Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Harry Reid Takes BofA to Task for Shortchanging Nevada... And GOoPers Defend the Bank

Haha. Bank of America (BofA), unfortunately the lame@ss bank I have to use (for now), is being taken to ask by our Senator for forsaking its Nevada customers and not complying with federal and state law aimed at reducing the number of home foreclosures and helping people save their homes.

“I appreciate the significant burden that the foreclosure crisis has placed on your servicing division, but I suggest your Nevada mortgage customers, Nevada’s housing market and, indeed, your company’s reputation will all suffer more unless more of B of A’s resources are directed to our state,” Reid wrote in a letter to the bank.

“Simply put -- B of A must do more.” [...]

In the letter, [Harry] Reid said that 40 percent of the housing assistance cases his Las Vegas office is handling involve home loans from Bank of America which, Reid writes, “is in part a reflection of your company’s presence in Nevada but perhaps also an unfortunate indication of the difficulties your Nevada customers have encountered when approaching B of A for relief.”

“In too many instances where my staff connects a constituent with a B of A employee to discuss a modification, the constituent later reports that B of A failed to be of any assistance.”

Reid goes on to scold the company for its performance in the state’s new foreclosure mediation program. Of the eight mediations involving B of A since the program was launched this year, seven resulted in the mediator’s conclusion of “bad faith” on the part of the B of A representative, the senator wrote. [Emphasis mine.]

Over at The Sun's story, the Rethuglicans in the comments are so desperate to make Reid look bad that they'll even promote the greedy, stealing bailed out banks just to try to trash Reid. Companies like BofA pushed homeowners into subprime loans when they actually qualified for better, engaged in selling risky "mortgage backed securities" and "credit default swaps" to make a fast buck off their debt, and went to the government begging for bailout money after the deregulation plans they pushed the government to do ten years prior worked out quite disastrously... And we're supposed to blame Reid for urging these greedy Wall Street "robber barons" to stop skirting the law and start working with distressed homeowners?

And why won't BofA comply with Nevada law? The mediation program was designed to prevent further foreclosures, but it seems BofA is plenty happy with kicking people out of their homes while begging the feds for more bailout money.

I hope Reid and his fellow Democrats work harder in the Senate to pass reform measures to undo the failed Reagan-Gingrich-Bush era deregulation agenda and stop the highway robbery these banks are committing. They don't need any more bailouts on our dime. Rather, we need real reform that protects the customers and makes

And by the way, I actually am a BofA customer and this bank is notorious for lousy customer service. I never had a mortgage with them, but I have a whole 'nother horror story to share with you. They screwed up my dad's bank account earlier this year and made him go "overdraft" when he never really went overdraft. (Long story short: Their mistake was double-charging him for the phone bill.) They never refunded all the false "overdraft fees" they charged my dad, and they haven't even apologized for ruining his bank account and messing with his bill payments over the summer.

So please excuse me if I'm not crying for poor lil' BofA, but they're still not complying with the law and they need to stop being given any more of our tax dollars just to treat us like crap, screw up our bank accounts, and kick us out of our houses.

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