My mortgage is with Citi. I called them and said I'm going broke and what can you do for me on my payment. They asked for all the relevant expenses and income questions then said, I don't qualify for a refi. Too much debt to income, but I thought I made that clear when I first said "I'm going broke". So I asked for other suggestions since I didn't qualify for a refi. She said I could do a short sale. I said the house has been on the market for over a year and no one made any offers, so I can't see what's going to happen with a short sale. Besides, I have plenty of equity, so there's no point in this route. I then asked whats up with all the Obama mortgage help programs and why don't I qualify for any of them. She said Wells Fargo is the investor and Citi is the servicer and WF doesn't offer any help with mortgage payments. Ah fuckin ha. So I went to the WF website and said lookey lookey WF does too offer mortgage assistance (modifications). She said "Does not". I then asked her when did all this happen that my mortgage ended up with WF. She couldn't answer that. So I called WF, and after some effort found someone to bitch at. I said you own my mortgage and I would like a loan modification. Since they don't have a record of me having a mortgage on file I had to fess up and tell them that Citi was the servicer. She said WF can't help me. The way it looks to me is these banks cut deals with each other and don't offer programs based on whatever side deals are made as servicers or investors.
I recently went through essentially the same scenario. I bank with CiTi and my mortgage was held through WF. I owed about 150K on a 500K 8 year old home with a credit score over 750. I couldn't even get a lousy HELOC. Everyone and their mother were throwing new cars at me, but I already have 4 of them. Loan mod is a pipe dream for those who have lived within their means. Even WF turned a deaf ear to me with my terrific payment history. The only way out was to tap into my home's equity and the mortgage horizon was looking bleak. Unless you and your spouse both have teriffic city jobs with tenure, the new , stricter refi requirements are stifling, to say the least. I went through a few brokers who tried their best to help me, but the points, rates, and overall terms were much less than desirable. Then, I found a bank that does true stated income loans and they refi'd me at a palatable rate. PM me if you're interested.
I also have a Citi mortgage and oddly enough in the final stages of refinancing with Chase with a 15yr fixed @3.125. I assume Citimortgage did not offer nutmeg any help because of his high equity stake. Basically he has more to lose than citi. OHO, if the equity position was 10% or less, they may have been more eager to offer help, but I think even in that situation, you would have to be behind at least a couple months in payments.
Could you not remortgage with someone else and buy out the existing mortgage. The high equity stake would work in your benefit in that situation.
What about something like this? http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/lowest-ever-fixed-rate-mortgage-100810120.html
Well at some point in the future I see a major collision with my bank book and my expenses. I thought since I want to keep the house and it's the biggest expense (mort payment 2400 month) I would work on that part of my budget. My current apr is 612 and suppose the going rate is 3 something I could save 4 -5 hundred dollars. I still see this as a short term fix. 4-5 hundred a month saving will be swallowed up within 18 months by rising energy costs, taxes, water and sewer bills. So I'm going to check around on plan B. If a refi saves me 4-5 a month on mort payments ....so would not paying my mort for 2 months over the course of a year. Heck who knows maybe I could just send in 200 - 400 a month less and see what they do. I wonder if Citi will just subtract it from the principal or taxes. maybe I'll call them and ask them, nope actually Maybe I'll call another loan provider and see what they say. This probably will not work, might mess up my credit.