Am I about to start getting screwed by Citimortgage

[Anonymous]

I mailed my December payment and never thought about it again.  I received a letter from Citimortgage at the end of December that my payment was late.  So I immediately put a stop payment on the first check and overnight another one to their mail payment processing center (this was a different address than the one where I am supposed to send payments).

I check my bank account this morning and they have cashed that second check.  However, my mortgage has not been credited with the payment.  I contacted them and they gave a fax number to mail a copy of the cancelled check or bank statement to.  Problem, my account says the payment was withdrawn as an electronic check, so there is no copy.  All there is is my bank statement saying citimortgage withdrew from my account.

I bank with Citibank, so I am confused as to how my account could have the money taken, but not credited to the mortgage.

Please give me advice on what to do?  I have paid my mortgage on time since getting this one ( citimortgage bought this mortgage from my initial company this summer) , but now I fear all the horror stories I have read about Citimortgage.

[clocktick]

Can you mail or fax them a screenshot of your statement?  Can you expand it to show more details?  Is there a way for you to pay online so this doesn't happen again?

I would call and explain the situation and see if you can fax any information they need.  If you get a not-so-nice rep I would keep calling until I get a better one.

[Anonymous]

I just received this email from Citimortgage (I emailed them several times today regarding this missing payment)

Thank you for selecting the Internet as your means of
communicating with CitiMortgage, Inc. Our response to your
Payment inquiry is below.

Due to technical issues, we are unable to apply the
payments received from customers. We are working to get
this resolved on priority and request you to allow time for
the postings to occur. We apologize for any inconvenience
caused.

For your convenience, information about your payment
options is available online under the View Payment Options
link after you sign on to your account at
www.citimortgage.com.

I hope this means my account will reflect the payment quickly

[Anonymous]

While I can REALLY understand you're being stressed over this, I wouldn't be, essentially. At least, not yet.

ALL of our CCs and DH's student loan do the same stupid thing when we pay them. Often, the funds will be withdrawn from our account days before the payment actually posts to our payment account. Our SL usually averages 4 days. CCs usually 3-4 days.

However, they are considered POSTED on the day we made the payment. So, if we make the payment on the 3rd (for'instance), the money comes out of our account on the 4th (though sometimes the same day we make it) and the account we're paying updates to "Posted: the 3rd" roughly around the 7th.

Did that make much sense?? Do you know what I mean?

[Anonymous]

That does make sense, but with all the horror stories I read about citimortgage, after they bought the mortgage, I was paranoid and wanted to get the ball rolling to get this taken care of as quickly as possible.

[Lel]

You might want to consider enrolling in some kind of automatic/electronic payment plan, set up either through your bank or with CitiMortgage.  That way, there's always an electronic record of your payments, and the likelihood of a payment being "lost" (i.e. misapplied or misdirected) is extremely small.

[Watchmann]

In the age of the internet there is no reason you shouldn't be signed up for automatic payment.  I've paid monthly life insurance payments for over 30 years with half a dozen companies and have never had a problem.  Ditto with car loans.  My current 15 year mortgage started out with ABN AMRO, which was sold to Citimortgage in Sept. 2007.  All of the history was perfectly transferred to Citmortgage and the payment schedule continued on as normal.  No problem whatsoever.  The payment comes out of my account on the first of the month, like clockwork.  Any long term payment loan should be set up automatically, that takes the onus of you having to remember to pay the bill.  The goal is to simplify your life, not complicate it.

Message Edited by Watchmann on 01-03-2009 03:49 PM

[DallasLoanGuy]

When I hear horror stories about servicing lenders.... it almost always comes with a "convoluted story".

If you pay your bills on time and communicate with them, they will be reasonable.

Try not to stress.

[Anonymous]

Everything is okay and I signed up for an automatic withdrawl from now on

[laz98]

---

@Watchmann wrote:
In the age of the internet there is no reason you shouldn't be signed up for automatic payment.  I've paid monthly life insurance payments for over 30 years with half a dozen companies and have never had a problem.  Ditto with car loans.  My current 15 year mortgage started out with ABN AMRO, which was sold to Citimortgage in Sept. 2007.  All of the history was perfectly transferred to Citmortgage and the payment schedule continued on as normal.  No problem whatsoever.  The payment comes out of my account on the first of the month, like clockwork.  Any long term payment loan should be set up automatically, that takes the onus of you having to remember to pay the bill.  The goal is to simplify your life, not complicate it.

Message Edited by Watchmann on 01-03-2009 03:49 PM

---

while this can be a good solution, not everyone is comfortable with automatic payment withdrawals.