Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Some Progress on Mortgage Escrow

Happy news: I got a check in the mail for almost $800 yesterday! On some of my monthly recaps, I've mentioned that my mortgage escrow account is a bit messed up-- the bank has set an unneccessarily high escrow amount because they were assuming that my property taxes would remain at their full unabated amount, even though the abatement kicked in a couple of quarters ago and my actual taxes are now 90% lower.
I had contacted my bank a while back and even faxed them my new lower tax bill, but their response was completely unhelpful and my payment remained the same. But finally, I've gotten one of their routine escrow statements and they've realized there is a surplus! My monthly payment will go down by over $200, and that refund check was much appreciated. The situation still isn't ideal: they are still projecting ahead as if my taxes would be the higher, unabated amount. I'll probably try contacting the bank again to see if I can get my payment adjusted again, but eventually, I should get another refund check the next time they do an escrow analysis even if I do nothing. Of course, it's in my interest to do something, as I could be earning interest on all these overpayments! Perhaps in these troubled times banks are deliberately playing dumb when errors are in their favor but I'm not inclined to let them get away with it!

5 comments:

frugal zeitgeist said...

It's not only the banks. I had to phone Fed Ex today because they never refunded the shipping cost for my final mortgage payment (which was accidentally diverted to Paris). They had it flagged for refund but never processed it.

Why? Were they thinking I'd forget?

Fat freakin' chance.

Anonymous said...

Its amazing how many companies seem to put a different value on your money and their money.

Anonymous said...

If you ever refinance, make sure you disjoin the taxes and insurance from your P&I.

Banks like to collect on the taxes and insurance because they make money off the interest until the bill is due.

Also, if you disjoin them, you have control over paying your taxes and insurance, and ensure that they get paid on time.

Music Wellbeing said...

This information is exactly what I needed to hear. There are so many companies trying to take advantage of consumers!

I think that I am going to get some good practice in investing in stocks. Virtual I mean........

Wall Street Survivor

Anonymous said...

What does abatement mean? Sorry, we're in the process of trying to own a house and I'm trying to learn. Great site!