Housing Counseling

Predatory Lending

Clients are informed about unfair lending practices that often target certain people and can have devastating results.  Education is the best defense against predatory lenders.  There are ways to recognize when a loan is predatory.  We will review loan/mortgage documents to help identify hidden costs and other payments that might indicate bad lending practices.  We collaborate with other agencies and look for signs of more wide spread problems.

 

Clients are made aware of the hallmarks of predatory lending.  These include:

• Someone contacts you first
• Charging excessive points and fees
• Advance payments/fees
• Offer is only good for a short time
• Balloon payments
• Pre-payment penalties
• Financed insurance
• Lending without regard to repayment
• Frequent offers for refinancing