Tuesday, March 12, 2013

You will not believe how dysfunctional our banking system still is.

Do you know how hard it is to convince your mortgage company these days your rent check really is "stuck in the mail" even though you paid electronically? Oh. I will wait for you to either brace, or settle in for the read. Ready?

My mortgage company told me to wait until Monday (yesterday) to see if my check would show up and then call them. It didn't show up after 20 days - so I called to have them to make sure it was okay to make a stop payment. Because they are going to cash the check if it arrives and cash it. Then I will look like I'm a deadbeat. Plus all the fees.

They tell me "We don't recommend our customers put a stop payment on a check for 30 - 60 days". Maybe I should take the time again to mention I am in the middle of a refi. So of course I flip out. Even though my check is "in the mail" - the reason my check is in the mail is because of their own incompetence. They failed to give my bank the correct information when something internally changed. This caused my bank (Citibank) to say - All I want to do is pay your bills and we don't know how to do that - so we will send a check. Which doesn't seem all that unreasonable. Now my check is lost in the mail.

The mortgage company offers to take a new payment, and if the other check arrives they will cash that one too. My rent is late on the 16th. And brace for it - they were going to charge me a fee to take my payment over the phone. You can not make this stuff up. Of course I do not want to put anything on my credit card because that changes your credit score and I am in the middle of a refi. When I call Citi back they tell me the mortgage company can pull that money electronically. But of course my mortgage company never offers this. Finally I'm flipped out enough that when the Citi manager and I call back they have decided to waive all fees.

So far - it's taken me 11 calls. Eleven. I am not exaggerating in any way. I've had to have Citibank teleconference my mortgage company twice. And I wouldn't have even noticed this until I got a notice from the bank. The bank has always done what I've asked, and I've never had any reason to micro mange them. In a normal world it would have taken me several months to get this off my credit report. Because my time is not at all valuable to these people. Sadly - it wouldn't have been the first time I've needed to do this. Which is one reason I keep documents to infinity. It's the only way to clear your name,

My mortgage company even went as far to say "Mrs Snarkolepsy, all of the banks should have gotten this information propagated through the system by now. As if to say - we don't believe you. Even though they must see I've called 5 times since March 4th. I even had to tell them - I even had my bank send you a letter saying I paid you. This is your banks fault!

The stunning thing about this is getting information out of them is like pulling on a tiny loose thread. You tease a little information out, and on to the next person. Finally after 11 calls you can parse through and try to figure out their insanity.

All the more maddening - this is a prime mortgage company.

Later as I was reflecting on everything I realised this whole thing was a giant I don't trust you exercise. They don't trust I've made my mortgage payment, because I'm sure they haven't heard that a time or two - and I dont' trust them to not eff up my credit and my reputation.

The market can never recover until this gets better and people start to trust each other again.

Cont.....

2 comments:

  1. If it makes you feel any better, somewhere someplace there is a tranche of mortgage derivatives imploding thanks to your late payment.

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  2. Honestly - I think I might have died a little inside. If banks can not figure out their sole purpose (even more than making new loans) - I just don't even know what to say.

    You know what is the cherry on this shit cake? I've been paying more than I even owe on my mortgage. I have one of those exciting resets in 2016. And I'm the one lying to them. Because everyone I know starts paying more than they owe on their mortgages right before they default. /sarc

    At the time I figured it was impossible for whatever happened in the world not to be sorted out by 2016. Jokes on me.

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