Paying off second mortgage

cptacek · #1 (**permalink**) 09-06-2006, 11:59 AM

Why is it so darn hard to pay off the mortgage?

I have never done it before, but I assumed it was like any other loan I had...pay all the money back and your loan is closed, with a nice thank you from the bank for the interest you gave them for the life of the loan. After I sold my old house, I had the money to pay off the second mortgage on the new house. So, naive me, I sent in the extra money with the payment coupon, padding it a little so that it would cover all the interest for the few days after my due date for processing time. I looked at the loan online after I was sure the payment had gotten there, and <u>all</u> the money was sitting in a "suspense" account. What the heck is that?

So, I called the mortgage lender. The sometimes-helpful person said that they didn't know what to do with the money, so they just put it in a suspense account. Um, how come money sent to a loan for the purpose of paying a loan isn't applied to the loan? Dumb, dumb, dumb. I even designated on the payment coupon to pay the monthly payment first and then apply the rest to the principal. She said I have to have a payoff letter sent to me first, which would cost up to $20, but for Kansas would most likely be $5, and then I would have to write a letter with my loan number and how much was in the suspense account and tell them to apply the remaining money to pay off the loan and fax it to someone. The fax would take 2 days to get here. Um, it is electronic. Can't they just hit send? I thought we had everything straightened out...I was to wait for the fax and follow the instructions in the fax, unless I had overpaid enough to close the account, and in that case I had to send in my fax with the info for paying off the loan.

Ok. Got all that. Then, she called me back to say, just send that fax in. They are still going to send me the payoff-amount fax (and charge me $5), but she must have looked at my balance and realized that I had paid enough, so just skip getting the fax and send my own so the process is faster. While I appreciate her calling me back for that, I still think the process is stupid.

Very frustrating. But, at least I have (or will have) the second mortgage paid off after I do all the fancy footwork required.

creditcardfree · #2 (**permalink**) 09-06-2006, 12:10 PM

Sounds like you are definitely dealing with someone new or completely incompetent. I'd call back to speak with a supervisor or manager. They shouldn't need anything else from you.

Good job on having money to pay off 2nd mtg!!

LuxLiving · #3 (**permalink**) 09-06-2006, 12:32 PM

How ridiculous this is - I had similar experience once...someone wanted to mail be back a form so I could mail it directly to another in the same organization. I had been in their office frequently and knew that they sat right next to each other. OMGosh-just hand it across the aisle already!!! "Oh yeah, I could do it that way, couldn't I?" Uh, yeah.

Call to speak to a supervisor!

TBH · #4 (**permalink**) 09-06-2006, 05:49 PM

It BENEFITS them to be slow and incompetent. They're sitting there collecting interest while you're getting the runaround and doing extra paperwork.

Snoopy2645 · #5 (**permalink**) 09-06-2006, 09:45 PM

I agree they do it for thier sake I have had this happen to every month I pay extra on the mortgage & sometimes I am able to put a few extra thousand towards it well one time I did that they didnt apply it to the mortgage DUH!!! WTH why wouldnt I want it applied to the mortgage & last time I went thier same thing happened but it was only like $50 extra but still its just the point KWIM it really irks me they can act so ya know!!!