Answer:  Each of the 73 million homeowners in the U.S. would receive $191,000.

 In your opinion . . .

If you were to receive your share of the bailout money ($191,000), would you still be struggling to save your home from foreclosure?

If every homeowner in the U.S. received their share of the bailout money ($191,000 per homeowner), would there still be a foreclosure crises?

Are we, the taxpayers, responsible for paying back the $14 Trillion in bailout money that is being gifted to banks, government agencies and big business?

Do you feel our government is more concerned about big business and banks than they are with homeowners?

Adding Up the Government’s Total Bailout Tab

Beyond the $700 billion bailout known as TARP, which has been used to prop up banks and car companies, the government has created an array of other programs to provide support to the struggling financial system. Our government has spent $3 trillion and made commitments of $11 trillion and, for a total of $14 trillion dollars.

For a breakdown of the bailouts, go to: http://money.cnn.com/news/storysupplement/economy/bailouttracker

The company was EMS and the person we dealt with was Rebecca Alexander. We were told if we put up $3000. and joined there program, we would know within 7-10 days if we had a case against our bank. It would take 90-120 days to complete the process and we would either get our house back with much reduced or no payments on the existing mortgage, or a nice cash settlement from the bank for illegally foreclosing on the property.

We signed the necessary paperwork and wired them the $3000. they requested on May 19, 2011. This file was supposedly turned over to a firm of attorney’s who specialize in this area, who would review the file and let us know if we had a case. If the answer was no they would immediately return our $3000. deposit

A couple of weeks went by and I called to see what the hold-up was. No answer so I left a message. About 10 days later I received a call from Rebecca Alexander who apologized for the delay but she explained they had so many applications they were having trouble getting everything done in a timely fashion, I needed to be patient. I asked her if the attorney’s had decided if we had a case or not and she said she would look into it and get back to me ASAP. This was June 23rd, 2011. To this day she has yet to tell me if we had a case or not.

At the end of Aug. 2011 I decided that Rebecca was not legitimate and asked for the return of our deposit.

Ever since then I have heard every stall in the book, it is now November 11,2011 and I still have not heard from anyone and Rebecca refuses to return our $3000. This woman is a crook and liar as far as I am concerned so please do not do business with her or EMS.

Our government’s estimate of 8.2 million anticipated foreclosures is based on the number of homeowners who have either defaulted on their mortgage payments, or homeowners who are currently having difficulty making their payments.

But ironically, homeowners “currently having difficulty making their payments”, include only those who have fallen delinquent on their payments.  Not included are 43% of American households who currently spend more than they earn each year.

If someone is spending more than they earn, what are the chances they are having difficulty making their payments?  Logic tells us that they will eventually fall delinquent on their payments when they are no longer able to borrow money, or when their savings become depleted, unless they experience an increase in income.

How likely is it that Americans, currently spending more than they earn, will experience an increase in income in the near future?

According to our government, the number of American households that spends more they earn each year has increased from 38% to 43% in the past two years.  A recent report by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that since 2007, the year before the most recent recession, real median household income has declined 6.4 percent and it is expected to continue declining.

While income is declining, debt is increasing.  The average credit card debt per household has increased from $5,000 to more than $14,000 in the past six years.

Assuming this trend of declining income and increasing debt continues, the 43% of American households currently spending more than they earn each year, will eventually fall delinquent on payment of their mortgages, which will result in 48 million foreclosures (43% of 112 million households), as opposed to our government’s estimate of 8.2 million.

With nearly one half of American households in jeopardy of foreclosure, surely our government is doing everything possible to assist homeowners in saving our homes from foreclosure?

Two weeks ago, President Obama announced a revision to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) that would “allow many more struggling borrowers to refinance their mortgages at today’s ultra-low rates, reducing payments for some homeowners  . . . “

Is it fair to ask how many are “some homeowners”?

The answer is less than four percent of homeowners.  During his speech, our President did not reveal that, even with the new guidelines, HARP is incapable, that’s NOT capable, of reaching more than four percent of homeowners.

And the same is true of every single program, federal or state, that has allegedly been made available to distressed homeowners as related to the foreclosure crises.  All have cost taxpayers dearly while helping few people save their homes.

For example, the Making Home Affordable program (HAMP), birthed in February 2009, cost taxpayers $75 billion.  Just over one million households (out of 112 million) have qualified for HAMP.  As of July of this year, almost one half of participants had dropped out of the program.

Why does our government continue to spend their time and taxpayers money on programs designed to keep so few Americans in their homes?

For insight into this issue, see the Washington Post article outlining President Obama’s recent announcement of revisions to the Home Affordable Refinance Program.

I encourage you to not only read the article, but also the captions at the bottom of each of the photographs.  The article can be accessed by clicking on this link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/the-home-affordable-refinance-program-harp-what-you-need-to-know/2011/10/24/gIQAXFDUDM_story.html

NOTE: The banner advertising President Obama’s 2012 election campaign has been removed since my mention of it during my radio show last week.

Then the credit card companies started increasing our interest rates to 19 and 23%. We attempted to resolve the interest rate increases by calling the credit card companies, but they would not negotiate. That is why we went into the program.  The program was supposed to assign the debt to CMS and create a new agreement when the credit card company cashed the check containing the new terms of the agreement. Then the fines in the new terms of the agreement were supposed to cancel out the balances due on the credit cards, as CMS “negotiated” the balance due with the credit card companies.  CMS told us we would not have to do anything but send them the payments and the statements and that we would not be left to deal with court or credit card company collectors by ourselves.

When the first credit card company sued us in Feb 2010, we were shocked as we had been led to believe that it was unlikely that we would be sued. We received very little help from CMS. They provided a 2 page response to the complaint and told us to study the recordings they had provided. They then told us they could not give us legal advice, so we were on our own pro se, against a very aggressive attorney. We prepared and studied diligently, and were basically mowed over during the mandatory arbitration hearing.  The arbitrator ruled in the credit card company’s favor.

We filed for an appeal and then started buying legal books on defending ourselves and doing lots of research.   We discovered a way to file cross claims and counterclaims in our answer, which was useful since we were hit with 5 more lawsuits in succession over the next 6 months.  We received little to no communication from CMS. They did not return phone calls regularly or help us with what to do. They did not handle the attorneys or the credit card companies, and they did not send us any documentation to confirm that the final negotiations with the credit card companies had been completed, which is what we thought would be happening. When we found ourselves facing the 2nd arbitration on another card, we realize we were completely over our heads and that the courts see the issue as ” you used the card, didn’t you?” Thank God we found a smart attorney who took on our case, did the research and starting fighting for us. This cost us more money, of course.  He was able to get the 6 lawsuits settled for less than the amounts due.  But it was a horrific experience.

By the way, when they say “dont try this at home” they mean it.  We are very smart people and used to dealing with negotiation in business and handling highly critical service issues. My husband even spent 3 years in law school. So even with all this, it was like a locomotive coming at us to try and deal with the courts on our own.  CMS had also assured us that they would handle the credit report information and make sure it was handled after the process was over. This has not occured. The accounts all look like we just did not pay them and they do not reflect any kind of negotiated agreement. We tried to get CMS to give us at least part of our money back, but to no avail.  CMS is still listed under the California business registry under Consumer Meditation Services.

For the first month, they were helpful and friendly, returning calls, collecting documents, and telling me they were speaking with the bank on a daily basis. They said they were “about 30 days away” from securing a deal for me. Well, I got an official denial letter from my mortgage company. I called ABM and this is where things started to go south. They stopped returning calls. The emails started getting returned to me, because the addresses no longer existed. Suddenly, their phone number was no longer working and they disappeared.

Almost six months later, an article in Newsday stated that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo had demanded ABM, along with three other loan modification companies, pay back all customers that had not received a modification. Excited, I figured this meant i’d get my money back. I called the attorney general’s office. Never got a call back. Filed a complaint. Never got an answer. Emailed everyone in the department I could. Got an auto response.

I finally managed to track down the owner of the company, still a working lawyer in New York, to demand my money back. His answer? This is out of his hands, because it is now up to the attorney general to decide who gets a refund.

So now…I realize I will never get my money back. What angers me is that even though the politicians did the right thing, they didn’t enforce it. Or at least, not enough so that it actually helped the people they claimed they were trying to help. They got publicity out of it, but I am still out $2995, still with a toxic mortgage.

I never used to think that people were inherently trying to sucker others…this seemed too simplistic of a thought process. Now I really believe that some people prey on the desperate; and homeowners afraid of foreclosure are about as desperate as they come. I was easy bait.

their rep Michelle Spence is at first very sweet and understanding on the phone. she sounded like they could help me do a loan modifications. she said they have done thousands. so the price was $249 up front. when the loan mod was compleate and i accepted the terms i would pay $985.they wanted me to ACH the $249 to start. so i did.

but the next day i had ask them for a refund because my son told me he needed $300 for his car insurance. I am a senior citizen on ssi and get only $1247 per month i didnt have enough money for the loan mod AND the insurance. i would wait a couple months and save up enough to start over with the loan mod.

i asked for the money back and all i have heard are excuses and lies from this company for 2 weeks.

they wont return my money even though they have said they would. when i call all they do is lie and hang up.
they are real good at cheating and managing my money. they are a total scam and ripoff.

Their address is 18495 South Dixie Highway #161 Miami, Florida, 33157.