EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – Cedric Childress keeps meticulous records.
“Whatever was on the statement, if they said you owe $300 this month, I paid it. Whatever the charges were, whatever was on there, I never disputed it. I always made the payments,” he said.
Childress has a log of every Bank of America representative he’s spoken with recently.
“That person. That person. This person. This person,” he said.
He thought the final payment on his home equity line of credit was accounted for.
“Man, about 10 days later, I get notice saying you owe us $6,000 sum-odd dollars. I said $6,000?” said Childress.
Confused about this new escrow balance he says he knew nothing about, Childress took to the phone.
“I’m on the phone the first day for over two hours. They couldn’t tell me nothing. They said, ‘Why don’t you call back tomorrow. We should figure this out,’” Childress said. “I call back the next day, I was on the phone for almost three hours. Then I finally talked to someone who said this is lender-placed flood insurance.”
The Illinois Collateral Protection Act allows a creditor to place collateral protection insurance on a debtor but requires the creditor to mail the debtor a “Notice of Placement of Insurance” within 30 days following the creditor’s purchase of the coverage.
Childress remembers dropping his flood insurance around 2010, but contends he never received notice about lapsed coverage or a new policy started by Bank of America or any other creditor.
“Trust me, if they would’ve sent me a separate bill every month saying this is for your lender-placed flood insurance, I would’ve tried to make arrangements to pay it. I’m about two miles from the Mississippi River. If my house floods, the whole city is flooded, all the way up to 89th Street,” he said. “It ain’t like they made a claim, a claim against it. They say they put this on there, who’s to say? I never got a policy saying this is this and this is that.”
Childress says he’s never received documents saying the flood insurance was added.
FOX 2 contacted Bank of America. A representative responded to our questions about Childress’ situation, saying the matter is under review and that a member of their escalation team would be contacting him. We’ll keep you informed on what happens.