Discover Home Loans, whom I have my HELOC through, recently jumped on the Bank-bandwagon and suspended my HELOC due to declining market value in the state of AZ. They claim they are doing the same to all customers in AZ, CA and NV, who have a total LTV ratio of greater than 80%.
Nothing to do with my credit (which is awesome), my payment history (which is flawless) or anything else I can control -- just because they feel the housing market in the state where I live is declining.
Ohhhh, I'm pissed. Livid. Speechless.
I mean, to some extent "I get it" -- they have to protect themselves from default, and if they had to foreclose and dump the house on the market, they have to limit their losses. I get it, I do -- but it sucks @#%@ for me.
What's worse -- get these dates:
- They suspended my HELOC on July 21 (Monday).
- The only notification I received was a FIRST CLASS LETTER (NO delivery confirmation, signature requirement, tracking, etc) on.... wait for it.... wait for it... 'cause it takes a while... wait for it.... July 26th (Saturday). No phone calls, nothing else. Just a first class letter (which as anyone with clue knows, isn't even guaranteed to be delivered...ever...much less in a timely fashion...).
What's worse-worse, and here's the real clincher --
As seldom as I have ever actually used my HELOC, I actually *had* written a check (the only check on that account this year) that week. That check was processed and deposited in the target bank on July 25th. However, due to the miracles of technology and inter-office banking, the funding bank has until Aug 1 to actually fund it. And, you guessed it -- they are now denying payment.
So now, in addition to the whole pain-in-the-assedness of having my HELOC suspended in the first place, which is a problem enough, now I (1) look like an ass who writes bad checks, (2) have to pay an insufficient funds fee and of course (3) use another source of money to cover what I wrote the HELOC check for in the first place).
Spent the day yesterday arguing with numerous supervisors at Discover, and their position is essentially "times are tough." They will not cover any fees or help me in any way.
My favorite part of the conversation --
Me: "So, you're telling me, that really, any time I wrote a check from this account, it was just a crap shoot if it would actually be funded or not, because you think it's perfectly okay to suspend my account and not tell me about it for a week?"
Them: "Yes, that's pretty-much correct."
WOW.
So, I'm now even more painfully aware our economy is going to @#%@.
Thanks for letting me rant.
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