There’s a new challenger for the title “America’s Meanest Bank” after Bank of America chose to robo-call a widow in Hawaii to demand its mortgage payment, calling early, often and even every 15 minutes during the wake for the husband.

 

Deborah Crabtree is now suing BofA, its Home Loans Servicing and Countrywide Home Loans on 16 counts, including “unconscionability,” bad faith, outrage, misrepresentation, unjust enrichment and violations of state laws.

 

During the services for Crabtree’s husband, the family set up a speaker phone to handle condolence calls. BofA’s automated system phoned the home four times an hour, according to the widow, filling the house with the sound of: “This is Bank of America, and we are calling to collect with regards to a debt.”

 

Crabtree says she informed the bank that she needed at least 30 days to get her affairs in order following her husband’s death. Other companies told her that was no problem, but not BofA. They continued to call her house every 15 minutes between 7am and 7pm seven days a week for more than four months.

 

Two years ago, OneWest Bank displayed a contemptible disregard for the plight of a Long Island couple trying to restructure their mortgage and keep their home. When OneWest tried to kick out Diane Yano-Horoski and Greg Horoski, the couple sued the bank, and a local judge responded by erasing their mortgage and blasting bank officials for their “harsh, repugnant, shocking and repulsive” behavior. OneWest also tried to foreclose on an 89-year-old woman in Oakland, California, which further tarnished its reputation.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Widow Says BofA Dunned Her at Wake (by Purna Nemani, Courthouse News Service)

Deborah Joan Crabtree v. Bank of America (First Circuit Court, Hawaii) (pdf)

Is OneWest America’s Meanest Bank? (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)