WalkerPad

watching s2e1 of True Blood. Kaden had a check up today, doing fine for six months (16.75lbs 26inches 38 percentile). All good.

So I spoke to a very nice, and apoligetic person in the SC property tax office who explained how things work under California law. Basically you are SOL if you trying to be proactive. They don’t have any programs to offer you at all unless you have defaulted. If you do default then they can offer you a five year repayment program (135$ application fee) where you pay 20% a year but, and this is the fun part, they charge you 18% interest. You are better off credit carding it and juggling the balances :p. She mentioned that the tax code has not been looked at all for the current economic situation and the two programs they had for elderly and disabled folks has in fact been cut.
Aparatly the state getting it’s cut is more important then food on the table + 18% :p.

I had a slightly more hopeful conversation with the county assessors office, apparently our parcel/area is being evaluated automatically right now and I can call back in the the first part of July to find auto their adjustment, and there is a process for if I think it should be lower.

I spoke with wells fargo yet again. The final will acknowledge that they have my paper work and the process can start. Never mind the first time they took my information was beginning of march. Now here is the fun part, the process takes 90-120 days. You can’t even call to get a status update for a month and half, which just will verify if your paperwork has been assigned to a processor.

So lets see, people teetering on default, being current a requirement of the Obama plan, have to eak it out for another 3-6 months and keep current. That sounds like a plan for success, and one that can deliver speedy and reliable relief…. NOT.

Now they will offer a forbearance program (quite cheerfully) but a few sharp questions later shows that if you take that your application for modification gets put into a separate status grouping and pretty much is at the bottom of the pile because you are already considered to to be getting relief. In reality what they do is half your current payment but then you have a huge balloon payment 7 months later. You then are expected to have come up with the full current and all back forbearance withholding.

So I tried to invoke the escalation process but I’m about has hopeful as the front line support guy doing the paper work, who basically said he had never heard of that helping or even being acknowledged.

My mind continues to boggle at how this program seems to be designed for failure.

In all deference to the planet money crew they missed a huge piece of the story with how these programs are shaking out.