Bank of America to pay $335M to settle for Racism - Announcements & BofA News Discussions on Bank Of America Sucks : Official Bank of America consumer opinion site :

bofasux

Bank of America agreed to pay $335 million to resolve allegations that its Countrywide unit engaged in a widespread pattern of discrimination against qualified African-American and Hispanic borrowers on home loans.

Bank of America's headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.in July 2010.
The settlement with the U.S. Justice Department was filed Wednesday with the Central District court of California and is subject to court approval. The DOJ says it's the largest settlement in history over residential fair lending practices.
According to the DOJ's complaint, Countrywide charged over 200,000 African-American and Hispanic borrowers higher fees and interest rates than non-Hispanic white borrowers with a similar credit profile. The complaint says that these borrowers were charged higher fees and rates because of their race or national origin rather than any other objective criteria.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/banking/story/2011-12-21/Bank-of-America-settlement/52141596/1?csp=34money&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+UsatodaycomMoney-TopStories+(Money+-+Top+Stories)

RobinHood

I am an attorney with several cases against BOA. I would like to talk to anyone in "home retention" or "loss mitigation" areas. Thanks.

Teensy

Well have you seen this recent thread?

http://bankofamericasucks.com/discussion/25721/i-work-for-bofa-home-loans-telling-all#Item_12

BossMan

I'm sure everyone failed to notice, or did not admit they noticed the most important part of that garbage, and that is" "....Bank of America agreed to pay $335 million to resolve allegations that its ""Countrywide"" unit engaged in a widespread pattern of discrimination ...."

Countrywide, folks. Countrywide. The biggest problem our bank has ever had--Countrywide. The biggest mistake Ken Lewis ever made was COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS.

Let's not forget--COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS! Not BofA--Countrywide.

Teensy

I guess it's fair enough to state that Countrywide made the mess, but BoA is doing a terrible job of dealing with it, by all accounts, inside and out.

BossMan

Can you state some concrete examples of how BofA is handling these situations terribly or in any worse fashion than any bank that has been overwhelmed by these issues. BofA has settled many class action suits (which do not mean it was at fault) from issues that were created years prior to its acquisition of CountryWide or Balboa insurance, just to be able to clear the decks and move on. Right down to offering an amount of $35 million to keep Angelo Mozillo out of jail.

Every CountryWide issue and claim has been addressed. BofA is the one bank that has foreclosed on the least percentage of homes that are in default and is one bank that allows people to remain in homes at times upwards of 24 months without even making a payment. Remember the "robo-signer" issue that you all salivated over a year or more ago? Well? It fizzled out because there was no basis to any fault by BofA, it was all CountryWide. Remember when everyone on these pages predicted an indictment of Ken Lewis for the robo signing issues? Well? What happened?

Believe it or not, a lot of these issues, for some reason or another, fell apart and died after the screening of TOO BIG TO FAIL that actually uncovered arm twisting and bullying by Paulson and Bernancke who both forced institutions to take TARP. And the same bullying that kept a lot of banks, like BofA, from paying it back as quickly as they wanted to.

So can you detail, factually, and not from cry babies that frequent these pages, factual accounts of how Bank of America is doing a terrible job of dealing with the CountryWide issues "by all accounts" (says who? ) both inside and out, when it continues to lend, has had the largest share, and has seen an large increase in its home loan origination? A bad job? Who says so?

Teensy

Other employees have stated on this board that BoA was up to no good with regard to loan modifications, not just doing a lousy job, but deliberately doing a lousy job with pressure from above to do so. No one with any credible knowledge of that department has ever refuted it. They only defense that ever came were ad hom attacks on the borrowers for being "dead beats." Remember those lovely threads? That combined with the sheer number of people who have come here with exactly the same story of sending package after package of paperwork, faxing and FedEx-ing over and over again, only to have it lost countless times has me pretty well convinced that they were deliberately trying to kill the possibility of modification with endless frustration.

Only an idiot would originate a new loan with BoA now. I hope you like dealing with idiots. If they don't know better than to choose you by now, they are most likely not paying attention to much, and will run into problems with other details.

The thing is, BossMan, I've almost always been with a credit union, so I am very accustomed to their way of doing things, but I honestly didn't have much of an opinion of big banks until BoA bought MBNA, and I was confronted with BoA's idea of customer service. That one phone call, and the remarks of people like you on this website have made me into a crusader against big banks, long before the housing market crash. When I hear things like "Banks are a business. They're in it to make money, so if they can find a way to give you more fees for the same mistake, of course we're going to do it. We have a right to. If you don't like it, don't make mistakes." It only makes me want to work harder to tell people that if they don't like it, they have a choice. Bank of America is not the bank of America. It is a bank in America. Like all other institutions, they should have to earn your loyalty by catering to your needs and values. If they don't, vote with your dollar. They only logical choice is a credit union.

BossMan

How many times are we going to hear "I'm with a credit union"???? Are we gonna hear about the banks in Europe again? LOL

Banks everywhere are a business and they offer a service and need to be paid for the service--they do not sell tires or milk or plasma TVs'. If a customer makes a mistake there is a fee structure for that mistake if it's repeated. Don't pay for your water--there is a fee. Don't pay your phone, there is a reconnect fee--even if that reconnect is done by computer once the bill is paid in less than 3 minutes!

There are posted fees that are a consequence of mismanagement of your account and funds by YOU the customer who is ultimately responsible for your financial situation. Get over it. If you don't like it, go to another bank. I've done research on the credit unions and their fees and will post it soon. Lets see YOU deny it when I do!

Teensy

Post all you want. All I can tell you is that my credit union does not have such high fees, it doesn't post highest to lowest, and it never played the overdraft game, and by that I mean allowing people to overdraft their accounts with their debit cards when the funds weren't there. I can trust them. I know they're not going to be scheming for new ways to screw me, so I don't have to be on the lookout for new and increasingly complicated rules, because they're not-for-profit. They don't have to appease shareholders.

How often are you going to hear "I'm with a credit union?" I don't believe I've made a secret of this. The answer is: over and over and over and over and over....you might even hear about the banks in Europe, too. You have never offered any kind of convincing argument in either case that Bank of America is better. I get insults to my person, and to other people. I get "baby banks in diapers." I get "we are the best because we're the biggest, and we have the most customers." I get "award-winning online banking" (out of a pool of 1 or 3 or something, I assume...I'm sure they didn't check everyone). I get "we invented everything." But what matters most to me as a customer is customer service, and as I've said over and over again, that is not something that can be super-sized, or if it can, it hasn't happened yet. When it comes to my money, I want to feel like the institution I'm dealing with gives a bit of a crap. But also, in plain old businesslike self-interest, my credit union has better interest rates on pretty much everything. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

Halleck

Amen! Why would anyone go where they are treated worst? The brown shirt attitudes expressed here by B of A employees is indicative of how they treat their customers.

BofARepMark

I didnt read banks in diapers, I saw written training wheels that I think is pretty funny.... And Halleck was full of it before and he's full of it again. We treat our customers very well, extremely well, we get paid to treat them well--we get rewarded when we exceed and we get rewarded when they surveys they do on us tell us we did well and treated them well, and all those contribute to the EXTRA over and ABOVE bonuses we all get at the end of the year based solely on OUR performance, not the Bank's

So I may think theyre mostly idiots (and I do) and don't give a crap about their own money (and they don't) and I may think Halleck or someone else is an ass, but if he's on the phone and that call is getting recorded I will kill him with kindness and courtesy because, baby, it is CHA CHING!! and CHA CHING-A-LING-A-CHING! And that's the bottom line.

If any of you get rotten servces, it's because you have attitudes, you're arrogant, you're insulting and demanding and you treat the associates like trash--get over it!

Halleck

So happy, fullfilled and compensated that you spend hours venting your contempt for customers here. LOL. I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

I'll bet you aren't a "boss" at all, huh? My bet is that you are a lowly assistant that doesn't even get to handle customers but rather, have to do the lacky work of real customer service people and never get to utter a peep at work. That would explain the unresolved need to "answer back" at customers.

xstortionist

BossMan said:
How many times are we going to hear "I'm with a credit union"???? Are we gonna hear about the banks in Europe again? LOL

Banks everywhere are a business and they offer a service and need to be paid for the service--they do not sell tires or milk or plasma TVs'. If a customer makes a mistake there is a fee structure for that mistake if it's repeated. Don't pay for your water--there is a fee. Don't pay your phone, there is a reconnect fee--even if that reconnect is done by computer once the bill is paid in less than 3 minutes!

There are posted fees that are a consequence of mismanagement of your account and funds by YOU the customer who is ultimately responsible for your financial situation. Get over it. If you don't like it, go to another bank. I've done research on the credit unions and their fees and will post it soon. Lets see YOU deny it when I do!

You call creating money out of thin air a service? Hmm, never thought of it that way. DUMBASS!

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