We were just congratulating ourselves on making it a whole year in our new house without any late payments.... We spoke too soon. I just got a letter today that says our last payment was returned by our bank because of an "invalid bank account number." this is pure BS. We paid on the 15th, and we were assured the payment would post that day. We did a check-by-phone. I tried to pay online, but their stupid site was freaking out (as usual.) This has happened 3 times (not being able to pay online) but every time, I just call and do a check-by-phone. Well, this time I had to use a different checking account than I usually use. I know I was very careful to give the CSR the correct numbers (routing, account #, etc.) and I even made her repeat everything back to me. I suppose someone keyed in the wrong numbers, but whatever the case, I now have a late house payment. I havent been able to check if the money was actualy debited to my bank account, because the bank doesnt have online banking yet. I'll check it first thing Monday. Heres my questions. 1) This is going to end up being my word against theirs--what is my recourse? 2) The payment was made electronically on the phone on the 15th. Why are they just now (15 days later) getting me a letter informing me of what happened? If they'd have called or written sooner, I could have paid them immediately and avoided a 30 day late on my reports, right? I'll update as soon as I talk to someone Monday. Anyone had a similar situation? what should I do (or avoid doing)?
Had the same problem a couple of months ago - although they did notify me before the 30th so we only had the 5% late fee to "discuss". That wasn't a long conversation and this was removed. They are not obligated to report the payment late, and you should try and get some kind of commitment on this when you chew them out on Monday, including the name of the person you speak with so that if it should appear on your credit report you have somewhere to start. Now of course another month's payment is due, and you will no doubt get to hear about it being due on the 1st, not the 15th - you might want to think about paying this month's payment on Monday as gesture of goodwill, if they remove the late fee and don't report last month's.... Good luck!
This is the very reason I make my payments on the due date (1st of each month) then if there is a glitch in the online system I still have 14 days to get the payment to them prior to the late date. Is there a reason why you pay it so late or isn't it due til the 15th? If it's due on the 1st, late on the 15th then technically paying on the 15th it is late. Waiting til the late date is just asking for trouble! Also, if the payment was made via check by phone and it didn't come off your checking account then why did you wait until 2 weeks later to be notified by them that it didn't work? I check my checking account online every day or so to make sure every transaction makes it thru there. I understand your account doesn't offer online banking but it has to offer over the phone transaction stuff. I would have been alarmed if my payment didn't post within a week and would have inquired. The best way to avoid missing a payment is to make the payment 2 weeks prior to it being late. Then you have time to make up for it if there is a problem. Plus checking that automatic debits go thru is a must.
We had been making our payments on the 1st every month until DH switched jobs. His new job only pays via direct deposit. However, they took 6 friggin weeks to finally deposit some money into our account. That is why we waited so long. We ended up having to pay from a home equity LOC checking account that we had promised ourselves we would not take any more money out of. I check my regular checking account online every day. However, I never check this other account because, believe it or not, it has no online OR automated telephone banking. I know it was really stupid to not check if the account had been debited--especially since I'm so obsessive about checking our regular checking account daily--but I just really didnt think there would be any screw ups. Point is, I did all these things for a reason, I understand how stupid it is to wait until the last day to make a payment, but the past cannot be undone. I did everything right. They messed up. Now I need to know what can be done.
I HAVE DIRECT DEPOSIT PAYROLL--I PAY BEFORE THE 1st OF THE MONTH...(but that is me...) I "THOUGHT" IT WAS DUE ON THE 1st...they just give you 15 days for possible mail delays...
THe point is it is due on the 1st...doesn't matter if you get paid or not...They give you a 15 day grace to mail it out, etc...not to allow you to make a payment on the 15th. That is why it is so important to have an emergency fund set up. Then you wouldn't have any problems. You should have paid it on the 1st. It isn't the lenders fault you called them on the 15th....it should have been done on the 1st. That is just a "grace" period. It is due on the 1st anyways. I just don't feel it's the lenders fault. However you could always call them and ask for the fees to be waived cause of what happened and ask for it not to be reported to the CRA's but it's not a requirement for them not to report it late. It would just be a courtesy cause you have great history with them. But it sure doesn't hurt to ask and explain the situation.
Did you get a confirmation number from the mtg. co.? If you did, it should state the date it was paid and should not be a problem. I loath our mortgage company. After we filed Bk but kept the house, I made an online payment, found out that they blocked our account and the payment never made it to the mortage account, and that was MY fault, HA!!!! They never notified us of it and I Yelled, Screamed, Danced and Sang, they deleted the late pay. I send payment via USPS now and hope to God I never have to deal with a mortgage thru Countrywide, whoops, that slipped out, HA!!! again. Thank Goodness we've only got 10 years left of a 15 year mortgage.
yes, i have a confirmation #, the name of the CSR, and her extension. I wrote it all down on the voided check. Interestingly, the letter the mortgage co sent me does not have the 'incorrect' account number listed anywhere (I wanted to check what they had against the numbers on the check). They do list the check number, and it is exactly the same.
So are you saying that everyone who pays after the 1st is late? That grace period is there for many reasons, and technically, I believe the payment is NOT late until after the grace period--whatever the reason. I DID have an emergency fund. One that I didnt want to touch unless absolutely necessary. How does that statement help anything?
I would go back to the mortgage company give them that info and aske them when it was processed so you have verification, also the maybe the transaction before and after it which may give date and time. I too agree, we have 15 days, the due date is the first, sometimes that is not always possible, my DH's paydays fall every other Thursday so I am not always on the first and I will NOT send a postdated check.
I assume you're talking about Oct Crowmom. Even if it's due on the first, you're not "30 days past due" until the 31st day. Besides, you've eloquently explained the chain of events which can be fodder for your letter. (That's one kool thing about CN. While you are explaining your situation here you pretty much are doing your letters at the same time). Anyway, your lender certainly should be able to make a courtesy "manual override adjustment" if the system gets triggered. I have a feeling you'll be ok on this. .
1. Your bank has proof that you tried to do a eps payment over the phone to your Mortgage Company, the bank was the one that had the incorrect imformation and returned the check..( that should be proof enough to the Mortgage company that you attempted to do the payment over the phone). Do a 3 way call with the mortgage company and your bank at the same time.. you can also get the correct checking account number that should have been used.... A lot of People make mistakes when doing an eps payment over the phone by using all the numbers after the first 9 numbers which are your banks ABA or routing numbers.. The numbers after the ABA numbers have your Checking account numbers as well as the check number that is usually on the top of the check, This check number most of the time is at the end..... If you included the check number in the numbers that you gave with your checking account number, it would be returned as an invalid checking account number.. 2. If this is what happened, I would hope that your mortgage company would remove the late fee as well as any penalty for you... Good luck in getting this resolved..
Ok I've called everyone and their brother, lol. Here's what it boils down to. The mortgage co got the correct numbers. They said everything went thru just fine until it got to the bank, and then it was returned. The bank claims they never received anything at all from the mort co, but they will research more and call me back. Interestingly, they offered to pay my late fees. hmm. This account is a home equity LOC checking account. I was told that sometimes people have trouble doing check-by-phone transactions with these accounts because of some "tran code" that needs to be included, which is a 3 digit # at the end of my account number that i did NOT include, because it was NOT part of my account #. How am i supposed to know about this? Shouldnt the bank and the mort. co know these things? During the check-by-phone transaction, I told the Mort co. CSR that there were 3 x-tra numbers at the bottom of my check that were NOT the check number. She said they were not necessary, just the account number. So thats what i gave them. The bank told me that if an account # is not recognized, they know to stick that code at the end so that the computer will realize its a home equity LOC account. Whose fault is this then? The mort co says that if they discover it is their fault, they will not count it as late. HOwever, if it is my banks fault, it will be counted as late, and I'll have to take it up with them. ARGHH. Why is it my job to make sure these people get the numbers they should know they need??!! I'm going to overnight 2 payments today to them from this very account. That way when they go thru, I can say "see..you didnt have any trouble with my bank account when i mailed it". I already have a letter written to the research dept at the mort. co. begging them to not report this to CRAs. We'll see what happens. *sigh*
just in case anyone wondered, this was resolved. I got a hand-signed letter from my mort. co. that says they will not report to CRAs and they will not charge me late fees. Everything turned out fine. whew.
congrats crowmom! thanks for posting your resolution.. my favorite posts are those that show beginning to end. another reminder for us that this (Credit STUFF) is an ongoing battle and the wisdom we learn fighting has become required learning for our entire lifetime. `fweem
Good for you. We don't always make our payment on the first either, my DH gets paid every other Thursday, so I have to work around that. And I beleive the grace period too is also there for just that reason. Cheers!
1*just in case anyone wondered, this was resolved. I got a hand-signed letter from my mort. co. that says they will not report to CRAs and they will not charge me late fees. Everything turned out fine. crowmom whew. ~~~~~~~`````````````~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1* Thanks: We don't like unsolved mysteries around here.. """"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
