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My mortgage company is one of the large, evil banks. They bought my mortgage from someone else, so they can't change my fixed rate or charge me any pre-payment penalties. Heh.
But they can screw me over with PMI, refuse to let go of my escrow account, and play like they don't know what I'm doing with my extra mortgage payments. Let me just talk about this third trick of theirs.
First try on the extra mortgage payments: go online, add extra payment to principal, check progress online. Bank receives my payment, applies it to nothing. Just lets it sit there. Finally I call, and they apply it to my principal. I ask how I was supposed to indicate this, and they say to fill in the little coupon that I get in the mail and mail that in with a check. Uh, no.
Second try: go online, start with the button to pay extra principal, it automatically adds my usual payment to that amount before it lets me finish, but it all works out alright.
Third try: use exactly the same method as the second try, but this time it pulls out an extra mortgage payment. Call them and ask them to refund the extra payment. They say they will but it will take a few days. Two weeks later, they have not done a thing. Call them again. Cry "Uncle" about using snail mail. They apologize. Then insist they need a physical statement from my bank showing how the payment was taken out twice. I said they can tell by looking at their own records. They are stubborn. My statement hasn't even been created.
They have the technology; they just choose not to let it work.
Meanwhile, I have an extra month to make my next payment, but payments will continue to be taken automatically.
After further thought, I realize that I don't really want them to have my bank statement. Those other numbers are none of their business. And if I black all those other numbers out, they'll probably continue to do nothing because my statement was damaged.
Maybe I'll let them keep this money. The extra principal has been applied, reducing the interest I owe. The extra interest is annoying, but it's not that much and I'll get it back in the end. The extra escrow payment will probably lower my monthly payments again starting in May (not that long from now) or I'll get it back in the end, too.
How stubborn should I be? I don't like to waste money on stamps. Maybe I should go back to the first way and call them every time. (My current plan is not to add a certain additional amount each month, but to add however much I save by reducing expenditures for certain things plus any windfalls I get from things like income tax refunds and credit card rewards. Otherwise, I could just easily change the amount of my normal monthly payment.)
I usually don't go all stubborn on people, but sometimes they ask for it. Mostly I want to get them back by paying off my mortgage ASAP. I'm rich enough to lose an extra mortgage payment, but not rich enough to pay off the whole thing now.
Blog entry of the day - Can America Learn to Save From My Dog? at Lazy Man and Money - "... there's significant risk and no reward to burying a bone for later. The bone may get washed away by rain or stolen by zealous squirrel. The bone itself will even likely have less "value" to a dog as it will be covered in dirt. When people save their money in banks, it comes with some security (FDIC) and they are rewarded with interest. People should be the ones doing the saving." This post has two doggy lessons and the comments have more. Fun.
But they can screw me over with PMI, refuse to let go of my escrow account, and play like they don't know what I'm doing with my extra mortgage payments. Let me just talk about this third trick of theirs.
First try on the extra mortgage payments: go online, add extra payment to principal, check progress online. Bank receives my payment, applies it to nothing. Just lets it sit there. Finally I call, and they apply it to my principal. I ask how I was supposed to indicate this, and they say to fill in the little coupon that I get in the mail and mail that in with a check. Uh, no.
Second try: go online, start with the button to pay extra principal, it automatically adds my usual payment to that amount before it lets me finish, but it all works out alright.
Third try: use exactly the same method as the second try, but this time it pulls out an extra mortgage payment. Call them and ask them to refund the extra payment. They say they will but it will take a few days. Two weeks later, they have not done a thing. Call them again. Cry "Uncle" about using snail mail. They apologize. Then insist they need a physical statement from my bank showing how the payment was taken out twice. I said they can tell by looking at their own records. They are stubborn. My statement hasn't even been created.
They have the technology; they just choose not to let it work.
Meanwhile, I have an extra month to make my next payment, but payments will continue to be taken automatically.
After further thought, I realize that I don't really want them to have my bank statement. Those other numbers are none of their business. And if I black all those other numbers out, they'll probably continue to do nothing because my statement was damaged.
Maybe I'll let them keep this money. The extra principal has been applied, reducing the interest I owe. The extra interest is annoying, but it's not that much and I'll get it back in the end. The extra escrow payment will probably lower my monthly payments again starting in May (not that long from now) or I'll get it back in the end, too.
How stubborn should I be? I don't like to waste money on stamps. Maybe I should go back to the first way and call them every time. (My current plan is not to add a certain additional amount each month, but to add however much I save by reducing expenditures for certain things plus any windfalls I get from things like income tax refunds and credit card rewards. Otherwise, I could just easily change the amount of my normal monthly payment.)
I usually don't go all stubborn on people, but sometimes they ask for it. Mostly I want to get them back by paying off my mortgage ASAP. I'm rich enough to lose an extra mortgage payment, but not rich enough to pay off the whole thing now.
Blog entry of the day - Can America Learn to Save From My Dog? at Lazy Man and Money - "... there's significant risk and no reward to burying a bone for later. The bone may get washed away by rain or stolen by zealous squirrel. The bone itself will even likely have less "value" to a dog as it will be covered in dirt. When people save their money in banks, it comes with some security (FDIC) and they are rewarded with interest. People should be the ones doing the saving." This post has two doggy lessons and the comments have more. Fun.