bank of america

FTC: Countrywide Mowed Your Lawn, Marked Up The Cost And Called It A Fee

FTC: Countrywide Mowed Your Lawn, Marked Up The Cost And Called It A Fee

The FTC says that Countrywide (now part of Bank of America) has agreed to pay $108 million to settle charges that the company “collected excessive fees from cash-strapped borrowers were were struggling to keep their homes.” So, what exactly did they do? Well apparently, while acting as a mortgage servicer, the company actually hired vendors to service properties after the homeowners had fallen behind on their mortgages, marked up the cost of the services (lawn mowing and property inspections, for example,) and then passed the cost along as fees. Doesn’t sound legal? It wasn’t. [More]