San Diego Housing Bubble News and Analysis

They can legally require a payoff quote only if it is in the original loan documents.
Some lenders ask for it even though it is not in the loan docs. Best to check all the fine print.

I don't know about "pay off quote" charges, but many institutions charge a small fee ($50 seems OK) to actually close down a mortgage. I remember SDCCU used to have that next to the mortgage balance.

But if you are getting rid of a large mortgage, it is better to swallow a little bitterness like this and come out ahead by saving hundreds of $ per month in interest payments that you save.

In future, remember to stay away from banks and use credit unions where they don't have this moneylender mentality.

Noob, I share your pain. I had a loan with Wamu about five years ago. I wanted to pay it off, and it had a balance of about $175k. I called them and likewise they told me I would have to go through this whole payout process. (Complete with cashier's check, yada yada) So rather than do that, when it was time to send in my payment, I sent them a check for $174k. (A grand short of payoff)

To my anger and amazement, they sent it back to me with a letter saying that I would have to go through the payout process. I called customer service and explained that it wasn't a payout, but just an additional payment to principal. The service rep was so lacking in knowledge that they just didn't even understand what I was doing after I explained it to them. All they could tell me was that clearly a check this big was a payoff and I would need to go through the payoff process. Finally I got a supervisor, and when I asked her how much could I send in and not have a payoff, she said, "Any amount as long as it's not the complete amount." So, I said, "Okay, can I send $174500?" And she said, "Yes, that would be fine" Then I asked, why my check for $174k was returned. She couldn't figure that out. Finally we agreed I would resend the check to her and she would process it.

The next month I got my statement, it had the $174k applied, but a late charge was applied as well. (Since by the time they sent the check to me, and I sent it back two weeks had passed. Originally the check had been on time) I called and got the late charge removed, after much haggling on the phone and sent in my last payment of about a grand.

Two weeks later I got a refund from Wamu for about two grand. Why I have no idea, but I cashed it and considered it payment for dealing with incompentence.

XboxBoy

Heh.

I have a mostly pointless yet passingly humorous story of dealing with a bank mortgage.

About 8 years ago I was deployed to a rather "austere" area: no mail, no internet, no phones, pretty much nada. I had my mortgage set up for automatic withdrawal from a transfer account I set up for that purpose and figured that would keep it all covered. Well, not so much.

After I returned home 4 months later I have a ton of mail and more than a couple angry phone calls from my bank wanting to know where their money was. I hop on line and to my amazement, there is a lot of money in sitting in that transfer account that should not be there. It seems that the bank had a little "oopsy" with their computer system shortly after I left and they never withdrew the funds from my account. Since it showed up as a missed payment they continued to not withdraw the payments in subsequent months. 4 months later and Viola, they are starting to put me through the process. Fortunately, I was able to get it cleared up but the initial phone call was kind of funny.

Bank: So why didn't you contact us sooner?

Me: Sorry, I didn't know their was a problem. I was outside the country in a rather remote locale.

Bank: Didn't you get our mail.

Me: Sorry, we weren't getting any mail.

Bank: You could have returned our calls.

Me: Sorry again ma'am, but we didn't have any phones.

Bank: No phones?

Me: No phones.

Bank: Internet?

Me: Nope.

Bank: What about your wif..

Me: Divorced.

Bank: What about some close friends that could...

Me: Ma'am, do I sound like the kind of guy that has a lot of close friends?

Bank: Uhhh, I suppose not.

I still chuckle when I think about that.

Ha! Great stories. So I'm sending electronic transfers in 2 lumps. I'll let you know if they take them, or kick them back. I will end up owing about $15 for next month's payment. At that point, I'll just send in about $400 and see what they do.

Type of a stange time to send money to the bank. Market is a taking a beating and getting much cheaper. I would wnat to stay heavier on cash so if the opportunity presents itself you could begin buying into an overcorrected market.