In light of all the mortgage fiasco including missing payments,

[shraby]

as outlined in the Cleveland article, I'm wondering if the bank's encouraging their customers to pay their mortgage payments online is to keep the customer from having a paper trail for their payments. I've never payed online so I don't know if a printout of the payment is sent so there is proof for the customer that they paid it.

[Crazy Dave]

1. You'd be surprised...

At how incriminating and how much further a digital footprint can be traced vs. a paper trail.

[shraby]

2. But can the consumer do that without engendering a lot

of expenses for attorneys to find the trail?

[tridim]

3. No, you've ID'ed the big picture problem.

Lots of people in this situation, like myself, are unemployed and broke and can't afford to participate in this country's legal system.

But I have found that with these rotten banks, non-legally backed legal threats work almost as well. I made several of these threats to my lender a few days ago and the bank's collection agency stopped harrasing me immediately, and I'm pretty sure I'll find out Monday that my impending foreclosure has been delayed.

[Crazy Dave]

5. I'm very sorry to hear of your loss and ongoing problems

Good luck and I hope you find something soon.

[Crazy Dave]

4. I can pull up nearly every bank and credit card transaction I've done...

...for over ten years. I get confirmation emails and numbers which I also save.

If it's the consumer's own records they're not that hard to get and they are entitled to them. The only time the lawyers get rich is when they need to subpoena the records of others.