Beware of Wells Fargo
It’s One Story To The Media and Congress and Another To Main Street America, and the Story Stinks Real Bad.
By reading the press releases from Michael Heid, the president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, any family in trouble would gain immediate comfort in knowing that Wells Fargo is there for them in times of difficulty. That is, of course, until you speak to any other employee of Wells Fargo other than Mr Heid. You can find that press release at Wells Fargo HASP Press Release
Mr Heid has repeatedly preached about Wells Fargo’s staunch commitment to the Obama Home Ownership Affordability & Stability Plan, targeted directly at struggling homeowners, and designed to help them avoid defaults and foreclosures, when by every measure, they have done the right thing and in some way through un-forseen circumstances, find themselves in financial difficulty.
The truth though, is that when you get past all of the glossy press releases and carefully prepared congressional testimonies, Wells Fargo is an organization who works harder to disqualify hurting, modification eligible borrowers, than it does to help them.
I am making these allegations not based on some annectodal evidence, but on the real facts presented by real people, and those facts are;
- People who clearly meet and exceed the hardship qualifications set forth by Secretary Geithner on March 4 are being turned away, without explanation.
- Wells Fargo’s press release from March 4, from Co-President Michael Heid, which followed Secretary Geithner’s, says, and I quote, “The company will offer the Home Affordable Modification Program for its own loans and loans it services for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. You can speak to anyone inside of the company(with the exception of Mr Heid, I suppose), and they will tell you that they have adopted written poilicies which call for them to make the program available only to loans it services for Fannie and Freddie, and not for their own loans as the press release states. Funny how somehow the 3 most important words, “its own loans”, never it into the final internal written policy. In fact, what did make it is a written policy that prohibits, for its own loans, any interest rate reductions, principal reductions, or term extensions. These 3 tools are the cornerstone of President Obama’s plan.
What makes all of this even worse is that it is being perpetrated on a sizable group of loans which are owned by Wells Fargo, but serviced by another company. Wells Fargo has been turning down the clear cut modification applications, and then instructing the loan servicer that they are not to disclose to the borrowers/applicant who the owner of their loan is. As a result, Wells Fargo cowers in the shadows, mandating anonymity, while hurting homeowners try to figure out how to appeal a decision with an owner of their loan that they are not allowed to know about. Our investigation confirmed this act first hand.
Now is the time for all of us, not just President Obama, Secretary Geithner, and Congress, to stand up and fight for what is right. The next time Wells Fargo’s CEO sits before Congress asking us, the taxpayers, for more of our hard earned tax dollars, through TARP funds, to pay his salary for the next year, lets make sure that he is accountable for, and must answer to the horrible facts here. If all of these Federal funds are not finding their way into the hands of hurting people as the Administration planned, then where in the world are they going, and why on earth would we hand out any more until we completely understand that.
Also, next time you need a financial product please, please think twice about whether this is the type of organization you want to support. It’s just as safe to support your local community banks, where you can establish and maintain a personal relationship with a banker, who will be at that desk during good times, and bad, and not a big bureaucratic coward like this, where the defined strategy is to hide behind a third party, and say no to so many that should be hearing a yes, and doing so with the mandate/expectation that their identity as the decision maker will never be revealed. Guess what, Wells Fargo, and Mr Heid, it’s being revealed.
And please remember, your funds are funds are just as safe and insured at your local community bank as they are at Wells Fargo.
Until Wells and others are made formally accountable,, even though it is difficult, do not let companies like Wells Fargo force you to give up. It is clear to us, who are financial professionals with 20+ years in this industry, that the outlined policies and procedures are designed to make it so difficult to gain access to these programs, that you simply walk away. I urge you not to do that, and we are making ourselves available to ensure that that is not the road that Main Street America is shoved down.
Beware of Wells Fargo - It’s One Story To The Media and Congress and Another To Main Street America, and the story stinks real bad.
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