Consumer complaint received 2017-08-17
Product: Mortgage — Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (CA)

This complaint is being filed against Bank of America for their HELOC conversion to a 15-year repayment period against a requested 30-year repayment. INTRODUCTION My wife and myself are homeowners in XXXX XXXX, California. We have a {$400000.00} Home Equity Line of Credit from XX/XX/XXXX with Bank of America that is due in XX/XX/XXXX. HELOC GOES INTO REPAYMENT We had received a notice from the bank before this HELOC was to go into a repayment period about our options to either apply for a new HELOC, make no changes and move into the scheduled repayment period or to pay the balance in full. Contacting the bank by phone more or less confirmed these options. Bank of Americas representative stated that if I do nothing the HELOC would go into a repayment period that would increase my monthly payment from approximately {$1000.00} ( interest only ) to {$3100.00} ( principal + interest ) or thereabouts depending on the prevailing interest rate. She further explained that it would be a principal + interest payment amortized over 15 years. I asked if it was possible to amortize the amount over 30 years, as this would reduce my monthly payments. The representative said that in this case I would need to apply for a new loan. NEW LOAN APPLICATION So in XX/XX/XXXX I applied to Bank of America for a 30-year home mortgage loan for {$400000.00}. The Bank of America representative taking my application over the phone understood that this loan if approved would go to pay off the existing HELOC. I was told my monthly payments in this case would be {$1800.00}. I went through their entire loan application process submitting various documents and answering their questions over the phone. Last week on XX/XX/XXXX, I was informed over the phone that my application was denied due to excess debt over income. CONFUSION As a customer I was not able to understand how Bank of America remained confident of being paid {$3200.00} a month from a customer but denied that the same customer would be unable to pay {$1800.00} per month. While discussing this last week with the banks representative I reiterated that they examined all that paperwork on my financial background for a loan amount in which my monthly debt payment to them would be {$1800.00} but they did not conduct a single iota of investigation to determine whether I was financially able to pay a monthly amount equivalent to double that dollar amount. GRIEVANCE I am aware that the bank has signed paperwork from us about the loan repayment period of 180 months. In the Agreement dated XX/XX/XXXX it is stated, The length of the Repayment Period is one hundred and eighty ( 180 ) months depending on the repayment schedule set forth below. You agree that we may renew or extend the period during which you may obtain credit advances or make payments. What I am grieved, hurt and further confused about is in summary the following : 1. Bank of America assumes the risk of a customer to pay {$3200.00} a month on their loan but ignores the lower risk of the same customer paying {$1800.00} a month. 2. Bank of America diligently collects, examines and analyzes documents supporting the financial condition of a customer in weighing the risk of a monthly amount of debt repayment but does not follow the same procedures in weighing the risk of almost double that amount. 3. Bank of America assumes that 11-year old customer financials are sufficient guarantee to ensure a monthly payment of {$3200.00} yet ignores the dependability of a $ XXXX monthly payment against it. 4. Bank of America despite stating in the Agreement that they may extend the period during which a customer may make payments, fails to bring this up as an option. 5. I will be XXXX years of age if alive after 30 years, a fact the number crunchers of Bank of America must have taken into account to analyze risk, as compared to my age of XXXX years after 15 years. Yet what makes Bank of America so sure I will be alive next year? IN SUPPORT My wife and myself have lived in this residence for 29 years and been a Bank of America customer valued according to the bank for 20 years. They say our account is Prime or Preferred Platinum. My credit score pulled by Bank of America is XXXX and my wifes is XXXX. Attached are copies of the reports. Our home is valued at {>= $1,000,000} with outstanding debt of {$630000.00} demonstrating upwards of 40 % equity.