450,000 to Get Payments in Countrywide Settlement

Source: New York Times

By GRETCHEN MORGENSON

Published: July 20, 2011

More than 450,000 borrowers who were charged excessive fees by Countrywide Home Loans when they fell behind on their mortgages will finally begin receiving the $108 million the company agreed to pay in a settlement struck with the Federal Trade Commission in June 2010, the agency said Wednesday. The number of consumers recovering money in the settlement is the biggest in the F.T.C.’s history and wound up being double what the commission had estimated.



“It is astonishing that one single company could be responsible for overcharging more than 450,000 homeowners, which is more than 1 percent of all the mortgages in the United States,” Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the trade commission, said in an interview. Countrywide’s “was a business model based on deceit and corruption and the harm they caused to American consumers is absolutely massive and extraordinary.”

The excessive fees and improper charges were levied on borrowers whose loans were serviced by Countrywide. Most of those receiving money under the settlement — almost 350,000 customers — were routinely charged excessive amounts by Countrywide for default-related services.

To profit from property inspections, title searches and maintenance on homes going through foreclosure, Countrywide set up subsidiaries to do the work and marked up the cost of the services by more than 100 percent. The company’s strategy was designed to increase profits from default-related services during bad economic times, the trade commission said. Some troubled borrowers were charged $300 by Countrywide to mow their lawns, for example.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/business/countrywide-to-pay-borrowers-108-million-in-settlement.html?_r=1&hp

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I like this line from the second paragraph:

“was a business model based on deceit and corruption and the harm they caused to American consumers is absolutely massive and extraordinary.”

Do you suppose they were/are the only ones with this model?

Minus attorney fees, etc., I suppose. I'm betting that doesn't repay the amount they were overcharged.

Ya beat me to it.

Countrywide (now what, BOA?) makes out OK, as do the lawyers. What about the borrower? Well, 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

$250.00

that works out to about a whopping $200 each. Last month, I got a check for $1.25 for a settlement against a -- WAIT FOR IT! -- debt collection company!

:eyes:
rocktivity

...should we send the check to?

but if you are big, you just pay a fine.