Haverhill, Mass. man suggests suspending mortgage payments for troops

[Bluebear]

It was just on our 10pm news here in Boston, I will look for a link, I think his name was Chris Allende...he has an excellent idea, the mortgage payments of troops in Iraq should be suspended while they are over there.

So, so many of these soldiers are National Guard members who joined up to help victims of earthquakes and protecting our states and here they are in Iraq. Their financial turmoil is a horrible fact. He suggests 1)if every American would add $2 to their monthly mortgage, we could pay their payments until they return or; 2) the government could arrange to pay their interest until their return.

THIS is what I call supporting our troops!

[chicagojoe]

1. I wholeheartedly agree with that idea.

But I'm sure the banker-scum won't.

[Bluebear]

3. Put This yellow ribbon magnet shit doesn't cut it anymore

Put or shut up, cons and trolls. As I said a year ago, buying a cheap magnet or flag sticker for your truck and popping in a Toby Keith CD does NOT mean supporting our troops.

[havocmom]

6. Our local bank has been doing that for reservists and Guard members

who have been called up to active duty. It the loans were incurred before the call-up, they hold them, no interest accrued, no payments required until they personnel are listed as inactive again. Been offering it for over a year that I know of.

[Bluebear]

8. There is a bank I would do business with!

[havocmom]

10. Might just be because it is truly a community bank, it is owned by

shareholders here in this county, but I am wondering if it might actually be a law, but one where the parties would have to register for the program and no average people know about it.

Might be worth looking into, as I know things get tight for many when they have to leave their real jobs/careers and work for the pittance they get for service pay. And if it is a requirement for banks to do, if enough people applied, the banks would but pressure on Congress to cut out the call ups and stop loss. There would be less of this indentured servitude the junta is imposing on American families so their pals can make tons of money.

I know the local thing is they guys had to sign up before they deployed and it only applied to loans they had before they got the call up.

[chicagojoe]

9. Excellent!!!

[Chipper Chat]

7. "George Bailey 's got a wonderful idea here Mr. Potter."

Potter's answer: "@@**+=!**&#*($)_@__)(#*$_"

[Pithlet]

2. You mean

You don't hate the troops and refuse to support them, like the rest of us at DU? (We need a sarcasm smilie. I don't feel like typing fake HTML tabs.)

Funny how these are the posts that never get mentioned at some of those other sites, some of which cannot be named here.

[Bluebear]

4. You got that right.

[Walt Starr]

5. Hell, I'd add $20/month to my mortgage

if it was helping National Guardsmen and Reservists who have been deployed.

[depakid]

11. I can see doing for some on a means tested basis

However, I would prefer that it be done by way a regulation that compelled the financial industry to restructure the eligible families' notes and provided reasonable relief from foreclosure.

[tsuki]

12. I'm in.

[kcass1954]

13. During the Gulf War, I was VP of loan servicing at a small S&L.

One of our borrowers called up in a tizzy because her husband had just been deployed and they were worried about their ability to make mortgage payments on just her income. I explained what they needed to do to invoke his rights under the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act.

The borrower must make a request in writing to the creditor, and suppply a copy of the deployment orders. The Act basically caps the interest rate at 6%, and the lienholder cannot foreclose during the deployment period. This might not help a lot of folks right now with mortgage rates so low, but it certainly helped my customers with their 10% loan.

After the paperwork was taken care of and the payments were adjusted, the woman called up to thank me, and said that she wanted to send a letter to the idiot Executive VP that I worked for, to let him know how helpful I was. I asked her politely if she would consider NOT writing to him, that he was pissed that someone knew about the Act and didn't think it was fair that we had to lose 4% interest.


Here's a brief overview -

http://www.dod.mil/specials/Relief_Act_Revision/