Citifinancial
Lost Payoff Check Triggered Late Payment Calls in 2005

We had two accounts with Citifinancial. Our main first mortgage was with their main office in Irving, Texas. Our second mortgage was with the Kittanning, Pa. office. We were refinancing with another company, Beneficial, to pay off all our accounts with Citifinancial. The people at Beneficial were taking care of all the details of getting the payoffs and sending the checks to Citifinancial. This was done around Thanksgiving 2005.

Our payment for the second mortgage at Kittanning, Pa. was due each month on the 21st. On Dec. 23rd, Joyce Bowser from Citifinancial at Kittanning called to ask why we hadn't made our payment on Dec. 21st. We told her that we had paid it off by refinancing with Beneficial. They had taken care of mailing the payoff check. She said they were never paid off. We had to make some phone calls back and forth between Citifinancial and Beneficial and found out that Beneficial had mailed both checks, to pay off both the first and second mortgages, to the main office in Irving, Texas. Then Citifinancial in Kittanning, Pa. said that Irving, Texas had never gotten the check for the second mortgage. Beneficial said that they overnighted the payoff checks to Irving, Texas the day after we refinanced (which was on Nov. 23rd), so it was overnighted on Nov. 25th, because the 24th was a holiday. They said that Irving, Texas got the check for the first mortgage payoff, but not the second one. Both checks were in the same envelope. I don't know how they didn't get the second check?!!

Therefore, the Kittanning Citifinancial office said that we were late in our payment and that they needed a payment to stop it from going into the late accounts. They said they needed the payment by the end of the day on Dec. 23rd, and when they called it was around 5 P.M.

There was no way we could travel 25 miles to get the payment there in time. We weren't sure if they would take a direct-debit payment from our checking account over the phone, but we didn't have much money to do this anyway, since the account was already supposedly paid off and we were now making mortgage payments to another company in December. I felt that we couldn't afford to make another mortgage payment in Dec., especially right before Christmas. Kittanning Citifinancial threatened to turn our account over to a lawyer if we didn't pay right then. We hung up the phone on them and said that they were liars, that they wouldn't do that. Meanwhile, Beneficial said that they would have to investigate to make sure that the second payoff check they had sent "hadn't" been cashed, and once they had that proof, they would reissue another check, but it would take a few days and would be after Christmas, later that week. This wasn't good enough for Kittanning Citifinancial.

They called us back, saying "Don't hang-up" and continuing to tell us that they were now going to foreclose on our account if we didn't pay that day. We told them to go ahead, that there was nothing else we could do. We called Beneficial and told them about it. They couldn't believe it. They said they didn't like the attitudes of the representatives they had dealt with over the phone at Kittanning Citifinancial, that they were snotty with them. A few days later, Beneficial called us to say that they were going to reissue a new check and needed a new payoff amount, since it was a longer time period and the amount had changed. We called Kittanning Citifinancial to request a new payoff and asked them to fax it to Beneficial, which is in Clarion, Pa. When the person answered the phone at Kittanning Citifinancial and we told them who we were, that person stated, "Oh, you are the customers who we have all the problems with."

I don't feel that it is appropriate to complain about customers in person or over the phone. To me it was a form of verbal abuse. We never did anything bad to them or caused any trouble for them. We always made our payments promptly, never late, and it was not actually our fault that they didn't get the check. Beneficial said that they were going to remedy this as soon as possible; they took full responsibility. Citifinancial also told us that Beneficial told them that they were only paying the original payoff amount and that we would be responsible for the difference between the two payoff amounts. We asked Beneficial if they did in fact say that, and they told us no, that they told Citifinancial that they would write a check for the original amount and another for the difference and that we were not responsible for the difference. After that we got a letter from a lawyer Citifinancial had contacted, instructing us that if we didn't come to an agreement with Citifinancial to resolve this, foreclosure would occur. (Another threat.)

Meanwhile, Beneficial called us to say that they had overnighted another check to Kittanning Citifinancial for the new payoff amount. This was before Jan. 1st, the week after Christmas 2005. The next thing was that I got another statement from Kittanning Citifinancial showing non-payment and late fees, etc. I called them again and they told me they had gotten the payoff from Beneficial and that the statement was automatically printed before they had gotten it, so I should disregard that bill. After this I got the loan papers in the mail from Kittanning Citifinancial showing a payment in full. They also sent a letter stating that they would miss us as a customer and were glad to be of service to us, and that if we ever need anything in the future, to keep them in mind. I doubt I will ever use their services again, after the problems I had with them in Dec. 2005.

Company: Citifinancial
Country: USA
State: Pennsylvania
City: Kittanning
Address: 262 South Water Street, P.O. Box 961
Phone: 7245453107

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