My bankruptcy was discharged about 5 years ago, and I've kept my mortgage current. I thought that I might be able to negotiate a lower interest rate if I agreed to reaffirm the debt so I called Chase to inquire. After about an hour of being transferred around, I finally got a representative who told me that I couldn't reaffirm without a lawyer, since the bankruptcy was discharged years ago. And that my "incentive" for doing that was that my mortgage would then be reported on my credit history. She said Chase does not adjust the interest rate or balance as an incentive to reaffirm. The bank should be thrilled that I want to reaffirm, but instead it sounded like they didn't care, and as a matter of policy wouldn't do anything to encourage me to do it. Is there something I'm missing here?
The reason they act like they don't care is that they don't want a lawsuit later claiming that they violated the bankruptcy by encouraging you to reaffirm. That's also why they aren't going to offer a lower rate or an incentive. It could be interpreted as them trying to get you to reaffirm in violation of the bankruptcy. Any reaffirmation has to be initiated by you. The creditor can't try to induce you to reaffirm.
A new deal is now becoming available in home mortgages which will help lots of people in trouble with their mortgages. Homes in foreclosure are being refinanced now. In order to qualify the homeowner must be at least 4 months in arrears and at least $4,000 behind in payments. If homeowners in that situation are current on their taxes, have homeowner's insurance in place and up to date and have $4,000 cash available these new companies will finance them at prime plus 3 to 4 percent on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. I don't have full details yet but I will be on a conference call this morning where I will probably get all the details down pat. I will be recording the call. After I have full details I will post them on my links page so anybody needing that kind of help can get all the information and how to contact someone who can actually help them with their problems. It will probably be about a week or so before I really put the information out because I have heard that there are some vicious scams going on in that area and I would want to make sure this isn't one of them. The story goes that some people have been scammed by putting up a sum of money such as the $4,000 for instance, getting turned down and then losing their investment. As always, if a deal sounds too good to be true it just might be.
