Sometimes it feels like it’s all about the interest rates for mortgage companies…

In this woman’s case, she found herself having to desperately prove herself when her new mortgage company tried to make it seem like she hadn’t been paying her dues on time.

Let’s see how she showed them who’s boss.

My House, in the Middle of the Street

When I pay my mortgage, I round up and divide it in half.

I pay half every other week.

So my mortgage got picked up by another company when my mortgage company went out of business.

Unbeknownst to her, madness was about to ensue.

To do what I was doing with the NEW company was $300 to enroll and an extra $40 EACH PAYMENT.

Oh hell no.

I spoke to my credit union and they had an auto pay that would pay my bills from my direct deposit FREE.

Everything seemed fine until now.

So nearly a year goes by and I get one of those scary letters:

“You are in default on your mortgage. Unless we get X payment within 10 days of this letter, we will foreclose.”

I was astounded since I had never missed a payment and actually paid a couple of months ahead.

I spoke with their accounting department.

It seems they couldn’t accept “half payments,” only full payments (even though they had done so for a year), so the money had to sit “unapplied” until a full payment was accrued.

What a mess. But they would understand, right?

That made sense EXCEPT again, they got MORE than enough and it was always in there in full before the due date, so on the due date, they should have just taken it and applied it to the mortgage.

So further digging, the rep says to me:

“OH by the way – we have $8200 of “unapplied funds” in this account. What do you want to do with it?”

That’s a tough one…

Uh PAY MY MORTGAGE WITH IT?

“Oh, we can’t do that.”

They complicated things.

So I had to get a check cut for $8200, pay $45 for them to overnight it to me, take it to my credit union, cash it, pay $25 for a cashier’s check, and pay ANOTHER $45 to send the cashier’s check BACK to them.

I called relentlessly to see when it had arrived and had all kinds of postal tracking, signature confirmation, etc.

Remember, I only had TEN DAYS to get this straight!

So they get it and verify that it is applied to my mortgage and that there will be no foreclosure.

But it wasn’t over yet.

The rep tells me, “Well your next payment is due in 2 weeks and there will be penalties and late fees applied, so the amount is XYZ AND we are raising your interest rate (to nearly twice what it was before).”

Uh no. ALL THIS IS YOUR COMPANY’S FAULT.

She says “You knew these were the terms and conditions when you took out your mortgage with us.”

Uh no. I didn’t take it out with YOU, I took it out with another company and I was ASSIGNED to your company.

“Well, don’t be late with the next payment!”

Uh no. I want to speak with a manager.

Not even the manager was willing to solve the actual issue.

So I FINALLY get to speak to a manager and he wasn’t much better.

His only response:

“Well you can always go with another company but good luck with that these days – so many foreclosures and your credit is not very good from missing so many payments.”

I guess that’s the best they could do. But she knew she could do better.

So I decided to take his advice.

I contacted my credit union, explained everything, showed them THEIR OWN payment transfers, AND the mortgage statements showing the other company had received the money bi-weekly like clockwork, and…

The credit union took over my mortgage.

Everything worked out as it should.

I got a reduced interest rate AND eliminated all the fees, penalties, and got the overpayment back (I applied it to the new mortgage payments) etc.

So when a company acts like they have you over a barrel and tells you to try to go with someone else, DO IT!!

Never give up, never surrender!

Let’s see how Reddit feels about this story.

A reader shares their thoughts.

Exactly.

This person thinks she should expose them.

This person knows it’s a strategy.

Another reader chimes in.

What they were doing was possibly illegal.

These kinds of companies are predatory.

They didn’t know they were dealing with someone who wouldn’t give up on her rights.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.