Paying off mortgage results in default

[n2doc]

Bank of America adds late fees, sends notice to creditors, but payoff of $64,161.57 had been made

Jon Yates
February 20, 2011


Financial responsibility, thy name is Nancy Schweitzer.

The Des Plaines resident pays for her cars in cash, has never been late on a payment, and waited until she was 55 to buy her first house. By then, she had saved enough to pay off half the mortgage.

"My credit should be pristine," Schweitzer said. "I did everything right."

It was with great pride that she paid off her mortgage in November, 24 years early. The monthly payments, she said, were leaving her too little spending money. With the mortgage gone, she would also avoid decades of interest payments.

Her lender, Bank of America, had given her the payoff amount and reminded her she also had money in her escrow account for taxes. The Bank of America representative told her not to worry — when she paid off the mortgage, the $2,776.13 in escrow would be applied to the principal.

more

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/problemsolver/ct-biz-0220-problem-schweitzer-20110220,0,3621642.column

[lunatica]

1. I've read the Banks call people like her "deadbeats"

Because they lose a source of income.

[WolverineDG]

2. BoA kept taking $ from a loan acct I had with them FOR MONTHS

even after it had been paid off! :grr: :nuke:

I finally got someone to "close" it, but was rather snottily told that since I had elected for automatic payments to be taken from my account, *I* had to stop them from dinging my account. I just about fell over at that point. I told the account rep that that was called "stealing," as they had no right to access my account once my loan had been paid off. More blather. So I went online & found that it was *impossible* to stop the automatic drafts because (dun dun dun) my loan was paid off. It took a couple more calls for a couple of months to get them to fucking stop it & only after I threatened to file a police report for theft.

dg

[barbtries]

4. did they pay you back the money they owed?

that's so frustrating it would have driven me batty.

[WolverineDG]

5. Yup

but the bastards didn't add interest. I hate BoA.

dg

[barbtries]

11. me too

all the people i know who have had their ID's stolen were with BofA. probably just a coincidence but even when the perp was caught there were no real consequences.

[upi402]

8. You have to "tell" them to stop robbing you?

pinch me...

in what kind of state does that continue?

[WolverineDG]

12. Yes

because their IT folks are apparently as brainless as their accountants & just can't figure out how to set up a "cut off" date to automatic payments.

dg

[SoCalDem]

9. That's one reason I attach "deductions" to my debit card number

If they get screwed up, I can just call the bank & announce that I lost the card.. They send a new one with a different number and any deductions that come through will NOT be paid until I call them and give them the new number..

or you could just open a new account and stop putting money into the old one:)

[virgogal]

3. Bastards. ! She should have called the police and reported them

for stealing her money. (A bit of a stretch.I know)

[Sherman A1]

7. Not at all

If the bank would make a mistake and deposit a sum into your account to which you were not entitled and you used same it would be stealing and I believe you could be charged with such.

[gristy]

6. The escrow account on my mortgage at BofA had a large surplus

I asked them to write me a check to get it down to a reasonable level. They refused! So I closed the escrow account (I consider myself fortunate that I was allowed to), they sent me a check for the entire balance, and now I pay my taxes myself.

I cannot stand BofA.

[Dawson Leery]

10. Bank of America operates by the tea party philosophy

which favors the rich and powerful first and only.