Tuesday, June 1, 2021

Numbers stumped

I am stumped. Right after I got my newly refinanced mortgage it was sold to another lender. I made my first payment to the first lender on 5/1. Then the next week it officially switched over to the new lender. I made my first (second) payment to the new lender.

Now, before I even made my first payment I did up my own amortization schedule. I was making a pretty big extra first payment and wanted to see where that put me, as well as if I kept making my original mortgage payment amount going forward. My first payment consisted of 2 months of payments (since I got to skip a month due to the closing date and new payment date) plus some extra I added to it. 

My original plan with our mortgage taken out when we built this house was to keep increasing my payment, with my salary increases over the years and at least get this down to the equivalent of a 20 year mortgage. Well...that plan wasn't working as I haven't gotten a raise in 2 years now and doesn't appear I will be getting one this year either. At the time I refinanced a couple months ago I had about 28.5 years left on my 30 year mortgage. The refinanced mortgage was back to 30 years, but a $571 lesser monthly payment. With the large first payment and an extra $600 payment each month going forward, I brought it down to 20 years.

My amortization schedule isn't exact to the penny each month for interest and principal, so I opened my spreadsheet, just to adjust it the some odd cents, based on what my loan balance is showing online (with the new lender) and it's over $2000 less of a balance showing online. Huh? I went back online with the first lender, as even though it's now paid off to them, I can still see my transaction history from my one and only payment to them and the loan balance after that. Looks all good, other than the pennies, off, it matches my spreadsheet loan amortization. My escrow balance matched what it was set up as with my closing $ and the first payments escrow added to it.

So, I log in to the new lender to try to figure it out. They also brought over my original loan amount and showed my first large payment. Then they show my second payment made last week for 6/1, with the extra $600. But the remaining loan balance is off by $2070, in my favor. I looked at the escrow balance and that amount is correct. I then looked at the payment history and my first statement. That first statement is showing a payment of $2070 posted on May 13. Huh? I went back to the payment history and see a bunch of transactions in and out/reversed. Some to escrow, some to the loan principal. 

The first one is apparently them posting the balance ($2081.95)  brought over from my previous escrow account. Ok, makes sense. Then the next is a payment to principal for $2070. No idea what this is. Then they reversed it. Then they put it back (all dated same day). Then they reversed my escrow amount and put it back, 3 days later. So, somehow with all those ins and out to my principal that $2070 payment ended up as a payment reducing my principal. I can't figure out what it is, but I'm guessing some error on their side and I'm guessing at some point they will figure it out.

In the meantime, hopefully someday there will be more salary increases and I can add that to my payment and get it down even less than 20 year loan.

7 comments:

  1. Just keep track of their mistakes, just in case they come to you and say something!!!

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    1. since it's only been a few weeks since they acquired the loan, I'm sure they will find their mistake, LOL. But, I'm glad I did up my own amortization schedule, so I can compare and make sure there aren't any mistakes not in my favor.

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    2. you are a smart cookie to have your own schedule, esp since your mortgage changed hands so many times since you switched it over!

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  2. This company still has your mortgage? Maybe they will just give you the house someday...lol. That was so confusing until they took the amounts in and out so many times on the same day. I am glad you are on top of this.

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    1. Yes, the posted transactions and reversals (when they took over the loan) are sure confusing. I do like their website. It's easy to use and all the info is there, but just not sure what the heck they were doing when they set up my loan on their books, LOL.

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  3. Good thing that you monitor your mortgage so diligently. In today's world we need to live extremely alert lives which can be tiring sometimes.

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    1. I'm glad it wasn't an error the other direction. I really didn't want to spend hours on the phone trying to figure out what they did. I'm sure at some point soon,they are going to realize they don't balance on their end. LOL.

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