My mortgage was sold by Litton Loan in July to Ocwen Federal Bank FSB. While Litton Loan was not the best servicing company, I now wish that I had them back again. The transfer of the loan was a complete fiasco.
I received notification of the transfer to Ocwen about mid-July and the letter was dated June 14th!? By that time I had already mailed my July payment to Litton Loan, who by the information in the mid-July letter was no longer accepting my mortgage payments. My mortage payments are always mailed and received well within the grace period of the loan paperwork.
I contacted Ocwen who finally gave me a payment address and also informed me that there was nothing that could be done about the delay in my payment being applied. My concern was the several hundred dollars of compounded interest that was racked up due to THEIR mishandling of the loan transfer.
After that mess, I started receiving automated phone calls at home on about the third or fourth of every month stating that I needed to contact Ocwen customer service regarding my loan. I immediately contacted them after the first phone call I received at work. I informed the customer service representative that they were NOT to contact me or send an automated phone call concerning a past due mortgage payment until the payment was beyond the grace period. I informed the customer service rep that I consider this harassment and that I would persue legal council if it were not stopped immediately.
The phone calls did stop, but now I believe they are pulling a stunt that will gain Ocwen large amounts of money from every consumer that currently has a mortgage serviced by them.
In the envelope with my April monthly payment coupon, a quarter slip of paper has been included indicating that the PAYMENT address has changed from the Los Angeles, CA address to an address in Carol Stream, IL effective April! I don't know what the requirements are for sufficient notification, but I am sure that someone knew that the payment address was changing before the April payment coupon mailing!
This is where the plot thickens. The slip of paper announcing the address change states,
"The new payment address will appear on your monthly coupon. Always include your coupon with your payment to ensure timely posting. Payments received without this coupon will be delayed. Sending your payment to any other address will result in delays in posting!"
The above statement is a catch-22 because low and behold the address on my payment coupon is still the Los Angeles, CA address! If I don't include the mis-addressed coupon, my payment posting will be delayed, but if I send it with the payment coupon in the envelope provided, it will go to the WRONG address and the posting will be delayed!!!
The end result is several hundred dollars in additional interest paid on the loan not paying down my principal. Multiply this times the total number of mortgages OCWEN is currently servicing and you will begin to understand why this is an alarming and unethical business practice. The total proceeds will easily be in the MILLIONS OF DOLLARS! All just from changing a mailing address! I need to find out if this method of notification by Ocwen is legal. I am glad that I caught this because I am not going to get blind-sided this time!
I did some further investigation and found that the automated 800 number reflects the payment address change and matches the address on the slip of paper included with my payment coupon. The website however, does not have the new payment address information. I hope every Ocwen customer reads this. The new payment address is below.
Ocwen
P.O. Box 6440
Carol Stream, IL 60197-6440
It sure would be nice if we could choose who services our mortgage! At least then there might actually be some leverage on the consumer side.
Brian
Miamisburg, Ohio
U.S.A.
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