Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — the two largest mortgage lending institutions in the nation — are cracking down on homeowners in default who literally “walk away” from their homes rather than go through the complete foreclosure process, according to the Herald Tribune.

It’s unfortunately become a growing trend as more and more homeowners become “upside down” on their mortgages — they owe the banks more than their homes are actually worth. In fact, these situations are often referred to as “jingle mail” because the distressed homeowners snail mail their house keys direct to mortgage lenders.

To discourage “jingle mail” Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac promise to increase their penalties:

“Fannie will now prohibit foreclosed borrowers from getting another mortgage through the giant investor for five years, unless there are ‘documented extenuating circumstances.’ In those cases, the mortgage prohibition is for three years. Even after five years, borrowers with foreclosures in their files will be required to make at least a 10 percent down payment, and will need minimum FICO credit scores of 680. Freddie Mac, Fannie’s rival, counts foreclosures as major credit blots for seven years, and a senior official said the company is now aggressively pursuing some walkaway borrowers ‘to preserve our deficiency rights’ where permitted under state law.”

Essentially, this is just another reason it is so important for distressed homeowners to work with their mortgage lenders early and often if foreclosure situations emerge. It’s critical for everyone involved to exhaust all available mitigation opportunities before resorting to “jingle mail.”

Foreclosure is something that can ruin credit scores and negatively impact lives now and well into the future. “Mailing it in” before the foreclosure process is even complete will apparently make a bad situation that much worse.

Therefore, think twice before sealing that envelope.