HELOC
He is financially self destructing. Is it because he believes that it’ll all just magically work out? Is he trying to ruin my finances? Is he just blind to how his actions are effecting his financial future? I’m sure its partly all of these things…
The divorce decree says that the house and all debts associated with it are his. It also says that the HELOC will need to be refinanced by him.
Yes. I know.
I should have included an end date. I should have insisted that it be refinanced prior to the divorce. I didn’t know any better.
In December of 2012 I noticed that the joint HELOC we have together still wasn’t being paid. I found this out when I attempted a mortgage application. I spoke to the bank and was advised that my best course of action would be to freeze that account. No more draws could be taken – only payments could be made. I wrote the letter they asked me to, I signed it, and went on about my life.
I will periodically check on the HELOC to see if he’s paying or not. Since December, 2012 he had paid 3 times, totaling 300.00. When I checked the loan in July, I was amazed to see that he was somehow able to withdraw that 300.00. I immediately called the bank to find out what had happened. Why the freeze I’d put on the account didn’t seem to work. The call center said yes, the account is, indeed, frozen. They’ll look into it. I called them the next day and was told to go to a local branch, there was a form I’d need to fill out.
When I arrived at the branch the woman I spoke to did some investigative work and found out that X had gone into the bank, asked to withdraw. The teller removed the freeze saying there weren’t any ‘notes’ to indicate why it was frozen, gave him the money, then replaced the freeze. Oh really?! You’re kidding…right?
Noooo, she wasn’t kidding. She said the bank would replace the 300.00. She said the bank had been calling X, but he was not answering or returning calls. She apologized, then suggested I refinance the loan myself. I was angry. So. Angry. Its not mine, I told her. Besides that, he’s not paid since April, do you really think my credit is going to get me a 10k refinance loan? She said that she was sure, under the circumstances, the bank would work with me. I told her no, and I left.
I wrote a letter to the bank President. I told him that his bank was allowing my abuser to continue to abuse me. I asked for them to work with X to refinance this loan. The bank President called me. He told me he couldn’t help me get off the loan. He told me he could put the 300 back into the account. He also told me that there was NEVER a freeze on the account in the first place. Liar.
Two days ago I called the bank again. I wanted to talk about the possibility of me refinancing this loan. My credit is ruined. I can’t buy a house, or a car, or even get lower interest rates on my current credit cards that I pay on time, every time. I need to find a way to control this situation.
I was referred to the person who gave X the money in the first place. She is the VP of customer service. She apologized profusely about the error. She asked me why I wanted to refinance. I told her I was tired of having him ruin my finances. She said that at this point the HELOC is in collections. He’s 90 days past due on payments. He’s not responding to the banks calls or letters. If they don’t hear from him after a certain number of days, they will send him a letter of default. At that time, the only way to avoid foreclosure proceedings is to pay the loan in full. Otherwise, they will attempt to foreclose on the house. As far as my credit, she said that when I need to apply for credit to write a letter to the reporting agencies and tell them the divorce says this is his debt, that it was not my responsibility. That should help. Who knows if it will or not.
Looking Forward 