Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Most mortgage settlement checks will be $300

At long last, the cash payments promised to mortgage borrowers who may have been wronged by their banks are set to be put in the mail -- but most checks are going to be a good bit smaller than homeowners had hoped.

A full 60 percent of the nearly 4 million borrowers eligible under the settlement with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Reserve will receive $300, the minimum payment possible, according to data released Tuesday. About 77 percent will receive less than $1,000.

The payments stem from a settlement reached in 2011 with about a dozen major banks over allegations of robosigning and other shoddy servicing practices. The banks were originally supposed to pay consultants to review individual loan files to determine who was mistreated and how much they should be compensated.

But as costs ballooned, a new settlement in January put an end to the independent foreclosure review the regulators and mandated $8.5 billion in cash payments and mortgage relief.

Bank of America was to pay $1.1 billion in cash and provide $1.8 billion in mortgage relief. Wells Fargo was slated to pay $766 million in cash and commit $1.2 billion in relief.

The new settlement advertises payments ranging from $300 to $125,000. Only about 1,100 people will receive the maximum amount. Most of them are servicemembers foreclosed on while on active duty.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sucks because I got less than what they promised me on the post card they originally sent out.

Anonymous said...

Do not confuse this check with the first card you received. Only one card stated a minimum amount to be received. That check will come from the money given to each state, later next month. This check is from the Jan.2013 settlement to stop reviews. The check slated to be sent in the next month or so was originally to be a minimum of $800+change.That amount has increased because of only a 50% return of eligible homeowner applications.

Anonymous said...

I agree it sucks! It's like going through the whole foreclosure process again. After fighting with my bank for 18 months for an audit, miscalculated interest, misapplied payments, robo-signing, wrong hearing location and fraudulent signatures, forbearance, the list goes on-this MSA - according to how the payments were going to be calculated was represented as a framework that actually would give RELIEF OR AT LEAST THE OPPORTUNITY to get a start on a new beginning for those who lost their homes. As one of the people who submitted over 100 pages of documents for the review, my estimate from the old framework to the new frame work doesn't even compare!!! A substantial payment for the errors, and loss equity and the correction of my credit (my bank reported it 3 times as two different addresses and once as an active loan after the home was already sold!) I've been homeless, and am a single mom with a special needs child. And I now get a whopping $300-$1000?!! That doesn't even cover our monthly medical bills! This is a slap in the face as more money from this settlement goes to saving those in their homes, repaying AG's, setting up programs for those who still have a home, wiping away "ghost" loss of equity (which only credits back the banks that were to get punished for wrong doing ANYWAY), loss tax revenue to states, then money that was to go to those who lost their homes due to what the review board calls "errors, omissions". And then the settlement calls that the AG do not prosecute against the securities issues, loan origination or third party robo-signing?!! The big THREE?! Yes our right to sue is not waived but what does that leave us in court to fight about! I am sorry but had I known this settlement would have changed the terms of payments I would have not been so gunho about my state taking part. I guess the one state that didn't participate actually had the foresight to see that this financial mess went far beyond what this settlement was trying to accomplish. This is like asking a robber who just stole $320k worth of stuff FROM ME AND GOT CAUGHT WITH THE GOODS to give me $300 for my suffering- and then not even letting the robber give me my money back. At least a car insurance company will give you what your car was worth or give you the option to do a total loss!!! Remember a lot of us got taxed on the debt as income before the law was changed!! That's what happens when the general public forgets that the Federal Reserve Board is NOT A FEDERAL organization. So my fellow victims-what will you do with your $300? I think I will buy stock in these banks because clearly they are gonna get "paid" despite all they done.