Hey, Citi Mortgage? Go to hell.

[Pulsar]

With regards to why citi - because they hold my loan current and were able to offer reduced closing costs because of that fact. It was an A vs. B comparison between then and 7 other companies, and they offered the lowest closing/fee structure.

DCal - you are correct in owning vs. servicing. It wasn't a distinction I really needed to make (for this situation).

Magnus - I suspect you are correct. They really could care less. Just another reason I do everything I possibly can through my credit union.

Not having at least the amount of a single mortgage payment you can float is sort of scary.

Troll elsewhere. I never said anything of sort.

 

[spacejamz]

Yeah, I've learned my lesson with Autodraft.

The fact that these chuckleheads think it's perfectly OK to take money that isn't theirs just blows me away. Does anyone here really think this would be acceptable if it was happening in the OPPOSITE direction? Say they accidentally sent me a check that I cashed, and my response was that due to my processing system they'd have to wait month to have their money returned.

At this point, if I hadn't closed, I'd be out the door and over to Quicken or any number of other folks.

Your money is a not even a drop in the bucket that CITI deals with on a daily basis...It's not they think it is OK, it is that they really just don't care about a single account.

 

[dabuddha]

Reason #563895 I never set up autodraft payments.

This.

I don't auto pay for anything.

 

[JTsyo]

You enter an automated payment system, you have to abide by the terms. The level of work to simple stop a single payment they are going to refund you anyway is rediculous to expect.

Not having at least the amount of a single mortgage payment you can float is sort of scary.

Did you miss the part were the double paid the next month's mortgage payment?

 

[bignateyk]

I've been auto-paying for years and have never had a problem. I auto-pay:

Credit Cards (2)
Mortgage
Electric
Internet
Cell Phones
Garbage Collection
Auto Insurance
Student Loans

Fuck if I'm gonna make the effort to remember to pay each of those every month manually when they all have different due dates.

I also have our pay checks auto deposited every month. All I have to do is log in to my bank account once a month and make sure everything looks ok. Haven't had a problem in the 6 or so years I've been doing it.

 

[GT1999]

Chase sucks for mortgages as well.

I recommend Guaranteed Rate. If you need a referral, let me know.

 

[steve wilson]

I've been auto-paying for years and have never had a problem. I auto-pay:

Credit Cards (2)
Mortgage
Electric
Internet
Cell Phones
Garbage Collection
Auto Insurance
Student Loans

Fuck if I'm gonna make the effort to remember to pay each of those every month manually when they all have different due dates.

I also have our pay checks auto deposited every month. All I have to do is log in to my bank account once a month and make sure everything looks ok. Haven't had a problem in the 6 or so years I've been doing it.

I'm English so I'm not quite sure what auto pay is but it sounds a lot like what we would call a direct debit. Direct debit takes money out of your account to pay a bill automatically every month. I have this set up for all my bills and I just check the bank account on a weekly basis...done this for around 7-8 years now and never had a problem. Although I've never refinanced my mortgage.

 

[iRONic]

I've been auto-paying for years and have never had a problem. I auto-pay:

Credit Cards (2)
Mortgage
Electric
Internet
Cell Phones
Garbage Collection
Auto Insurance
Student Loans

Fuck if I'm gonna make the effort to remember to pay each of those every month manually when they all have different due dates.

Remember them?! My bills have this funny way of reminding me. Those fuckers either show up in the mailbox at the end of my driveway or my email in box.

They're all set up in either my bank's online pay system or the vendor's online system. A few clicks... bill paid.

 

[Leymenaide]

I've been auto-paying for years and have never had a problem. I auto-pay:

Credit Cards (2)
Mortgage
Electric
Internet
Cell Phones
Garbage Collection
Auto Insurance
Student Loans

Fuck if I'm gonna make the effort to remember to pay each of those every month manually when they all have different due dates.

I also have our pay checks auto deposited every month. All I have to do is log in to my bank account once a month and make sure everything looks ok. Haven't had a problem in the 6 or so years I've been doing it.

Every couple of months they throw 30 to 100 extra on the bill they cannot explain. They are even worse the Temple Hospital. Temple flat out refuses to explain charges.

 

[SSSnail]

I'm English so I'm not quite sure what auto pay is but it sounds a lot like what we would call a direct debit. Direct debit takes money out of your account to pay a bill automatically every month. I have this set up for all my bills and I just check the bank account on a weekly basis...done this for around 7-8 years now and never had a problem. Although I've never refinanced my mortgage.

Auto draft: you set up a reoccurring payment draft from the vendor to whom you owe money, on their website.

Auto pay: you set up a reoccurring payment from your bank account to the vendor to whom you owe money, on your bank account website.

You can control the auto pay, adjusting when the money is leaving your account, how much and how frequently. Even stop the payment is all up to you. Imagine that!

With auto draft, you have this thread.

 

[bignateyk]

Remember them?! My bills have this funny way of reminding me. Those fuckers either show up in the mailbox at the end of my driveway or my email in box.

They're all set up in either my bank's online pay system or the vendor's online system. A few clicks... bill paid.

Still too much effort. My method requires zero effort or thought on my part. All bills are electronic so I don't even have to go through the hassle of opening the mail.

Mine are auto-draft I guess, not auto-pay. Still never had a problem in 6+ years with 8-10 bills being paid in a given month.

 

[DrPizza]

We do auto draft for a few things. Unless I'm mistaken, the auto draft payments ended up in reduced fees. The gym membership we have charges a little less each month if you have auto draft. It's a mom & pop type of establishment that has given me no reason to fear them (unlike some of those larger chains that I would never allow auto draft for.) I think it's $5 less per month with auto draft. I think student loans reduced the interest by some fraction of a percent if you had auto draft. And, I think my auto insurance was a tiny bit cheaper with auto draft.

Otherwise, most of the other set amounts are auto pay. A few of the places I deal with aren't set up for auto pay though; they're a pain in the neck.

Quite frankly, I've had a lot of nightmares with various bills, and zero of the nightmares were caused by auto draft. Imagine sitting down on a Saturday to pay bills. Your mortgage payment isn't due until Wednesday, the 1st. It's a couple days early - I've paid bills a few days early before, shouldn't be a problem, right? Well, since it was 5 days early, they pro-rated the payment. With a 360.60 payment, 1/6 (since it's 1/6 of the month) went toward principle, 5/6 went toward the payment. Then, a few weeks later, I got mail informing me of a late fee. You have no idea how many hours were spent on the phone trying to find someone in India who could do arithmetic. "Sir, you did not pay the full amount. That's why you have a late fee." "Do you see my payment history?" "Yes, on the 25th, you paid 300.50 toward the amount due, and you also paid 60.10 toward the principle." "Can you add those up?" "Sir, you do not understand, you were supposed to pay $360.60 to your bill." "Add those amounts up. I paid 360.60 - YOU guys split it up." "Sir, I'm seeing that you made two payments, one of them toward the principle." "I made one payment! Add those amounts together, do you think it's a coincidence?" I went through hours of this.

 

[Pulsar]

I still use autodraft. My cellphone is a fixed payment. No reason not to autodraft my electrical bill either since I can see the meter as clearly as they can.

The stuff I don't autodraft are things like my car insurance (one pay every six months), my OLD cellphone bill because it wasn't fixed and Sprint billing is a bunch of thieves who constantly like to tack on random charges for text messages when I had it disabled.... Propane is not autodraft, because I want to see what their prices are each time before I pay so I can complain (propane companies are notorious for jacking up prices THEN going out and making deliveries and blaming the instability in the market, but when they fill you up the day after the price goes up 15% repeatedly it's just too much coincidence).

Anyway, I guess this was my learning experience. Nothing has shown up on my credit report yet, but that's not to say it won't. I think I'll call them to make sure they aren't showing it as overdue.

 

[Gunslinger08]

I auto-draft my power, student loans, internet, television, and cell phone bills. These are all (approximately) fixed price. I like to manage the variable bills (credit cards, gas, water) myself. I also manually pay my mortgage, car payments, and HOA. Some of those don't offer auto-draft. The others I just prefer to do myself.

 

[MotionMan]

Auto draft: you set up a reoccurring payment draft from the vendor to whom you owe money, on their website.

Auto pay: you set up a reoccurring payment from your bank account to the vendor to whom you owe money, on your bank account website.

You can control the auto pay, adjusting when the money is leaving your account, how much and how frequently. Even stop the payment is all up to you. Imagine that!

With auto draft, you have this thread.

Interesting, I do both, but never thought they had different names. I called them all "automatic payment".

I have "auto draft" set up for my all my utilities (cable/internet/phone/gas/electric/water).

I have "auto pay" set up for my mobile phone (set amount each month, but I don't trust them).

Otherwise, I pay everything else online through my bank's website, including my mortgage (Even though that is a set amount every month, for some reason, I want to do that one manually. This thread has given me another reason.).

MotionMan

 

[KK]

You have no idea how many hours were spent on the phone trying to find someone in India who could do arithmetic.

By law you can tell the Indian to transfer you to someone here in the states. Atleast thats what I have heard. Although the state of the mathematics here in the states probably sucks more. :sneaky:

Edit: I guess I should have snoped that one.

 

[alkemyst]

By law you can tell the Indian to transfer you to someone here in the states. Atleast thats what I have heard. Although the state of the mathematics here in the states probably sucks more. :sneaky:

Edit: I guess I should have snoped that one.

yeah...no law allows this.

Most companies will extend a courtesy to get a native english speaker if needed. Usually the better the account, less YMMV.