Grrr...sent 1st mortgage payment and it hasn't cleared yet

[Chicago526]

I sent my 1st mortgage payment on 9/13 and it hasn't cleared my bank yet. What's taking them so long? I haven't gotten any kind of coupon book yet, and as far as I know, they don't have direct withdrawl (dang it, my old mortgage company did!). And I mailed it at the post office, so I know it made it that far, and it has my return address.

What happens if they don't cash it, would they charge me a late fee?

I'm going to see if I can dig up a phone number for them and see if I can talk to someone about it!

 

[Kermit]

That's actually a big problem with some mortgage companies. They'll hold your check so that they can assess late fees. (Credit cards do the same thing.) Is there no way to pay online? Or maybe you could use your bank's online bill paying to handle it. Both of those ways use computerized funds transfers, so they can't say that the money didn't reach them in time.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

when was the payment due - Oct 1st or September 1st?

 

[golfgal]

That's actually a big problem with some mortgage companies. They'll hold your check so that they can assess late fees. (Credit cards do the same thing.) Is there no way to pay online? Or maybe you could use your bank's online bill paying to handle it. Both of those ways use computerized funds transfers, so they can't say that the money didn't reach them in time.

Even if you use the banks bill pay, you might have the same issue with your mortgage company holding your check. When did you close on your house and when was your first payment due? If you haven't gotten your payment booklet, I wonder if you are sending in a payment early? Also, did you have the right account number on the check. Without that, it takes longer to process your payment.

 

[Chicago526]

Mystery solved! I called the mortgage company to find out what was going on. They sold the loan and forwarded my payment to the new bank. They sent it overnight and have a receipt that shows they received it. It should clear my bank by the end of the week.

I never heard that banks held payments so they could charge fees. Doesn't surprise me much. I hope I can set up direct withdrawl with the new mortgage company so I don't have to worry about it. I had that with my last loan and it was great! Never had to worry about forgeting to mail the check, and with my employer's direct deposit, I never even missed the money.

 

[bimshire]

Instead of sending in a coupon and a check monthly, you can do what we do. For the mortgage, water utility, phone, and electric, we signed up for automatic monthly payments. They send me a bill monthly (for information purposes only) but take the money automatically from our household account. We always have more that enough in the account, so if they don't withdraw it, it is their fault not mine.

 

[welovedisneyx4]

Stay on top of this since they sold the loan. We had a home equity loan that got sold and we had major issues w/ them getting our payments at first. They kept on saying we were $17000.00 behind! We finally got it straight, but it took alot of calling.