For some, mortgage relief ends up costing more
In 2008, Southwest Airlines flight attendant Kevin Parker slammed his shoulder so hard during severe turbulence that he was out of work for months.
His lender, Bank of America, allowed him to skip payments on his St. Petersburg home for 90 days. But when Parker sought a permanent loan modification, he began a journey as bumpy as anything he had encountered in the air.
“I sent the first e-mail probably last February and didn’t get a response, so I started e-mailing every other day trying to talk to someone,” Parker says. “Then it seemed like every time I called them, I was turned over to another caseworker who didn’t have the information I had sent.”
Five months and some 40 e-mails and phone calls later, Parker got the bank to reduce his payments by about $126 a month. But there was a big tradeoff: His late payments were tacked onto the balance, increasing the amount he owes to $157,805 — $10,300 more than he originally borrowed.