Letters: Mortgage messes, advice from Twitter
TEXT OF STORY
Tess Vigeland: I think it’s the perfect time to say “thank you” to our audience for listening and for sending us your thoughts about the show. This week, producer Devin Robins is here to help me sift through your letters, emails and Facebook posts. Hello Devin.
Devin Robins: Hi Tess.
Vigeland: What you got this week?
Robins: First, our story about Karen Andreen of La Mesa, Calif., and her mortgage modification mess hit a real nerve with several of our listeners. Here’s a reminder of what we heard on last week’s show.
Karen Karen Andreen: Every single month we get something saying if we don’t make our full payment, plus all the late fees, that they will foreclose.
Vigeland: So you just never know when somebody might come walking up.
Andreen: Right. But every month the bank accepts our payments, our trial payments.
Vigeland: ‘Cause if they don’t?
Andreen: Then we know to start packing our stuff.
Vigeland: I’m not surprised this story struck a cord with folks; it certainly did with me too when she wrote in.
Robins: I know. We got a slew of letters expressing sympathy. They also identified with her struggle.
Brady Dresden from Walnut Grove, Calif., writes, the Andreen’s story is almost exactly what’s been happening to him. He feels like he’s being scammed by his own bank. He thanked us for telling this story.
Marcia Bryant from Cleveland, Ohio, had an extreme solution to the mortgage mod dilemma. She writes: ‘When I hear stories like this, I wonder why people don’t just burn their homes down for the insurance. There’s no motivation to try to do the right thing.’
Vigeland: Wow that is extreme. OK, what else are people talking and writing in about?
Robins: Well, several people wrote in to opine about your conversation last week with regular Money contributor Kathy Kristoff of CBS Moneywatch. You guys discussed how rapper 50 Cent was pitching and tweeting about a certain bedtime product.
Commercial: Ouch! Stubbed your toe in the middle of the night? Now there’s Bright Feet. The high-tech house shoes that light up your night.
Vigeland: Right, so Kathy reminded folks it’s not a good idea to take investing advice from Twitter.
Robins: Right but she also didn’t say anything about the product itself. So listener Charlotte Lightell of Elizabeth City, N.C., filled in the blanks for us.
Charlotte Lightell: I hate to tell you but Bright Feet are wonderful. I have given them as gifts to new moms who get up at night to feed or check on the baby, and the elderly who have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As an investment? Who knows!
Robins: And Malcolm Hegge from Rochester, N.Y., says actually Al Bundy wore the first pair, on “Married with Children.”
Vigeland: I smell royalties in the future somewhere. And I know we also have some responses to our new weekly wallet segment — got some of that for us?
Robins: Nick Talantis of Traverse City, Mich., wants in on all the fun.
Nick Talantis: My wallet is a rubber band surrounding two credit cards, a debit card and a driver’s license. A very limited amount of cash.
Robins: And Steve Byrne of Berkeley, Calif., chimed in on our Facebook page. He says his wallet contains: Argentine pesos, three U.S. dollars, tons of receipts, and a six-month-old note from his girlfriend. It’s very George Costanza, he writes.
Vigeland: All right, lots of fun, thanks Devin.
Robins: You’re welcome Tess.
Vigeland: We want to hear from you about the show and how we’re doing. Tweet me @radiotess, post on our Facebook page.
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