well.

I'm not sorry for Country wide or their managers who ;KNOWINGLY went along with what they did! Karma is a *itch!

[Anonymous]

You know I think that it is amazing that Countrywide can get "bailout" help from BofA but funny when the President and the government get involved to help the consumer out (who is by the way, one of the primary reasons why these companies have business and jobs anyway) in some type of bailout it is received in a derogatory fashion and continually questions the saneness of the buyer as opposed to the downright deceptiveness of the lending facility? 

This kind of pisses me off because again, it appears that CW can do what they want, especially their Full Spectrum Lending department and only look out for the bottom line for themselves and their company as opposed to looking out for the buyer and his family and their needs and taking the route of being honest with them and saying hey you really cannot afford this loan and I am not going to go any further with this process because I don't want to see your family suffering with the burden of a loan gone bad or worse, foreclosure.  If a lender had this type of insight into helping their customers, there would so much more customer loyalty and retention as well as referrals of other friend and family members because we all want good, honest and quality service.

Guess my hoping is not realistic and I should step out of the bubble. LOL

Message Edited by myhearts07 on 09-09-2007 08:23 PM