[quote=Noob]
Has anyone just payed off a mortgage without a pay off quote? Is it really necessary to pay the bank to have them tell me how much money I owe them?[/quote]
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.
