The HARP Program (Home Affordability Refinance Program)
This is a scam program from CitiMortgage. What I found so interesting is that they send you this formal looking offer letter showing how you can decrease your payments. The last page shows that this special offer for you has no closing costs and is the going market interest rate (at the time, a shocking 3.25%).
I called about this program to find out whether or not there was any mandatory mortgage holding time (so, whether or not I'd have to hold the mortgage for a certain number of months). The agent on the line refused to answer the question but wanted to get me invested in my time before "transferring me to a mortgage consultant who can answer those questions for you."
This is a not a mortgage-specific program. This is "Do I need to hold the mortgage for a certain number of months for this offer to apply?"
Still she refused to answer.
But I decided to get to the mortgage consultant step to see if I could get my question answered.
The whole process took 10 minutes on the phone with the agent- her asking me a bunch of "qualifying questions". I believe that the whole thing is set up so that they keep asking you questions until they get to one that you answer the wrong way on. Mine was "Has there been any change in Title since the last mortgage?"
I had gotten married and my last name changed.
They considered that a Title change, even though I wasn't changing ownership.
What makes this a huge scam is that I had just had the name on the mortgage changed three months ago- same company. It's not like they didn't know that my name had changed.
So, the sinker comes in when they finally reach a question to which you answer incorrectly. There's a period of silence and they come back and tell you that you are not qualified for this program, but there are several other refinancing offers for which you are qualified, though you'd have to pay the closing costs.
Uhm.....
No thanks.
Do NOT bother calling on this scam. It's just a waste of your time.
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