Consumer's beware.....I have found that dealing with New South Federal Savings Bank has been a tremendous disappointment. Many around the nation have experienced a difficult financial time especially those with higher interests rate on their homes or perhaps many have recently lost their jobs and have had little to no luck finding alternative work and if they have the pay is usually much lower than families are accustomed to.
My story is not much different. I was laid-off as well and re-gained work making a lot less than I am accustomed to meaning that we as a family needed to make some financial adjustments in our lives. Since the Obama administration was freely giving tax dollars to the large banks, and other financial institutions I felt that I as a taxpayer I had the right to request that my very own mortgage lender for a "loan modification" based off our financial needs.
Well not only did my mortgage lender fail miserably but they have don't even have the facts surrounding my mortgage correct. My story begins with my request for a loan modification at the end of February 2009. After discussing the request for loan modification with a New South Federal Loan adviser I received an email with all the necessary documents to complete, pretty much the same paperwork as if I were seeking a new mortgage with the exception of documentation proving my financial need.
Well I faxed the documents during the last full week of February 2009 fully completed to the number supplied by New South Federal using Office Depot at a fee of over $14 because there were so many pages. I was told that it would take approximately 30 days to process and that I would be contacted. I did not contact New South Federal until the 3rd week of March 2009 to get a status on the processing since funds were becoming tight by the day....
I was transferred on numerous occasions before I finally got the correct department and they advised me that they did not have the paperwork. I informed this mortgage lender that I had indeed faxed them all the documents at their request at a fee of $14 (I was pretty much irritated at this point). The mortgage agent told me they would look into it and in fact she did. She called me back within the day to advise me that my documents went to their offices in Boston and asked me to fax them directly to her. You guessed it, I was pretty hot....I had already paid to fax on one occasion, told it would process in 30 days and no action had been take on my request.
I ended up faxing everything again to her after signing up for "MyFaxCentral" so I could fax using the internet, again costing me monies. I was advised it would take another 30 days or so to process. I asked the mortgage agent to call if they were missing anything since my need was getting critical. Again, I did not hear anything for another 30 days (3rd week of April) then, you guessed it.....they called and informed me they were missing a document and asked me to fax it again.
I was getting mad by this time, I faxed over the document again that they were requesting that has now been sent to them 3 times. Talk about inept!!!
Well, didn't get another call until you guessed it another 30 days when they were looking at it again and noticed they had never received this 1 document again!!!! Then New South Federal gave me an ultimatum that if I didn't get that document to them with 7 days they would have to close my request!
I began speaking with other lenders at this point and am happy to say that I did get the re-finance I was seeking and oh by the way you can't get approved on a re-finance if you've missed a mortgage payment in the past 12 months....keep this one in mind.
Of all the nerve, New South Federal Savings and Loan sent me a letter to advise me they had terminated the request for loss mitigation due to a "surplus of income", say WHAT? Then in the next paragraph, quote "Please be advised that your account will be sent to our Collection or Foreclosure Department so that we may start legal actions. It is urgent that you contact our office within the next 10 days to prevent any foreclosure activity from being processed on your account. Your account is currently due for the months of: June 21, 2009" and understand this letter was dated June 15th, 2009.....so let me get this straight they are going to foreclose on a loan that isn't in default????? My next payment isn't due until tomorrow? WOW.....
Just had to get this nightmare off my chest and hope others might benefit from my experience with New South Federal Savings and Loan.
