Not only is it dishonest, you would be risking serious damage to your credit. What do you do when (not if) this "strategy fails to get the bank's attention. I know MANY banks that are refusing to do loan modifications even to customers who have paid on time for years. With damaged credit,you most certainly will never get a better loan from any other lender ... without gunplay, anyway. This seminar, like so many others, sounds like a complete ripoff, but provides a great income stream from the sale of badly written books and CDs that inform the consumer. You have been taken. Please don't allow it to happen again.

Bad bad idea..you really f#ck your credit that way. :)

Sure, if you want to screw up your credit report more than it probably already is. If you've been current all along, and interest rates are now less than they were when you bought the house, it may be time to consider refinancing. Don't take the advice from that seminar. That's what many consumer credit companies do to get the cc companies to lower your rate. They normally don't tell you that, though. As I said... If that's the suggestion, run as far as you can from ALL of their suggestions, or check them ALL out before you try any of them.

my mortgage company starts foreclosure with 3 months not paid. its not a good idea

If it was that easy, your bank would have lowered your interest rate if you just refinance. You need to talk to your loan officer and ask about any consequences. The people who give the seminars make their money by telling you this nonsense, not by doing it. Maybe there was more info at the seminar that you missed. If you have any written material, be sure to study it carefully.

Terrible idea in every way. Very dishonest.

It's a predictable response to a bad initial idea. A while ago, the government announced a program that would help people who were having trouble with their current mortgages (i.e., behind or in default) by "renegotiating" their mortgages with the banks so that their payments would be reduced to a level they could afford. The problem with this plan: it only offered help to those already behind on their mortgages. If you were struggling to make it, but were making it, you got nothing. This seminar is aimed at that gap. It's encouraging people to put themselves in the "bad" mortgage category to make them eligible for relief. My guess is, if you got two months behind and stayed two months behind, you'd end up with a "bad" mortgage but not in forclosure, possibly making you eligible for this program. It's the ultimate long-term damage for short-term gain at the moment. It's not particularly honest, but it's hard to fault people for simply being as dishonest as the system encourages them to be. It's also a stupid idea, but again, it's hard to fault people for being as stupid as the system encourages them to be. The system is designed to take as much money as possible from stupid people, after all. In this market, refinancing probably isn't an option. I couldn't refinance my mortgage now under any circumstances, because I'm upside down by tens of thousands of dollars. I'd have to come up with the cash to close that gap first, and there are better places for me to put that cash than in the black hole of lost equity right now.

Sounds a bit fishy to me.

Go ahead! "Push that envelope!" The banks and lenders have their backs against the wall. Do you REALLY think they're going to put up with that garbage from just about every person they have a loan with? I doubt it. I KNOW IF I was the head of a bank or mortgage company and I saw there was a pattern of DELIBERATE delinquency developing, I would have a WHOLE LOT of folks on those phones and going to see those folks who are holding out. THEN "the axe would fall" - ON EACH AND EVERY ONE of them who decided to participate and pull that stunt! That mortgage is a legal, binding, recorded document. There is VERY LITTLE "wiggle room". I'll instruct my people to work with the borrowers - on a case-by-case basis BUT NOT on "a wholesale" basis! As I told people who rented property from our family: "The tiger - our family - wags the tail (the tenants and our properties). The tail NEVER wags the tiger." In other words, we tell YOU WHAT to do AND HOW to do it AND WHEN to do it! YOU NEVER have that opportunity! If you don't like it, go bother someone else. You aren't going to drive me crazy! Thanks for asking your Q! I enjoyed answering it! VTY, Ron Berue Yes, that is my real last name! Sources: My wonderful family! In the real estate business over 34 years in Pennsylvania. THE ABSOLUTE BEST, MOST WONDERFUL real estate investment group in the world, which I was very proud to be a member of! "THE University of Hard Knocks" Also known as ("a/k/a") "life's valuable lessons".

While everybody above is correct as far as paying for a seminar, it does have some truth to it. Whether or not it's a good idea depends on your circumstances. What happened in my case is that after my divorce, I was in a bad spot financially. I tried to get Bank of America to modify my loan and they refused, even after I went on to explain that otherwise they would have to foreclose. Well, as soon as I skipped 3 payments they started the foreclosure process and they repeatedly called and asked me if I was planning on making payments. When I said, "No, come and take the house," they went right to the loan modification. From an original mortgage of $300k, at 4.2% interest, they knocked off $100,000 from the principal and took the interest rate to 2%. All to keep my in my house. While I'm sure it wasn't done out of any altruistic reasons, it did keep them getting paid and not having to try and sell my house after a foreclosure. In short, it did work for me, but I was also willing to let them foreclose.