Watch As Bank Of America Refuses Customer’s Cash Payment On Mortgage Then Calls Police
When it comes to nightmare stories pertaining to home mortgages, no other financial institution has more of them than Bank of America. The Inquisitr reported numerous times on such stories in which Bank of America had to pay a $404 million settlement over repurchased Freddie Mac mortgages. If that wasn’t enough money to pay, they also had to pay $9.5 billion to the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) in a settlement.
However, much of Bank of America’s woes comes from their treatment of their customers who have mortgages with them. In this case, a customer tried to pay his home mortgage at a Bank of America branch with cash. Instead of taking the customer’s payment, they rejected it and called the police on him.
Originally uploaded in Reddit two years ago, the story got a sudden spike in interest recently in which Deon Vs. Earth and many other finance news sites and blogs related the situation to the perceived view that the United States dollar will become a cashless form of money. According to the video, Robert Somerton tried to make a payment of $1,371.71 towards his $191,378.51 mortgage at a Bank of America branch located in Lakeport, California. The bank clerk and bank manager made it clear that they wouldn’t accept his payment. Instead, the bank manager kept insisting that Robert turn off his camcorder or he’ll call the authorities. Apparently, Robert did not listen as the authorities showed up to the bank. It is not shown if Robert was arrested or simply told to remain off the premises. Apparently, Robert was arrested when he went back inside a Bank of America branch two weeks later for mortgage-related business that could only be done within a branch.
Now to be fair, there could be many reasons why Bank of America did not accept Robert Somerton’s payment. Right This Minute followed up on the viral video in which they tried to find out if there was more to the video than what was shown. First off, they called up Bank of America Corporate in the home loans department to find out if branches are not allowed to accept cash payments for mortgages. This is what their public relations representative had to say.
“Our banking centers are fully ready to accept cash for mortgage payments. When an account is in foreclosure, the customer must have already arranged through a formal payment plan before we would be in a position to accept a one month payment.”
The people behind Right This Minute called Robert Somerton through Skype to verify if his mortgage was in foreclosure. He said it was not at the moment of the call, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he was in foreclosure at the time of the cash payment at the branch. Robert did verify he was able to make his payment via over the phone.
Now that you’ve seen the video of Robert Somerton not able to make a cash payment for his home mortgage at a Bank of America branch, what are your opinions? Is this truly a sign of society moving towards cashless money, or was this possibly an isolated incident?
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