Citimortgage and Making Home Affordable Couldn't Help Me Save Money While Being Laid Off

I started here for information about the federal government making home affordable program.

I called their help line to get the scoop. They asked me a series of questions and told me that I would qualify for their Unemployment Program (UP). That sounded promising. The next step was for me to call my bank. They gave me the number to call and the ball was in my court.

CitiMortgage Didn’t Want To Truly Help

The next day I called up CitiMortgage. The number that I was given by the http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov hotline put me right through to the person with answers to my questions.

He was curt, fairly impolite, and very matter of fact. But I didn’t care. I figured he was just a miserable jerk who didn’t want to be bothered by me. I can’t blame him. He probably gets the same phone call and questions all day long.

After I forked over all of my personal information, which I’m sure somehow has blacked balled me in Citibank’s system, he gave me two options.

What They Could Offer Me

I could partially defer my mortgage payments for up to a year. OK. That doesn’t sound too bad if I get really despererate. There’s a gotcha though. Whatever they defer I owe as a balloon payment as soon as I get a job. If I defer for six months at $500 a month I owe them $3,000 as soon as I get a job.

Now I’m all for paying my debts. Trust me. But where the hell am I supposed to come up with all that money at once before I even get my first paycheck?

I had another option and that was loan modification. Guess what I needed to get a loan modification. A J-O-B and some income. Clearly I’m laid off so what good does that do me.

To Really Get Help I Have To Default

I’ve since learned that if I don’t pay on my mortgage for 3 months a whole new world of opportunity opens up to me. I have to default on my loan in order to get some real help. No help for people like me who are looking to avoid defaulting.

After talking to a number of people I have since learned they intentionally had to miss 3 mortgage payments to get any real help. What sort of help is that? I want to keep my head above water, not starting drowing myself so that I can take a roll of the dice and hope that I get some assistance.

Thanks for nothing CitiMortgage and http://www.makinghomeaffordable.gov.

You bums are welcome for the links to your site that you clearly don’t deserve by the way.

Citation: Photo used with permission from http://www.seniorliving.org/

We saved $25/month by switching back to Uverse

We have had both at&t uverse and cablevision for our phone/internet/cable bundle.

Both have been good services but my wife and I both prefer AT&T Uverse over Cablevision.

Not that we are looking to cut expenses it was a perfect to explore what the competition has to offer. Right now we have Cablevision. They sucked us in with a bill that came in every month under the $100 dollar mark, about two years ago.

Our Monthly Saving With Uverse

Just after a year in the bill went up to about $130 a month. Not a big deal but AT&T Uverse can lower out bill for us by about $25 a month. In our current situation everything adds up.

Since we both enjoy their service more and it is cheaper it really is a no brainer for us.

Bonus Gift Cards For Signing Up

They are also giving us $300 in gifts cards to use. We will likely hold onto them for weeks when things get tight for groceries. They might come in very handy.

Why Wouldn’t Cablevision Try To Keep Us?

I don’t undestand why Cablevision doesn’t have a stronger customer retention policy.

I’m sure Cable vision will come courting us again after we cancel their service. They’ll have to wait at least a year. Maybe they should have cut my bill when I called and asked them if anything could be done to make them competitive with Uverse. They wouldn’t have to come knocking on my door begging for me as a customer again.

Update: We called Cablevision to turn off our service and they offered to lower our bill to $95 a month. This was both annoying, as we already had U-verse installed, and unfortunate because if they would have just offered that from the start we would not have switched.

Apparently, even if U-Verse isn’t yet installed you can get this deal as long as you provide them the confirmation number for your new order from AT&T.

Instead of switching back to Cablevision, I used this as leverage against AT&T. I called them up and they knocked another $20 off my bill for the next six months. Wnen six months is up I’ll call AT&T up again.

Cablevision also gave us a number to call, 1-800-we-miss-u, if we ever change our mind. They offered us a monthly bill of $95, a free ipod touch, and to pay any early termination fee we get from AT&T. That’s always going to be an option for us.

I work at Sikorsky aircraft in Stratford CT, or at least I did until January 26, 2012. I was laid off that day, but I refuse to fail.

I’m making a list of all the ways I’m going to cut expenses and make an income until I find a job. This list is a constant work in progress. Watch as it continues to grow as I uncover and experience the different options available to me.

Cutting Expenses

To Do

• Cancel Netflix – Done
• Comparison shop car insurance – Done
• comparison shop for cable, tv, internet bundle –  Done! Read about it here.
• makinghomeaffordable.gov to lower/suspend mortgage payments – Can’t be done. Read about it here.
• Lower cell phone bill – Done
• Lower student loan – Done
• Research “Energy Assistance Program” for gas company – Coming Soon
• Research “Energy Assistance Program” for electric company -Coming Soon

Generating An Income

To Do

• Increase internet marketing income
• Apply for unemployment - Coming Soon

This praying mantis stumbled across me this afternoon when he rose up out of the flowers that I was watering. After a few minutes of following me around, with a head that is apparently on a swivel, he got used to me taking pictures.

He moved around a bit but I think he was just posing for close-ups. He was definitely one of my rarest finds in the garden. Glad I had the camera ready and all charged up.

Click The Image For Full Size

William and Lucas waded out into the Sound tonight. The sun was setting behind us. I managed to capture a couple good ones. I especially like the one of William being careful and Lucas laughing. Pretty typical of their personalities.

Click The Images For Full Size

William and Lucas had a good time designing and painting their pinewood derby cars. They had a great time racing them though!

There were more than seventy cars at today’s race. William came in first place in his den and seventh place overall. Lucas came in fourth place overall.

The top four finishers move onto the next round so Lucas gets to compete against other Cub Scout Packs in May.

Click Each Image To See It Uncropped And Full Size.

This ice dam and I are not getting along.

So there it is. The ice dam in my gutter that is causing water to drip into my bedroom. That sucker spans across the entire gutter.

That chunk of ice is not letting the water from the melting snow go anywhere but into my wall.

Damn you ice dam!

I found an inexpensive solution though. I’m buying this today. Thirty feet of ice melting goodness!

I wouldn’t dare throw that thing up there now though. If I was to melt that whole ice dam up there is a a couple hours or so the onslaught of water dripping into my bedroom would be unmanageable.

At least it gave me a good excuse to leave work a few hours early today. Although we can just add those lost wages to the cost of my new roof snow ice melter. Which basically makes it one very expensive inefficient extension cord. Well worth the investment though.

Now I just have to shovel a path to my shed so that I can get my ladder out of it.

William had his first time on roller skates at his friend Sanoma’s birthday paty today. He did really well and keeps talking about going back and doing it again.

You can click this link to watch a video of William and Lucas opening up their present on Christmas morning.

We spent a week in Disney World from December 11 through the 18th.

Record setting cold temperatures were there to greet us. We had to buy hats and gloves as we just weren’t prepared for weather like that.

You can see in some of the pictures the winter gear that we had to wear for at least half of our vacation.

I should have made a post every night as we got back to the hotel. I regret that I didn’t. I promise to do it right next time like I did for our Pompano vacation from earlier this year.

We are going to try to go again this year. December sounds like a good option but maybe a little sooner. Halloween is always a nice time in Disney World.

Enjoy the pictures. Click each picture for full size.