One bank is playing Santa for 500 lucky homeowners in this season of foreclosures and sinking home values — a gesture paid in part by employees forgoing their annual office party.
ING Direct forgave $861,513.25 in January mortgage payments — or an average $1,700 per household — for the 500 customers who won the online bank’s essay contest.
ING Direct canceled its holiday parties this year, said spokesman Jeff Mirabello, partly offsetting the cost of the contest. He was unable to provide a specific figure on how much the company usually spends on its holiday gatherings.
There was no staff vote on the decision, but employees weren’t upset, said Scott Lugar, head of consumer lending, who administered the program.
A committee within the direct bank and thrift, owned by the Dutch financial services giant ING Groep NV, chose the winners from nearly 5,500 homeowners who sent in 250- word essays.
“We said, ‘Tell us your story,’ ” Lugar said. Not included among the winners are any of the about 250 customers now in the foreclosure process, he said. Rather, the winners were those whose stories struck the committee as particularly compelling.
Christine Feterowski of East Bridgewater, Mass., got a phone call on Dec. 5 from ING Direct saying her January mortgage payment of just over $1,500 was being paid for by the bank.
She, her husband and 16- year-old son used the money to fly down to Florida for her older son’s college graduation. The money comes at a good time for Feterowski, who has been unable to work because she has bladder cancer. She has major surgery scheduled for Jan. 9.
She said her husband planned to take two or three weeks of unpaid leave to care for her.
“It couldn’t have come at a better time,” she said. “It’s been such a struggle for us the last couple months with chemo, saving up money to go down to my son’s graduation.”
ING Direct also announced in late November that it was suspending evictions through Jan. 15 and halting foreclosure sales through the end of March.
