Product: Mortgage

Special Forbearance is not so special. 
In late XXXX XXXX I was included in a mass layoff ( firing ) from a tech firm out of California. I had a mortgage with Wells Fargo ( no choice of my own ). Wells Fargo bought the mortgage from the servicer I originally had. Like the good homeowner I was, I notified Wells Fargo that I had lost my job and it may be a few months before I was re-employed. 
The point of the call was, of course, to make some temporary arrangements until I was re-employed. My request was transferred to the Home Preservation Department. Has a nice ring, right? Well, the nice lady on the other end convinced me that I qualified for a special forbearance program. We talked about the lack of income I had and that any assistance would be appreciated. I was almost excited about this. I thought they were actually trying to help me. Let 's put you on a 6-month forbearance, and you can resume your normal payments at the end of that time, she said. Nice! Now that would be helpful. 
About a week or so after the call, I received a document regarding the special forbearance. The document showed up in XXXX. It was in a letter format, a bit confusing, but the payment terms were simple, On XXXX XXXX, XXXX, start making your regular payments. That was it. I questioned the Home Preservation Specialist about the terms and was assured that I only needed to resume my regular mortgage payment. I signed the document and sent it back. 
After the 6 months was over, I had secured a job, caught up on my bills and called to resume making payments. The payment was accepted over the phone, no problem. The next month, I went to make the next payment. The customer service representative did not want to take my payment. Slightly confused, I went to a local Wells Fargo and paid the payment with cash. The next month, I went to make the payment and was refused unless I paid all the payments missed during the forbearance period. Okay, now I was really confused. Not only was my payment required by calling Wells Fargo, now they 're insisting on the full balance from when the forbearance started. I did my part, I thought. What is going on here? 
The bottom-line, I was misled by the Home Preservation Specialist. I was also placed on one of those conditional loan modification programs so I could get the loan current. That never happened either, Every time I applied, I was turned down because my debt to income ratio was too high. I applied to the State twice for help and was turned down. By this time, I was so far behind that foreclosure steps had been started in the background. In XXXX of XXXX I had to file a chapter XXXX to stall the foreclosure. Now they had to take my payments. So I resumed my payments. During that time, I landed a better job. I reapplied for a modification to put all the arrears at the end of the loan. After complaining loudly and insisting on a supervisor, I was eventually granted a modification. I voluntarily dismissed the chapter XXXX, and the rest was history. 
Now, my credit is totally screwed because of what they did. From the other reports and reviews I 've read since, this is a standard M.O. for Wells Fargo and other banks. A practice similar to Predatory Lending is Predatory Loan Servicing. The special forbearance I was put on is a practice commonly referred to as manufacturing a default or manufactured default. They create a situation to cause a default, then the act on seizing the asset. 
The really sad part of all this is that they actually pretend to care and help. Because these bank or so huge, they act with complete impunity against the consumer. Unless you have very deep pockets, suing is just not an option. If you 're ever offered a Special Forbearance, run! This is a Trojan Horse designed to manufacture a loan default.