After being confronted with the "option" of paying a $300 enrollment fee for the convince of paying half my house payment every two weeks I sent a rather terse (and maybe inebriated) e-mail to CitiMortgage concerning their BiWeekly Advantage program.
Looking around the net it appears that I am not the only one who has come to this conclusion. The good thing is that I never agreed to sign up for it.
Today I received an e-mail response from Citi:
Please understand that CitiMortgage is unable to recognize funds as a payment for your mortgage loan that are less than the scheduled amount due. In accordance with your loan documents, your payment is due in full once each month. The principal and interest portion of your payment is based on a monthly amortization and cannot be applied in two installments.
In the future, if partial/installment funds are received, they will be applied to one of the following: (1) applied to outstanding fees and then to the principal balance, if your loan is contractually current (2) placed in an unapplied (holding) account associated with your loan until the balance of the payment is received if your loan is contractually delinquent. Please note that late charges may be assessed or adverse reporting to the credit bureaus could result since your payment will not be applied.
If you need further assistance regarding your mortgage account, our Automated Account Information Line is accessible 24 hours a day at 1-800-283-7918*. Customer Service Associates are also available at this number Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m., and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., ET and Sunday from 12:00 p.m., to 11:00 p.m., ET. When you contact us, please refer to your mortgage account number.
Thank you.
In the future, if partial/installment funds are received, they will be applied to one of the following: (1) applied to outstanding fees and then to the principal balance, if your loan is contractually current (2) placed in an unapplied (holding) account associated with your loan until the balance of the payment is received if your loan is contractually delinquent. Please note that late charges may be assessed or adverse reporting to the credit bureaus could result since your payment will not be applied.
If you need further assistance regarding your mortgage account, our Automated Account Information Line is accessible 24 hours a day at 1-800-283-7918*. Customer Service Associates are also available at this number Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m., and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., ET and Sunday from 12:00 p.m., to 11:00 p.m., ET. When you contact us, please refer to your mortgage account number.
Thank you.
I was floored. A canned e-mail. They didn't even have the balls to send a semi-human interaction e-mail. This simply called for another e-mail through their contact us link on their website:
I have some further questions regarding the inability to process a Bi-Weekly payments.
If I was to send my payment in full with an extra $25 where would that $25 be applied by default?
Did the person who responded to my previous request actually threaten to ruin my credit if I sent you MORE money than you are asking for?
What exactly does the $300 enrollment fee cover?
Who gets to keep the interest earned on the bi-weekly drafts prior to the payment being applied to an account? Is it split 50/50 between Citi and the third party or is there some other arrangement?
If you are capable of processing bi-weekly payments sent from the third party, why are you unwilling to process the payments sent directly from me?
If I was to send my payment in full with an extra $25 where would that $25 be applied by default?
Did the person who responded to my previous request actually threaten to ruin my credit if I sent you MORE money than you are asking for?
What exactly does the $300 enrollment fee cover?
Who gets to keep the interest earned on the bi-weekly drafts prior to the payment being applied to an account? Is it split 50/50 between Citi and the third party or is there some other arrangement?
If you are capable of processing bi-weekly payments sent from the third party, why are you unwilling to process the payments sent directly from me?
But let us take a few moments and take a look at a choice phrase from that canned response shall we?
"Please note that late charges may be assessed or adverse reporting to the credit bureaus could result since your payment will not be applied."
That's right, Citimortgage company threatened to report me to the credit bureaus for what amounts to me paying them more money? Could it possibly be that this is actually something to my benefit and not to theirs?
This saga has not concluded. If I do not get a favorable resolution I may be forced to set up an auto payment equal to 1/20th of my payment sent out every weekday. I'd like to see what their billing software does with that one.
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