If you are unemployed and 60 days or more behind on your payments to CitiMortgage, help may soon be on the way, according to the Wall Street Journal. Citigroup is expected to announce a program today to temporarily decrease mortgage payments on loans of $417,500 or less to ~$500 a month for homeowners collecting unemployment. The program for those who have recently lost their job will also waive interest and penalties during the three month period of lower payments.

The program is a great idea, though I wonder about the execution and some of the exclusions. Why does this mortgage modification require 60 days of delinquency and exclude homeowners with jumbo mortgage loans?

Absent some breaking news on the credit card front, I’ve decided to spend the next couple of days looking at mortgage modifications and the foreclosure process.  Although this is generally a website about credit card debt, I can’t help but occasionally stray on to the hot topics of the day.  It’s interesting to me, and [...]

Various news outlets reported on Thursday that Democratic Senators and Citigroup had reached an agreement to allow bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of mortgages for homeowners in the bankruptcy process.  The financial industry has previously opposed the procedure, known as “cramdowns,” which force mortgage modifications on debt holders.  The hope is that bankruptcy judges [...]