Mortgage Company Harrassment!!

:mad:I have Option One Mortgage as my lender & have been with them for 3 years. My payments are due on the 1st, but I am given a penalty free grace period until the 16th. I always pay on line by the 16th & have NEVER been late.

Now, they are calling 2-5 times per day on my home & cell phone "reminding" me to pay my mortgage. I spoke with someone yesterday & asked them to remove my cell number & asked that they stop calling. I said I didn't need a reminder for the largest bill I have every month. I'd love to forget it, but who can! lol I also said I'd be paying on line by the 16th.
So, I get 3 calls today, even on my cell. I asked to speak to a supervisor who immedaitely starts asking me IF I had made my payment yet. I lost it! I told him that the calls were harrassing & there was no need. His response was "when will you be making your payment'? :rollingpin: I said who ever created this policy needs to be fired. I threatened to go elsewhere and all he could offer was that I should look into autodraft payment! I asked if this will happen every month & he said yes. OMG!

BTW...I made my payment on line this am!

Has anyone else experienced this???

If there's no penalty - and there's no problem paying by the 16th (which is the way mine used to be, too) - then just stop answering the phone every time it rings. I'm sure you can see who's calling on your cell phone - if you don't recognize the number, just don't answer!

Of course I can do that, but getting a phone call at 8am on a Saturday morning when I planned to "sleep in". sucks! Not to mention that I still have to look at caller id to see who it is!:eek: It's annoying & harrassing!!

I understand your frustration, I have had this too. I pay sometime between the 1st and the 15th, although I have actually been a couple days later before, and then paid the payment online plus the late fee. When mine called it was not even a real person, it was a recording asking me to wait for a real person to get on the line. LOL They call me, and then put me on hold!

My loan was sold to Wells Fargo in January, I believe, and they do not call me, which is a good thing.

As an aside, my mortgage started out with my local bank (the bank I actually use) in 1999 on this particular house, and it has been sold to different companies 5 times since then! :eek: So every time I get used to my mortgage company and how to make payments online/phone/transfer whatever, my mortgage gets sold again. But, I do have to say, most the companies I have dealt with do NOT call before the grace period is up.

:mad:I have Option One Mortgage as my lender & have been with them for 3 years. My payments are due on the 1st, but I am given a penalty free grace period until the 16th. I always pay on line by the 16th & have NEVER been late.


These two bolded statements contradict each other.

If your payment is DUE on the 1st....then paying before the grace period is up...still constitutes as your payment being late. That's why they're calling you.

Penalty-free grace period or not...your payments are late and they want their money.

Nadine.

These two bolded statements contradict each other.

If your payment is DUE on the 1st....then paying before the grace period is up...still constitutes as your payment being late. That's why they're calling you.

Penalty-free grace period or not...your payments are late and they want their money.

Nadine.


*sigh* Yep, this is the bottom line.

They are obligating their funds and counting on those who are obligated to them to pay on time.

All businesses count on their clients/customers paying on time and commit their funds based on this premise. I budget my funds assuming that I'm going to get paid on time.

They're probably calling because paying at the very end of the grace period is not just an occasional occurance.

Would it help to have the date of your payment changed? Sometimes lenders will do this.

The fact of the matter is that the money that comes from you to these people is promised to one, two, or three others along the line. And, yeah, they tend to freak when you don't "pay by the 1st".

Is it harassment for them to call you? I seem to remember discussing this in law school...

What constitutes "harassment"? Multiple phone calls at 2 in the morning where you are, threatening to take away your home and personal possessions.

Unless it is a continual thing at 2 in the morning, you're not going to win in any "harassment suit". And, since your mortgage payment is DUE ON THE 1ST, what's the issue here anyway?

Would it help to have the date of your payment changed? Sometimes lenders will do this.

If you can "pay up" to that point, it wouldn't be a problem. And, if, due to your personal circumstances, the mortgage payment would be easier on you to have by the 15th of the month, I'm sure that they would be more than happy to arrange that with you.

I've never paid mine on the 1st (in my 13th year right now).

My brother-in-law, a self-proclaimed "money expert," said you've got the right to keep your money in your account as long as you can.

Never gotten a letter, phone call, or late charge. Here's what my booklet says:

Due Date: Amount Due:
Jul 1, 07 (regular amount)

After this date: Jul 16, 07
Pay this Amount: (approx. $30 more)

So maybe mine is different.

I've never paid mine on the 1st (in my 13th year right now).



So, obviously, the first isn't your "due date".

And, hell yeah, keep your money as long as you can. But, hell, READ what you sign.

The fact of the matter is that when you flirt with your intial "due date", you can run into trouble.

And, especially when they have little to no "track record" for you? WTH are they going to do?

They're going to call you. At the VERY least.

If you're going to be "good for it" on the 15th of the month consistently, you CALL them and EXPLAIN this to them. If you're good for the money at the point, they WILL change the date. They just want their money, bottom line.

So, obviously, the first isn't your "due date".

And, hell yeah, keep your money as long as you can. But, hell, READ what you sign.

Well, it says DUE on the 1st...maybe they're lying ;)

Maybe they're reporting me every month and i dont know it, but i got my last car loan very easy. oh well...

Well I work for a bank :D and I have Mortgage.... Well I have to tell you a grace is just that you have up until the 15th to pay.... However,you do pay more interest when you don't pay it by the 1st....but I do not believe they should be calling you until that 16th day. I don't think a courtesy call is bad but They shouldn't be treating it like it's in collections either. Read your disclosures... its all that tedious paperwork banks give you that people throw away but it's a world of information and will answer almost ALL your questions.

Yea what everyone else said!

BTW, they can't report you if you pay within your grace period. But clearly they can call you constantly. Don't answer the phone lol.

Well I work for a bank :D and I have Mortgage.... Well I have to tell you a grace is just that you have up until the 15th to pay.... However,you do pay more interest when you don't pay it by the 1st....but I do not believe they should be calling you until that 16th day. I don't think a courtesy call is bad but They shouldn't be treating it like it's in collections either. Read your disclosures... its all that tedious paperwork banks give you that people throw away but it's a world of information and will answer almost ALL your questions.

Thanks!! I figured i was OK. I pay at least $100 extra every month, so i was thinking maybe that's why the dont bother me lol.

As for the OP, maybe her agreement is a little different than mine.

The 15 day payment grace period is a standard feature of mortgages, and has been so for at least the last 30 years that I have been paying mortgages.

In fact payment date is something I have negotiated when applying for a mortgage, and the loan officer has always taken the grace period into account when meeting my requirement. So even the loan officers of the mortgage companies do not consider a mortgage payment truly due until the end of the grace period.

Its not unusual when a mortgagee "pushes the limits" of the grace period, for the mortgage company to generate a "warning" letter to inform you they haven't received your payment. This letter may be generated a day or two before the end of the grace period, because by the time it is processed, mailed and received by you at least three days have lapsed. So it is not unusual for a last minute payment and a warning letter to cross in the mail.

It may be that with the rising cost of postage, computerized telephone messaging systems are becoming more cost effective, and more and more mortgage companies shall adopt the use of these in lieu of a warning letter. A warning telephone message on the fourteenth or fifteenth does not seem unreasonable for a grace period that ends on the sixteenth, especially when the sixteenth falls on a non-business day. However, the phone messages should be a friendly warning letting you know they haven't received a payment and nothing more. Multiple phone calls like you have received, or something more than a freindly warning are harrassment. One call should be enough, as long as it is answered by you or your voice mail. In the past, mortgage companies only generated ONE warning letter. It seems like this mortgage company is over-using their computerized telephone messaging system to the point of pissing off customers. This may reflect the fact that they are having financial trouble.

I can only offer two bits of advice, (1) block the phone number from both your home phone and cell, (2) try and make that electronic payment by the last working day before the sixteenth, but never later than the fourteenth.

George

Thanks!! I figured i was OK. I pay at least $100 extra every month, so i was thinking maybe that's why the dont bother me lol.

As for the OP, maybe her agreement is a little different than mine.

Thats great you put that much down extra a month. You will cut your mortgage in half if you do that. You only have to pay like 70 bucks more to do that!! Or if you pay one extra payment a year you cut it down considerably!!

Thanks...i am happy to be able to do it, as my mortgage is very small (as is my house lol). That's why i'm getting work done on it right now!

I refused to go into deep debt and have to work overtime for it. I dont like working :)

Maybe they're reporting me every month and i dont know it, but i got my last car loan very easy. oh well...

And, such is the deal with Americans being in debt these days...

So, why not change your "due date"?

If you feel you are being "harassed", then negotiate.

Hey, your payment has been by the fifteenth, so why not make your "official payment" by then, so you don't have to deal with the phone calls?

Or, if you can deal with it, then just turn your phone off for the first 15 days of the month. They are well within their rights to do what they are doing.

Multiple phone calls like you have received, or something more than a freindly warning are harrassment.

Legally, I don't think so. Unless it is something that would really make the "average person" go nutso, it's not harassment, in the civil sense of the term.

Yeah, people are entitled to get their money, and have quite a broad manner to do so.

Once you pass your "due date", it's fair game. In terms of "reasonable hours".

But, then again, I'm only a lawyer, I wouldn't know about this stuff.

And, such is the deal with Americans being in debt these days...

So, why not change your "due date"?

If you feel you are being "harassed", then negotiate.

Hey, your payment has been by the fifteenth, so why not make your "official payment" by then, so you don't have to deal with the phone calls?

Or, if you can deal with it, then just turn your phone off for the first 15 days of the month. They are well within their rights to do what they are doing.

I dont know if you were still talking to me about the phone calls, but i'm not the one getting them.

I would get an answering machine..put HI we are not home right now but if you leave your name and number...blah blah then put and if this is the damn morgage company Your payment is coming soon! LOL

The reason I became so irrate over this is because I have had a mortage with this company for 3 years & it's only been recently that these phone calls started. They are NOT reminder calls; they are "hurry up & pay" calls. I said fine I'll pay, but don't give 15 extra days to do so & then call me & tell me to hurry up & pay now! I will call on Monday to see if they'll change my date to the 15th & I'll be happy. They did give me the opportunity to have it auto drafted on the 1st or the 15th so WTF does that mean?

I could handle a call soon after the 1st for a reminder, but I've been getting on average about 5 or more calls per day since the 7th. These calls are computer generated, but an actual rep is on the line.

I did mention to the supervisor that it felt like Mortagage One was a bit desperate & maybe their were financail troubles. He didn't respond. I did google the CEO & I found other complaints such as mine.

I guess my gripe was that it's bad enough to be hounded when you don't pay, but come on do I really need to be hounded when I do?

I did mention to the supervisor that it felt like Mortagage One was a bit desperate & maybe their were financail troubles. He didn't respond. I did google the CEO & I found other complaints such as mine.

The name "Option One" jumped out when I started reading your thread. I seem to recall reading in the paper that Option One is one of the mortgage companies that's been having trouble in this mortgage/housing market downtrend.

But, I agree, they're being sphincters if they're calling so often on both phones.