Manual Payment Overrides Automatic Payments? (Chase)

[MASTERNC]

I have a mortgage serviced by Chase and normally have my payment automatically debited the first of the month.  However, to take advantage of the interest deduction, I called to ask if the date for the January payment could be moved to December 31.  I was told the date could not be changed but that I could schedule a manual payment and it would override the scheduled automatic payment.

I just scheduled the payment and was warned that scheduling a payment could result in a duplicate payment (i.e. paying twice).  I did move the automatic payment back temporarily to the 5th of the month but was wondering if anyone can confirm what I was told over the phone was correct (that a manual payment prior to an automatic payment date will cause the system to skip the closest payment date).

[Revelate]

Depends on the system implementation; however, a duplicate payment can either 1) reduce the balance (mostly principal on a simple interest loan) or 2) reduce the balance in the same fashion, and move the next due date out an additional month.

Generally speaking manual payments wouldn't interrupt automatic payments; it's far less costly from a bank perspective to have a double-payment then a missed payment from a customer relationship perspective.  Also the more money they get, the more money they earn fractional interest wise, so I sort of doubt it'd override in any shape, form, or fashion without your doing a manual intervention as you did.