'Hope Now' Offers Little of Either

In addition, not all callers have a realistic hope of saving their home. For some, say credit counselors, the best option may be to sell the home and avoid the foreclosure process and resulting damage to their future ability to get credit.

But some readers reported much more basic problems — like getting through to speak with a counselor.

"The wait time was 30 minutes to an hour just to get a machine that told me the wait time could be up to an hour," wrote Elizabeth Valovich, of Hot Springs, Ark. "It was ridiculous. For a person already under stress of possibly losing their home and creditors calling constantly at all hours of the day and night harassing, it is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back."

Hope Now officials said some readers who reported trouble getting through may have encountered delays resulting from call spikes when the program was launched in October and again when the White House promoted the line at a Dec. 6 news conference.

The Homeownership Preservation Foundation, which operates the hotline for Hope Now, reports that in February, the average response time to answer calls was 25 seconds; that 78 percent of callers were transferred to a counselor in less that three minutes; and that the call "abandonment rate" — those who couldn't get through — was 6 percent.

In recent spot checks performed by msnbc.com, calls went through to operators quickly after a 60-second pre-recorded message.

Many callers who did get through said they were unable to work out a loan modification or payment plan for a variety of reasons: They were told their credit score was too low; their loan was bigger than the value of their home; or they couldn't be helped because their loan was already in foreclosure. One reader reported being told help was available only if they were behind in their payments; another that said they had to be current.

Part of the confusion stems from the fact that lenders and mortgage loan servicers have developed multiple modification programs with different guidelines and qualifying criteria, said Morgan of the Homeownership Preservation Foundation.

"We are able to provide counseling regardless of whether or not they fit (those programs) and connect them to that servicer to continue that conversation if it's appropriate," she said.

But because the final decisions are made by individual lenders, the outcomes may vary for homeowners in similar circumstances.

As the pace of foreclosures has risen, the Hope Now hotline has ramped up to meet big increases in call volume. A year ago, the hotline was staffed with 64 counselors from three HUD-approved independent counseling agencies. By October, when the hotline joined the Alliance, calls were fielded by 150 counselors from five agencies. Today, the line is staffed by 450 counselors from 10 agencies.