Citi’s holiday treat: No foreclosures for a month

 In a sign of the times, major banks like Citi are offering to “postpone” foreclosure filings for 30 days during the holiday season.  But not so fast, don’t get too excited.  As we have come to always find out you need to read the fine print.  What Citi is actually doing is suspending the foreclosure filings on only the mortgages that are “owned” by Citi and not the loans that are “serviced” by Citi.  This can get confusing for many people becuase they do not fully understand that in most cases, just because you get your monthly statement from Citi or because Citi may initiate the collections calls, it doesn’t mean that Citi is the actual holder of the mortgage note.  In many cases the actual “investor” or “owner” of the mortgage could be a Pension Fund or Hedge Fund that purchased your mortgage in the Secondary Market and has simply retained Citi to service the mortgage.  And unfortunately this is the situation that holds true for most Americans.  So be sure to contact your lender and ask the question, “is your company the owner of my mortgage or simply the servicer” and if they are simply the “servicer” push them to tell you who is the Investor or Owner of that mortgage.  Read more...