Dirty Tricks from Mortgage Service Companies ???

[FreakinDJ]

I had to call my mortgage service provider today.

They are also the Bank that bought the note 30 days after I signed the loan papers. It wasn't a "Subprime Loan" as I made a 40% down payment on the property, the payment with tax and insurance is less then 25% of my disposable income and I'm current on all my payments.

I OVER-PAY this Loan every month. I looked at my end of year statement and the principal amount wasn't adding up. In addition to that they had an "Escrow Account" in excess of $2500, and then a "Suspense Balance" of $1100

Rather then APPLY the excess amount paid monthly on my FIXED Simple Interest Loan they had been shuffling the money to these various accounts they made at will. In all fairness the Escrow Account goes towards my property insurance and property taxes. But that isn't due until June and they have an amount taken out every month. The person I talked to quickly admitted the Escrow Account was over paid in excess of $1500.

All told I had to forced them to apply over $2500 towards the principal of the loan. I had to make her note my file "To apply ALL excess Funds towards the Principal Balance Each Month"

The lady even threatened to hang up on me when I told her "What do you think, I send you extra money every month out of the Goodness of my Heart"

It ain't enough to make your payments, and on time every month - you got to watch these money grubbers like a Hawk

[WolverineDG]

1. Sounds like the fuckers at BoA

they want the exact amount, no more, no less. No partial payments. should you send them a partial payment, they'll simply put it somewhere that THEY get interest, but don't apply it to your mortgage AT ALL (until you call & yell at them).

for all the bitching done over Countrywide, I *NEVER* had this problem with them.

dg

[peacebird]

3. fortunately NavyFed CU does not play that game. Extra money is always applied to the

loan balance.

[FreakinDJ]

5. Mine won't take a partial payment either

Banks used to do that years ago before the repeal the Glassman Stegal Act, but now the gloves are off and they are only looking to take your money and your home

[peacebird]

2. I can understand an escrow account, but "Suspense Balance"?!?

and clearly the escrow should be estimated to cover the property insurance and taxes only.... at least you got them to apply the money towards the principle!

I swear - banks are scum.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. With a 60% Loan To Value, you should give them a call

and ask for an escrow waiver. Just be sure and save the money each month so that you can pay the insurance and taxes when due!

If you are escrow-waived, they won't have accounts to dump excess funds into and will ONLY be able to apply to P&I.

May save you some time.

[DCKit]

6. I'll bet that if you'd skipped a payment, they wouldn't have applied the excess to keep you current.

You'd be in foreclosure, 'cause the property is probably worth more than you owe.

That said, the situation is disgusting, but quite similar to what I went through with my own mortgage. I'm also not too sure I didn't overpay when I paid it off.

[FreakinDJ]

9. To the interest only I'm sure

they have this game rigged to where they are the only Beneficiary

[MindandSoul]

7. Those guys really are tricky . .and unethical!

But, if you have a little extra money to apply to your mortgage most months. . .Have you ever considered moving to a "twice a month" payment? it that case, you can shrink your payments by a couple of years over a thirty year loan, because you actually make 26 1/2 payments a year. . .instead of 12 full payment. . .therefore, without really noticing it, you pay an extra 1 month interest and principal a year which shrinks the number of your interest payments you need to make and gets your principal down more quickly also.

Just a thought.

[FreakinDJ]

10. Yes but they would ONLY do that through Auto-Draw Payment

I already discussed this with them

Every where else Auto-Draw is worth .25% off the interest too and they won't do that. So rather then allow them access into my Bank Accounts I just send in and extra $350 - 500 per month. As long as I do it before the 1st of the month I can do it on their website and it doesn't even cost me the stamp.

The Bi-monthly AutoDraw does not allow me to specify how much extra I send in each month too

[MindandSoul]

11. Yes, that makes sense!

[FreakinDJ]

12. Except it is worth .25% off the interest

At first when they purchased the loan they didn't send me a payment notice but all the paperwork for Auto-Draw Payments from my account. In fact they were trying to misrepresent it as if it Had to Be Auto-Draw. I had to call them a request them to send me the payment request

Then about 2 years later they sent me the paperwork for Bi-Monthly Payments. It required the Auto-Draw and gave me No Flexibility in the additional amounts I was already over-paying the loan. I crunched it then and it didn't seem like the deal was proper. You should be saving money because of the LESS INTEREST INCURRED. They had some Fancy New Way they calculated that too

[MindandSoul]

15. It sounds like you've had that mortgage for awhile. . .and that you're not that happy with the lende

Have you considered refinancing with another bank? At this time, interest rates are so much lower than they were 3 or 4 years ago! My husband and I are in the process of refinancing our mortgage to take advantage of the lower rates (we currently pay 6% on a mortgage that we have had for almost 4 years, and we are going down to a 3.375% mortgage on a 5 year fixed, then adjustable, because we don't want to stay here for over 3 years anyway). The current 30 year fixed rate is about 4.25%. . .and then (since you pay more than the minimum anyway, you could look at a 15 years mortgage. . .that would save you a lot of money!

Anyway. . .I'm not a specialist in all this, but we have bought and sold about 23 properties, so we are somewhat comfortable with dealing with the banks (crooked or not!).

[DCKit]

13. Yet another way to mess with 'em. Thank you, Sir Pay-A-Lot.

Still, keep serious track of your checks, no matter what.

[flvegan]

8. The ONE thing my mortgageholder does right...

on the payment coupon I send back with our checks, there's the "amount due" area. Then there's the amount you're paying to actually fill in. There's yet another spot where it says "overage to apply towards principal" (or something like that) which I can fill in.

But yeah, you gotta watch them like you know they're stealing from you.

[sarcasmo]

14. The Chase car loan we have does that crap, you have to watch lenders like a Hawk.