Lighthouse Point, FL (PRWEB) January 12, 2012
Wites & Kapetan recommends that homeowners review their homeowners insurance policies to avoid “force-placed” insurance. Most home mortgages obligate the homeowner to maintain a homeowners policy that names the bank as an additional insured.
As explained by Marc A. Wites of Wites & Kapetan, P.A., Many homeowners may not know or may have never reviewed this very important clause in their mortgage which provides that, if the homeowners policy lapses for any reason even accidental oversight the bank can take out a policy in its own name only, and charge the homeowner for the premium. These policies are called force-placed policies. They do not cover the homeowners interest in the property or their possessions, and usually do not protect the homeowner against other claims for which they could be sued such as those by people injured on their property.”
“Because these policies cover a more limited risk the banks interest in the property one would assume that they would be less expensive than the lapsed homeowners policy. In the vast majority of cases, however, that would not only be incorrect, but the limited force-placed policy could be several times more expensive than the homeowners policy which just lapsed. Furthermore, the homeowner often does not learn of the existence of this policy until the bank sends an invoice or escrow adjustment months later. By that time, several months of a staggeringly expensive policy will have been billed to their escrow account or added to the loan, said Alex Kapetan of Wites & Kapetan.
Explanations for These Unreasonable Costs
According to Mr. Wites research, the real reasons for these exorbitant charges vary somewhat depending on the bank and the applicable insurance company but, in many cases, arise because of their close affiliations or exclusive arrangements. Although one would assume that the bank would try to get the least expensive policy available, and not add to your debt. Unfortunately, the opposite is true for several reasons which can include:
1.???? First, the bank knows that it will pass the cost on to the homeowner, so it has little motivation to shop for the best-available rate.
2.???? The bank may have an insurance agency subsidiary who receives a payment from the insurance company based the issuing of the policy. In other words, a company related to the bank receives a payment, usually named a commission, based on the cost of the insurance. As a result, not only does the bank have no incentive to seek out the most economical policy but it has an incentive to generate a large commission for its related company.
3.???? In addition, some banks have exclusive or near-exclusive relationships with insurance companies. They place virtually all of the force-placed policies with that insurance company who, in turn, pays the commission to the banks insurance subsidiary, although the insurance subsidiary does little or nothing to earn the commission because of the assumption that the policy will be placed with the insurer in question.
and
4.???? In some cases, the relationship between the bank and the insurance company is so cozy, that the bank outsources the administrative job of monitoring whether its borrowers have homeowners insurance to the insurance company. The insurance company has access to the banks mortgage records and, rather than wait for the bank to contact them for a policy, the insurance company determines when lapses occur and issues the policies to the bank at the same time, or before, it informs the bank of the lapse.
Worthy of Complaint?
Banks have an obligation to seek out force-placed policies on the open market, which will be closer to the rate of the homeowners policy that lapsed. In many cases, Marc A. Wites found that banks could step in and pay the premium for the homeowners policy which would result in greater coverage for everyone involved at a much more beneficial cost.
In addition, in many cases, the amount charged to the homeowner for a force-placed policy is not the banks real cost of the policy because (a) its related company gets a commission based on the policys cost without doing much, if any, work, and (b) in cases where it outsources the monitoring function, it often receives these services for free, or for far less than it would cost them to handle the operations in house. Yet, Wites discovered Federal laws prevent banks from accepting any fee, kickback, or thing of value based to any agreement or understanding, oral or otherwise, for the referral of any business incident to or a part of a real estate settlement service involving a federally related mortgage loan.
Wites & Kapetan further explained the situation like this: the homeowner agreed to accept and pay the debt incurred through your mortgage, but almost certainly did not agree to pay excessive rates for inadequate homeowners insurance.
About Wites & Kapetan, P.A.
Wites & Kapetan, P.A. is a law firm that represents injured persons and their families in personal injury and wrongful death actions, investment disputes and class actions, as well as in consumer debt litigation and bankruptcy and immigration matters. The firms main office is in Lighthouse Point, Florida. For additional information, contact: Marc Wites, of Wites & Kapetan, P.A. at 954-570-8989 or please visit http://www.wklawyers.com
###
Tags: About, Announces, Complaints, ForcePlaced, Homeowners, Insurance, investigation, Kapetan, Wites
US Banks – A Full 68% Of Negative Comments Online About The US Financial Sector Are Attributed To Just Two Banks, Citibank And Bank Of America What Was Going Wrong?
November 26th, 2011 by Bank Loan | No Comments | Filed in BankColumbus, OH (PRWEB) August 21, 2011
DigitalMR analysed thousands of customer comments about high street banks for the month of June 2011. Over half of these customer views are negative, compared with 45% being about positive customer experiences.
The four most mentioned banking brands, with the highest number of consumer comments were: CitiBank (32%), Bank of America (23.50%) followed by American Express and Wells Fargo (both 17%).
There was, however, a large difference between the positive and negative mentions that these banks generated. American Express (30%) and Bank of America (23%) attracted the largest proportion of positive posts but Bank of America also attracted the second highest number of negative comments (24%). By comparison the bank that had the highest proportion of negative posts was Citibank (44%).
Taking the difference in positive and negative posts into consideration the clear winner for June was American Express with a Net Sentiment Score (NSS) of 58% followed by Capital One with 19%. The high NSS score for American Express shows an overall high satisfaction level for users of this service.
The two banks with the lowest net-sentiment score were CitiBank (unsurprising, perhaps, given its proportion the total negative posts) with a NSS of -52% and US Bank which achieved a score of -59%. CitiBanks higher rating is attributed to the fact that although they were the subject of the highest amount of negative comments they also were the subject of 17% of all positive comments about financial service providers. Much of the negative commentary was related to the June revelation that hackers had accessed 200,000 Citibank account holders details.
The banks with the highest and lowest rated NSS scores remain unchanged from April, the date of our last syndicated report, when American Express led the group, and US Bank brought up the rear.
The US Banking Sector should take note that of the ten banks we analysed conversations about, seven have either a neutral or negative NSS. This means that overall the majority of people were using social media far more to criticise than compliment their banking service.
DigitalMRs report (powered by SocialNuggets) analyses thousands of customer comments posted via a range of relevant finance related websites and open access social media platforms. It measures not only the number of comments posted by consumers on the internet, but also sentiment whether these posts are positive or negative.
Results are based on comments posted by consumers on the major US banks: CitiBank, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, American Express, HSBC, Capital One, Barclays, JP Morgan Chase Manhattan and US Bancorp.
Ryan Rutan, President of DigitalMR USA commented: the findings indicate that American consumers who utilize social media platforms are voicing frustrations about their banking experience at a higher rate than positive experiences, but that certain brands are achieving a net positive sentiment”. This tells us that although the balance of comments are on the negative side, it is not strictly an outlet for dissatisfaction. This is easily seen in the divergence of the findings related to CitiBank and American Express.
While conversations about CitiBank accounted for nearly a third of all mentions of companies in the sector (suggesting a wide exposure), they were negative 76% of the time. By contrast American Express should be pleased to see while they accounted for a lower total volume of posts, that 79% of comments about their bank were positive. Amex has, for the second time this year, the highest net sentiment score of all banks we monitored.
1) Net Sentiment Score (NSS)
Most of the banks we measured, achieve a negative Net Sentiment Score (NSS) for June. NSS provides an overall percentage score of net positive posts. A positive score means a bank attracts more positive than negative posts, while a negative score suggests a higher proportion of negative posts.
The average NSS taken across all banks measured is -10%, which shows that US consumers continue to see social media as a space to share experiences of frustration and unhappiness with the service they had experienced. This is a lower NSS however than the results from our December 2010 analysis which showed in the four months from July October the cumulative NSS for US banks was -28%.
Net Sentiment Score ranking
1st American Express (Amex):???????? 58%
2nd Capital One:????????????????????????????????19%
3rd US Bancorp:???????????????????????????????? 7%
4th JP Morgan Chase Manhattan:????????0%
5th Wells Fargo:???????????????????????????????? -2%
6th Barclays:????????????????????????????????????????-11%
7th Bank of America:???????????????????????? -12%
8th HSBC:???????????????????????????????????????? -34%
9th Citibank:???????????????????????????????????????? -15%
10th US Bank:???????????????????????????????????? -51%
2) Features and Services
DigitalMR measured thousands of customer posts across June regarding the services and features that banks offer. Services attracting a much higher proportion of positive mentions to negative ones were: Credit Card Incentives (18% positive vs 1% negative).
The service attracting a higher proportion of negative comments was Credit Cards with (26% positive vs 19% negative) This was followed by conversations about mortgages which displayed a negative sentiment being 17% of all negative conversations regarding a particular service.
3) Click here to view customer comments in their own words
4) How can Banks use social media to their advantage?
Banks can use analysis of data from websites and other social media in the following ways:
????Engage in a one-to-one dialogue with their customers and respond to negative comments.
????Invite some of the customers to join online forums and chat groups to further express their views
????Positive sentiment can be leveraged in advertising
????Operations can learn about and fix specific branch performance issues
????Financial products can be adjusted, and new ones can be designed to meet customer needs
About the syndicated banking report
The monthly banking report monitors thousands of customers online conversations through comments posted on open-access social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, forums, blogs, microblogs and commercial websites, for US banking services.
The report is available on annual subscription with updates provided on a quarterly, monthly or weekly basis. Results will be updated to the press on a monthly basis.
Contact
For regular reports and more information:
Ryan A. Rutan
rrutan(at)digital-mr(dot)com
tel: +1 (614) 638-0216
http://www.digital-mr.com
About DigitalMR
DigitalMR is a specialist agency which provides a holistic approach to web based market research. It specialises in utilising social media research, especially web-listening, and sophisticated technology platforms to enhance its business consulting approach.
DigitalMRs solutions also include community panels, access panels, web usability and a distinct focus on qualitative research online. The agency has pioneered new methods in online focus groups alongside tools such as video diaries, bulletin boards and online ethnography.
The agency operates in affiliation with international market research company MASMI. DigitalMR is headed by founder and MD, Michalis Michael and has European headquarters in London, UK, and Nicosia, Cyprus, and Columbus, Ohio, in the US.
About SocialNuggets
SocialNuggets technology delivers real-time market intelligence for fast moving industries by
Tags: About, America, attributed, Bank, Banks, Citibank, Comments, financial, Full, going, Just, negative, ONLINE, pfagvj0ndjn0jz48tj48rj5tyxvuzhjhpc9gpjxmplbhcmtzpc9mpjwvtj48qt48vd5ozxcgww9yazwvvd48qt5owtwvqt48qz5vuzwvqz48l0e-peq-peq-pey-mtk1mi0xmi0xodwvrj48vd4xotuzlteylte3pc9upjwvrd48l0q-pec-ttwvrz48l1a-, Sector, Wrong