Comment Number: 542308-00051
Received: 7/31/2009 3:55:52 PM
Organization: Citizen Comments (updating July 30 comments)
Commenter: Dennis Obduskey
State: CO
Agency: Federal Trade Commission
Rule: 16 CFR Parts 317 and 318: Mortgage Acts and Practices Rulemaking
Attachments:
Comments:

I know this is a few hours past the end of the comment period on this topic; I’m hoping to clarify and better describe comments I added on July 30; and perhaps you would consider adding this to my prior remarks as I’m trying to better explain one of my ideas. ONE of the big issues comes down to communication. The system as it exists is 1-sided and dependent on the consumer to always be in a weakened position. In my experience, noted earlier, any correspondence I’d received from the lender was unsigned. And when put into a system requiring the borrower to call – they are subjected to different information all of the time even though the customer service representatives all apparently have access to the same files. So one solution is simple. Give the Banking and Lending Industry a choice. EITHER give the consumer the name of a single point of contact that they know is the party responsible for dealing with that account – OR – give consumers the ability to access information about THEIR OWN account through the internet. Consumers should be able to see what the customer representative sees, and be able to input questions directly into their file when something is unclear. On the industry side, there could still be a secure firewall allowing for internal issues, scoring, whatever, but this would level the communication playing field and clear up much misinformation. It would clear also allow for more responsible statements on the business side to be documented. Smaller banks would likely opt for the personal approach; larger banks the internet approach. When a call concerning my mortgage begins in Ft. Mill, and moves within minutes to Milwaukee, to California – the infrastructure already exists. The internet security systems in the banking industry already exist. With a little tweaking it could be a model system that all vendors use – mortgage, credit card, etc. After all, the idea is to allow customers access to THEIR OWN files, which would provide better customer service that the industry should desire as well.