Countrywide Financial is now Bank of America Home Loans
Filed under: Real Estate
It's official: Disgraced lender Countrywide Financial has now been "re-branded" as Bank of America Home Loans. Jane Wells reports on the move and all the window dressing that Bank of America is doing to try to convince people that Bank of America Home Loans is a good company, focused on providing service to people.But what I don't understand is this: Is the Bank of America brand really that much more respected than Countrywide at this point? Countrywide was an evil, evil company run by Angelo Mozilo, a man who has become synonymous with slimy lending practices (and fake tanning but that's another story), but it can hold its head high in the conviction that it wasn't a welfare brat. Bank of America on the other hand is one of the largest recipients of taxpayer handouts, and that doesn't sit real well with most people. Add in Bank of America's tanking stock price and its decision to arbitrarily raise rates on credit card customers who did nothing wrong, and you have to wonder: Isn't this kind of like Enron changing its name to WorldCom?
Bank of America should rename Countrywide Financial something entirely new and unrelated to the mortgage industry today because that's what most people are looking for: a provider completely unrelated to all the shenanigans of the past few years.
What Bank of America needs to do is come up with a name that is completely innocuous, something warm and fuzzy that no one could possibly break out in hives of populist rage over. And then it hit me: Perry Como Home Loans.
Think about it: Perry Como was known as "Mr. Nice Guy" throughout a career that was marked by a long string of hits like "Hot Diggity Dog Ziggity Boom", "Catch a Falling Star" and "Magic Moments." He was a devoted family man, married to Roselle from 1933 until her death in 1988 and he even had a social conscience, raising a pair of adopted children. He was well-known for his Christmas albums but he sang Jewish songs too.
There was never a whiff of scandal about Mr. Nice Guy, and Perry would certainly never sell someone a mortgage that they couldn't afford and he would never dream of sticking someone with hidden fees.
Who's with me? Who would you rather borrow money from? Bank of America or Perry Como's American Dream Mortgage Services?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-29-2009 @ 3:18PM
tab said...
countrywide will always be countrywide...
angelo mozilo is just the financial crisis whipping boy - he has done an outstanding job with his company from its conception to present.
leave him alone.
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4-29-2009 @ 3:40PM
danzillo said...
Dont forget the reason this man got the deal he got..Former Clinton HUD Secy Henry Cisneros convicted then pardonded by slickster willie was an INSIDER at Countrywide during the scam of the century..Cisneros was also on the board of the LARGEST BUILDER OF HOMES IN the US..The builder the lender...where have we heard this before...Inflate the price thru the appraisor, keep that difference, sell the paper keep that to..whats so hard to figure...why arent they all in prison...hah...
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4-30-2009 @ 11:46AM
Magdlalena said...
I think is horrible how this people have stole from taxpayers, and now we have to bail them out. Bank of America is getting even with credit card holders, getting high interest from people that are responsible. I am one of them. I am not going to use their card that often, from now on. They are going to loose a great costumer.
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4-30-2009 @ 7:51PM
maineskies said...
Personaly I believe to having been scamed by countrywide on a re-finace deal when they tacked on added insurance..
What's the small guy to do when you have no one to run to for advice.
I received notice today about World Bank..I feel un-easy with this and will try a local bank or other....
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5-04-2009 @ 12:01PM
Bas said...
My mortgage is thru Countrywide - they were easy to deal with and I've never had any problems. Gee, could it be that I took out a standard fixed 30 year mortgage instead of some sub-prime, adjustable rate hooey? We even refinanced with them a year later when rates dropped. None of our fees were out of line either time. Where is the personal responsibility of the borrowers in all of the morgage crisis? I read all the fine print, and didn't take out what I knew I couldn't comfortably afford (which was about $50,000 less than what I was pre-approved for).
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5-24-2009 @ 9:05PM
Jim said...
I had no complains with Countrywide; Bank of America is another story. Everything they touch turns to crap - bad record keeping, poor poor poor customer service. Bank of America has a "I don't care, I'm the biggest guy on the block" mentality. I predict they will soon go the way of Edsiel.
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6-27-2009 @ 9:57PM
scott said...
Let me see if I have all of this correct. Bank of America gets a huge bailout from the taxpayers. Then, they purchase Merrill Lynch and Countrywide. Meanwhile back at the ranch, Bank of America claims they lost money in their credit card services division, all while they are playing the old "shuffle the money game." So now, bank of America is sending out all of these little white envelopes, with very little print on the front, telling a "select few customers" that their "fixed rate" cards are changing to "variable rate cards." The reason I was given by a customer service agent and his manager was "they needed to make changes to the way they were doing business" followed by "everyone else is doing it." I got news for you fools. Everyone else is not doing it. Bank of America is getting a free ride form both the taxpayers, and their long-time customers who "demonstrate the ability to pay higher interest rates" if, no make that WHEN the prime interest rates start climbing again. You think that Bank of America would at least have the decency to drag out a bottle of KY before they start pumping us all up our a##s.
Your bank advertises "higher standards." You people must have gotten your MBA's from The John Holmes School of Horizontal Bamboo Butt Pumping.
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