DR in Iowa said: “My complaint is against HSBC Mortgage Services, who is our mortgage servicer and the owner of our mortgage loan. Most recently, I contacted HSBC on Friday, March 20, 2009 to ask how to apply for a Making Home Affordable mortgage loan modification and was told, Obama’s plan only applies to loans backed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, and your loan is owned by HSBC. As you know, we already have a modification plan in place here at HSBC. If you’d like, I can connect you to the modification department.? I was then transferred to a worker in that department who gave me instructions on how to apply for a modification. I’ve been playing those same games for almost two years now.
The Making Home Affordable Q & A for homeowners states, “Can Making Home Affordable help me if my loan is not owned or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac? Yes. Making Home Affordable offers help to borrowers who are struggling to keep their loans current or who are already behind on their mortgage payments. By providing mortgage servicers with financial incentives to modify existing first mortgages, the Treasury hopes to help as many as 3 to 4 million homeowners avoid foreclosure regardless of who owns or services the mortgage.” The Q & A section goes on to explain that lender participation is voluntary but most lenders are participating. Yet, HSBC Mortgage Services has elected NOT to participate in the plan, and they are blaming the government for excluding them.
At this moment, HSBC’s web site states the following, “At HSBC, we have a team of experienced Mortgage Servicing Professionals that are dedicated to assisting you, and have helped many other homeowners facing tough times work out a mortgage resolution. Depending on your unique situation, we may be able to offer you short- or long-term solutions that can provide relief.” However, the ONLY modifications they have agreed to are temporary 6-month rate reductions of approximately one percent. In fact, in these dire times, HSBC not only re-set our adjustable rate mortgage upwards to its original rate on December 1, 2008, they adjusted it upwards by another one percent on January 1, 2009. Among bloggers, HSBC is notorious for not offering permanent solutions to homeowners trapped into predatory mortgage contracts. On the home page of NACA, a HUD-certified counseling agency, (www.naca.com), you’ll see a photo of HSBC CEO Brendan McDonagh front and center in their ‘Accountability Campaign’ exposé.
We, along with thousands of other Americans, need help to keep our HSBC-financed homes. We need to shame them into offering workable, permanent solutions to their customers who are struggling to make their payments. Or, at the very least, we need to pressure HSBC into truthfully disclosing to their customers that they have voluntarily elected not to participate in the Making Home Affordable modification plan, or any other plan. According to Wikipedia, HSBC is one of the largest financial institutions in Europe. Yet, they blame us and other middle-class Americans for the fraud of global proportions they created. We are responsible for signing our original mortgage documents, even though the terms and consequences were misrepresented to us. Now I want HSBC to be a responsible corporate citizen and do their part to fix this mess.
Our President is spending billions of dollars to resolve this crisis yet we STILL can’t even get a decent fixed rate on our mortgage due to HSBC’s unwillingness to help.”
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