We are lucky to have one of those super low interest rates from the 2020 era ( under 3%)
The mortgage company we had been dealing with sold out to a new company.
Our payment is on auto pay and somehow they even screw this up!
The automatic deduction is apparently a hair less than what the actual payment is supposed to be ( some silly amount like $54) so I get a notice every 2 weeks that the mortgage isn’t paid!

My wife handles the finances, and she has to call and explain this repeatedly to the brain dead people on the end of the line. Now they want to charge us late fees!
I want to tell them to stick the auto pay, send me an old fashioned coupon book and let me mail you the payment bimonthly.

Both my wife and I work full time, and it usually takes her the better part of an hour on one of her rare days off to deal with these bozos

I wouldn’t be surprised if they did this on purpose to make late fee profits off of you.

Can you logon to their website and adjust it? I have 2 mortgages and both have websites where I can adjust the auto debit and make extra payments for scenarios like this. Takes less than 10 minutes.

See if your banking institution has electronic delivery for that mortgage service company. You'll get the notification of bill due instead of in the mail, and pay it right there.

Of course, if they don't, you'll have to find some way.

I had a similar issue for a HVAC loan. The local utility took the payments for a while, then decided to send servicing to a bank that was historically a commercial bank in our area. I had problems - a very generic letter saying to send payments to a new address (it was on thin onion-skin style paper). When I got the first billing, I found out that my credit union did not have the ability to transfer funds electronically to them (a rare thing). They needed to send a paper check - the processing time would guarantee that the payment would be late.

The new bank wanted me to allow them to debit my account for the billing - something I DO NOT allow. I'm not giving other entities my banking information to put into their systems in case someone compromises their security.

As soon as I retired, I used some of my lump sum to go into the bank's branch and pay off the loan. I had to explain to them that they were still in the 20th century for banking processes.

Are you sure it wasn't adjusted upward by that amount in an escrow analysis, combined with you having the monthly amount set to a fixed amount of what it used to be, instead of full balance due?

You also mention semi-monthly payments, which makes me think it could be something as simple as this if you are making set payments out side of their normal due dates.

quote:

Originally posted by captain127:

I want to tell them to stick the auto pay, send me an old fashioned coupon book and let me mail you the payment bimonthly.

Reading between the lines, it appears that your auto-pay is done by letting your mortgage holder draft your bank account. If we use auto-pay for anything, we do it from the opposite end.

Instead of letting the recipient draft from our account, we use the bank's (Navy Federal Credit Union) Online Bill Pay, and set payments to be made on whatever schedule we need. Monthly for some, quarterly for some, etc. -- i.e. instead of letting the biller "pull" from our account, we do a "push" from our end.

Thanks for all the advice! I have my wife on things and hope she can get it straightened out

If you start the mailed invoice/mailed payment the current status of the USPS delivery almost guarantees late payments w/ late fees adding up.... If possible get the payment reciept book and go to the mortgage company and physically in person makeing the payment and getting a reciept in hand............................................ drill sgt.

quote:

Originally posted by drill sgt:

If you start the mailed invoice/mailed payment the current status of the USPS delivery almost guarantees late payments w/ late fees adding up.... If possible get the payment reciept book and go to the mortgage company and physically in person makeing the payment and getting a reciept inhand.

Using bank's / credit union's Online Bill Pay service, odds are that the payment will be made electronically, without post office involvement.

In the unlikely event that the mortgage holder does not accept ACH (electronic transfer) payment, just schedule payments a week earlier. If the post office drops the ball, most banks / credit unions will take care of any late fees for payments made with Online Bill Pay.

If they have the option to prepay principal, do that, maybe $100 or so.
Besides always being ahead, you'd be surprised how much that compounds over time. You're still paying based on the original agreement but by prepaying, the balance is lower so that extra goes towards principal (the loan balance).

The wife went round and round with the mortgage company and bank - the mortgage people saying you had to change the auto pay amount with the bank, then the bank saying it had to come from the mortgage company. Ultimately going back to old school mail in payments at least for a while

Every bank / credit union that I am aware of has Online Bill Pay with the ability to specify automatic payments.

If you are active military or veteran you are eligible for Navy Federal Credit Union. We use their auto pay for a few things, like health insurance premiums. Very easy to set this up.

Your bank should allow you the ability to make online payments either one-time or continuous until cancelled. If this feature is unavailable, find a different bank.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
Your bank should allow you the ability to make online payments either one-time or continuous until cancelled. If this feature is unavailable, find a different bank.

The problem is that some VENDORS don't sign up for electronic transfer - not your bank's/credit union's fault. It is the same thing I had when my HVAC loan got sent over to a bank that had been a commercial bank that wasn't ready for personal bank transfers. I paid that loan off post-haste.

quote:

Originally posted by SigSAC:

The problem is that some VENDORS don't sign up for electronic transfer - not your bank's/credit union's fault.

Every bank / credit union that I'm aware of, if the recipient (vendor) does not take electronic transfer (ACH), the bank / credit union Online Bill Pay will pay via paper check.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Every bank / credit union that I'm aware of, if the recipient (vendor) does not take electronic transfer (ACH), the bank / credit union Online Bill Pay will pay via paper check.

I noted that in my original post - by the time I got the billing notice, there wasn't enough time for processing and sending a physical check without it being late. I finished that loan very quickly.

quote:

Originally posted by SigSAC:

by the time I got the billing notice, there wasn't enough time for processing and sending a physical check without it being late. I finished that loan very quickly.

One vendor that I dealt with sent invoices by email, five calendar days before the due date. Some months, this meant as little as two business days. He tried to charge me late fees and interest. I told him to pound sand -- he needed to send invoices a minimum of fifteen days prior to the due date. He agreed to change his billing to allow reasonable processing time.

Mine has changed hands a couple of times, the notice states that they can't report late pays to the credit bureaus for 6 months I believe. Don't remember what it said about late fees

My mortgage company is making it extraordinarily hard to get a "pay off" amount.

Customer service flat refused to answer my question.

I submitted a request via the secure message option online. That prompted a response, except they didn't give me a payoff quote, they gave me the principal balance. That is NOT the payoff, when there is a few grand in escrow.

Now the response is provide us a bunch of information that I frankly don't want to provide, and the message was filled with threats of charging fees for a pay off amount.

I think I'll just pay the principal balance and make them send me a check for the escrow.

This company held my mortgage for three houses over 30+ years and I've never had a complaint until now.

There won't be a fourth mortgage with them.