The mortgage burning, part 1

We had had a good banking relationship heretofore with that institution, but the denouement has left me a tad cranky. That was NOT what I consider “smooth as possible.”

At the end of August, the Wife and I get this letter from our mortgage company – which has the same logo as the bank, so I assume they’re related:

“Congratulations! Our records show that your mortgage will be paid in full in the next few months. We know that satisfaction of the mortgage on your home will be a special event and we would like to make this process as smooth as possible…

“Since it is unusual for the last payment on a loan to be the exact amount of the payment, it is important that you contact our Customer Service Department to have a Payoff statement mailed to you…

“Please note, if you are on our Automatic Mortgage Payment program,” – we were – “we will NOT be able to draft your last payment.”

My wife calls the toll-free 800 number, and she’s given instruction to mail and sign a request for the amount to some address. This is not making any sense to me, so I call the number, and get to a menu-driven message to give me two options: I can get a bill mailed to me, which will cost $25 (!) or I can get the amount on the phone, for free. I opt for the latter, and I hear that it’s $770.92. I call home, leave a message for my wife. When I get home, she tells me that’s WAY more than what we pay each month; frankly, I never paid it much attention.

I call the next day, hear the message again. I try to get to an operator, but I get a lot of “that’s not a valid entry” messages. Finally, I stumble onto a route by which I can speak to an actual human being. She informs me that the current balance is $716 and something at that moment , so by the time the cashier’s check or certified check they require gets there, it’ll be a bit over $717, not $770.

So the Wife sends a cashier’s check for $717 and change. THEN we get in the mail the final statement; there’s some final fee of about $50, and the real amount IS $770 something. So I have to call AGAIN, and we have to get ANOTHER cashier’s check for the balance. NOW we’re FINALLY done with this.

We had had a good banking relationship heretofore with that institution, but the denouement has left me a tad cranky. That was NOT what I consider “smooth as possible.”

The home equity loan still needs to be satisfied. But that’s one down…

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