“Dear Steve,
This question is for my 55-year old brother and his wife. I am a former tax accountant/paralegal but have no experience with consolidation loan situations as my husband and I have owned our home for many years.
My brother applied for a $70K debt consolidation loan with Bank of America in April 2008. It was immediately approved, although HE IS COMPLETELY DISABLED, SEEING A PSYCHIATRIST, AND HIS CREDIT RATING IS 500 since his disability many years ago.
He needed the loan to re-do his roof (100 year old home in fair condition), his driveway (lives in cold climate and is in disrepair) and credit card debt. He tells me that his practice has always been to make DOUBLE PAYMENTS on his cars, etc. in the past, and although his wife works full-time, he still wants to SHORTEN THE NUMBER OF YEARS TO REPAY THE LOAN. BofA is REFUSING to allow him to negotiate for this. My brother feels HE HAS BEEN TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF by the bank since they were FULLY AWARE of his physical/mental/emotional limitations.
What is his recourse? Who does he contact to file a claim of this sort? He mentioned the OCC but I am not familiar with that agency. Thank you so much as I promised him some information this week through research online and that I would FedEx it to him from AZ to MA as he does not have access to a computer. Thanks again.
Gale”
Dear Gale,
Let’s back the bus up for a minute. Is your brother saying that Bank of America will not accept double payments from him for this loan or that Bank of America will not renegotiate the loan?
I can certainly understand the unwillingness of Bank of America to renegotiate a loan that is already signed but I guess I’m stuck at “what’s the point” since your brother can simply pay the loan off early by sending in more than the minimum payments on a regular basis.
You are a kind sister for helping him with this issue.
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