In 2005, when Denise Bolds was looking to refinance her four-bedroom Victorian home in the Hudson Valley town of Poughkeepsie, she was intrigued by a mailing that said she'd been "pre-selected" for a loan program that could lower her monthly payments.A single mom, Bolds lives with her 66-year-old mother and 17-year-old son, a high school senior who is headed for college. The program supposedly offered a "fixed-rate" loan with attractive terms, she said, which would help make ends meet on her salary as a social worker.
But when she got to the closing, she said, the terms had changed. The “fixed” rate of 5-3/8 percent only lasted two years, after which it could jump to nearly 12 percent, sending her monthly payments from $1,437 to more than $2,000. When she protested, she said, she was told she’d lose money she’d already put down in the application process.
After signing for the loan, she took the matter to the state banking department, which dismissed her complaint, based on the mortgage broker’s explanation that "all information was disclosed fairly and completely to the homeowner," she said.
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