The bank that we have our mortgage with, Countrywide, has been in the news quite a bit lately. We didn't fall prey to the 1, 2, or 3-year ARM loans that are getting so many people into trouble right now, but we are in a tough situation that I thought a few phone calls might help to ease.
I had to call four different numbers and I spoke with six different people. The girl that was the most helpful was the last one that I spoke with; unfortunately she didn't have to tell me what I wanted to hear.
With the house now on the market for sale, I wanted to explore my options. As we come off of our busy season with books (not as busy as I'd like), we may have a struggle to pay the mortgage every month while we wait for the house to sell. It is also a given that I will not be able to sell the house for enough to pay back what I owe to Countrywide.
Since I have such a great rate on my 30-year fixed mortgage, it would not be in my best interest to refinance, but the current loan that I have does not include a "skip-a-month" option (which would allow me to let the mortgage bill slide until the house is sold, making up for it when we pay off the loan). So, if I can't make a payment, it will go down in my credit report - which is still spotless right now.
The Countrywide representative suggested the "short sale" option, but that as well would effect our credit (it would show the mortgage not paid off in full and would go down in the report as a bad debt). Since we had the 100% financing (80% mortgage, 20% Home Equity Line of Credit), I asked the representative if I could pay off the mortgage in full, and pay off what I could of the HELOC, turning the rest of what I would owe into an unsecured loan. She had to put me on hold for several minutes, but came back with a negative response.
So, even though it is a desire of mine to make good on what I owe to Countrywide, they would rather write off a loss on the loan (and therefore write a bad debt into my credit) than to take the risk that I might actually pay them back what I owe them!
My only option that will allow my credit to come out intact at this point is to find someplace that will give me a personal, unsecured loan for the difference between the selling price and what I owe Countrywide, so that my debts to Countrywide can be paid in full. I can't imagine that it will be easy to find someone that would be willing to do that - especially when I couldn't refinance my truck because of our debt-to-income ratio....
