April 20, 2010, 11:25 am: I asked Jason Papa what the function of a Chase Home Ownership Center was and if I should drive there for a face to face meeting. He said “anybody active we can’t take”; we “originate and monitor applications” and “we are not decision makers at the Chase Home Ownership Center”; he went on to say they were a “contact point” for the consumer. He remembered my loan and requested permission to pull the file. I agreed and we talked about the situation.
I wanted clarification on “too much equity” and the 30% formula Jacqueline Ham from the Chase Home Lending Executive Office had provided on February 12, 2010. Jason said if my monthly mortgage payment was less than 31% of my monthly gross pay I would not qualify for HAMP. I reminded him my loan did not qualify for HAMP regardless, but I was asking about the equity formula, not the relationship between monthly mortgage payment and monthly salary. I also made it clear my monthly mortgage payment was far greater than 31% of my monthly gross salary. Jason was stuck on HAMP and referenced the $727,750.00 cap. (I didn’t bother to point out that in Cape May County, NJ the cut-off was $487,500.) I jumped in and said it was not about HAMP. I was asking about the Chase in-house program – I thought Chase had another program, an in-house program that he’d mentioned in our January 5, 2010 call.
Jason said I’d been denied (in August 2009) but I could always “apply again if my situation changes”. I said my situation had changed; my savings were depleted and I was pursuing the 12/11/09 loan modification application allegedly underway. I said an interior appraisal had been done on 4/1/10. Only then did Jason realize what I was talking about and he said he could not help me. I persevered and asked about a face-to-face meeting with a decision-maker; Jason said “no one meets with the decision-makers” (Nobody gets in to see the Wizard, not nobody, no how!) and the decision-makers “don’t write a lot of letters”; “they only send one when the decision is made”.
Based on my attempts to get a copy of the denial letter allegedly sent 6/30/09 and/or 8/25/09 for my 2/24/09 modification, I knew this was true. Chase put as little as possible in writing, thus continuing the opaque banking practices and predatory lending schemes devised by Washington Mutual. I thanked Jason for his time and we ended the call.
Filed under: Chase, Home Loan Modification, JP Morgan Chase, Washington Mutual | Tagged: Chase Home Lending, Chase Home Ownership Center, Chase loan modification, HAMP, home equity, jp morgan chase loan modifications, loan modification answers, predatory lending, Washington Mutual | 1 Comment »