In what may be the final installment of 2011: A Bank Odyssey (after all, how many sequels can one make?) we briefly explore another amazing bank adventure.
During my much ballyhooed and convuluted refinancing adventure with the Bank of America, I encountered a young lady via telephone and email named Tamara, who was processing my application from St. Louis.
I got to know her a little bit, we talked about and joked about the enormous amount of info she was gathering from me, the documents, the long ID numbers, and we started talking about the housing finance situation all over the United States. We agreed that the foreclosure, bankruptcy, and unemployment situations are horrible.
Then she told me about herself. She told me that her job is very difficult emotionally, because part of her job is to inform applicants that their loans have been denied. She told me about repeatedly sitting on the phone and crying with people whose dreams had been suddenly destroyed. Then she dropped a real shocker on me. She said that she and her family had a mortgage with her employer, the Bank of America, but that she too had been foreclosed, and had lost her home.
Everything was going to be alright, she assured me, she and her family are tough, and determined to make it. But I simply couldn't believe it. Foreclosed, by the very company for which you work? I had never even thought about something like that before.
I knew, before I ever applied for a fmortgage refinance, that I would be denied. I knew it because I knew my house would not be appraised at a high enough value. My question is, why didn't somebody at the bank know it, and save us all the trouble of doggedly urging me to apply?
Somehow, I suspect I am not alone in my great "bank odyssey". How many more, I wonder, are there out there, waiting to be heard...
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