On another board there is a mention of a Washington Post article on "up-charges". Has anyone seen this or care to comment? Maybe you can increase a fee without doing "work" to earn it. This could compensate for some of the reviews that occur and are not charged for specifically.

This was new to me and is terrible timing considering all the predatory lending issues, but may make life easier in some areas.

------------------
Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.

I find this court opinion very surprising. Using the example in the article of a lender taking a $300 appraisal fee and raising it to $450 -- if that isn't an unearned fee, what is? What is the consumer getting out of the upcharge? Absolutely nothing but a sock to the pocketbook.

Banks outside the 7th Circuit would be taking a big risk relying on this opinion until and unless the same holding is adopted in their own circuit.

For those of you who want to read the court's full opinion, click here.

That is the whole point. They seemed to have said "unearned fees" are not prohibited by law and HUDs opinions don't change that.

I'm not sure we can or want to change the way we do business. But it may make the math easier and I could envision some small mark ups when something is priced at $67 and we reviewed it, copied it, filed it and show the price at $70.

The $300 charged billed at $450 is what will get all of this more strictly regulated. It will also add to the claims of predatory lending, or at least break down some of our industry defenses against it.

------------------
Andy Zavoina
Opinions stated are not necessarily that of my employer.