I Want to Pay the Bank More Money But They Won't Let Me!

Peace of mind

This is an interesting conundrum!

One of my friends and clients wants to modify her loan from an ARM to a fixed loan. 

Guess how long she has been asking the bank to make this change.

One week?  One month?  One year?  Wrong, wrong, and wrong…

She has been calling the bank everyday for one year and a half.

But it doesn’t stop there.  If her loan reset to an ARM, given the current interest rates, she would be paying less than if she succeeded in modifying her loan and paying a fixed interest rate.

The bank’s response is that she needs to miss her payments.

Now, admittedly, you figure, why bother?  Let the loan adjust and pay less.  At that point, the bank would be the one losing.

Well, let me ask you this: how much is peace of mind worth to you?  For some, quite a bit.  This client would prefer to spend more money but know that she has the certainty of knowing her payment every single month, she wants the certainty that she can understand her loan and the situation that she is in each day, each month, each year.

After one year and a half of calling everyday, sometimes with the bank’s representatives hanging up on her, the answer “missing a payment” is not the answer.

Missing a payment is less peace of mind and what exactly does it resolve?  Why are these banks so adamant that you must miss a payment and ruin your credit score to get help?  What in the world would that solve?

Who knows if she will ever be able to modify this from an ARM to a fixed and actually pay more interest.  In the meantime, I can only hope that the banks become more reasonable and less difficult to deal with.