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Get help with your mortgage from Citigroup Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP).

While it has taking longer then they initially hoped it would, CitiMortgage has implemented the federal government’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP). The goal of this mortgage assistance program is to provide struggling homeowners with options to reduce their mortgage payments, prevent a foreclosure, and ensure they are able to afford their monthly mortgage payment over the long term.

How many people have been helped?

To date, over 40,000 borrowers have been offered assistance and help from trial HAMP plans offered by Citi. However, the bank is hoping to increase the pace and the number of people who are assisted. They have proactively reached out to about 140,000 borrowers to inform them of the program, and the goal is to aid as many of them, and more, as possible.

How does the Citi Home Affordable Modification Program program work?

Citi will work directly with the homeowner to offer them modifications, lower interest rates, longer repayment terms, and will explore other options. Their initiatives not only include loan modifications through the federal government's foreclosure prevention program, but they go a step further and offer other options including mortgage extensions, forbearance, reinstatements, and refinancing.

What else is Citi doing to ensure the program is successful?

This program, as well as some of the other loss mitigation initiatives and mortgage plans, have been very difficult to put in place and get them up and running. This is party due to the rapidly escalating and unprecedented volumes of customer calls. However, this demand has caused Citi to quickly expand its staffing and response capabilities during recent months. They have increased their loss mitigation department by 1,400 since the beginning of the year.

What other assistance is there?

There are several different options for homeowners. Citi also offers an unemployment assistance program which allows borrowers to pay a flat $500 on their mortgage for a period of time of three months if they lose their jobs. This program is a tremendous benefit to the millions of people who have lost their jobs.

In addition, Citi is expanding and enhancing it efforts to offer and deal with short sales. The bank anticipates that the number of its completed short sales will increase sharply in the next three to six months. What is a short sale? In a short sale, a homeowner will sell their home for less than the mortgage amount that is outstanding, and the lender will then forgives the difference. This is an effective option for homeowners that owe more on their homes than the house is worth. Learn more about short sales.

To sum it up, the Citi Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is yet one more option for homeowners to consider to get relief.