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Federal Trade Commission issuing nearly $108 million in refunds to Countrywide ...

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of thousands of homeowners who have taken out mortgages with Countrywide Financial Corp. will soon receive their portion of a settlement of $ 108 million on claims that the lender pay fees disproportionate to borrowers facing foreclosure.

The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday that mail refund checks to 450,177 borrowers starting Thursday.

The action is part of a settlement agreement the agency reached last year with Bank of America Corp., which acquired Countrywide in 2008.

The FTC said Countrywide borrowers affected who were behind on their mortgages with fees of several thousand dollars at times. The fees were for services such as inspections of property and landscaping that far exceeded the market rate. Countrywide has created subsidiaries to engage in sales, which marked the price of these services, the agency said.

In addition, the FTC has accused Countrywide of false statements to some borrowers how much they owed on their mortgage or the status of their loan, and stated that the lender has added fees and other charges to the accounts of mortgage borrowers without notice.

The allegations that led to the development took place before the Bank of America acquired Countrywide.

At the time of the settlement, the FTC said Countrywide had about 200,000 homeowners overburdened, but this figure was later revised to over 450,000 after the agency reviewed the records of the lender.

"We found after digging through records is, there were more people who have been subjected to such excessive fees that we had expected, but the amounts they were overcharged are small enough that everyone can be compensated without exhausting the $ 108,000, "said Tom Pahl, Assistant Director at the FTC's Division of Financial Practices.

About 347,000 borrowers who overpaid loan default fee will be refunded in full, Pahl said.

A group of another 102,000 borrowers who have applied for Chapter 13 bankruptcy will split what remains of the colony in the same way.A subset of this group who have been slapped with hidden fees that the FTC was able to confirm will also see the costs fully reimbursed, Pahl said.

Refunds will be distributed to consumers whose loans were serviced by Countrywide from 1 January 2005 and July 1, 2008, and were subject to allegedly illegal practices of the company, the FTC said.

The amount of each refund check ranges from less than $ 500 to several thousand dollars. Borrowers who receive a refund check should their cash by September 19, the agency said.