I spoke with a rep from Specialized Loan Servicing to inquire about signing up for monthly automated drafts; I was advised print out a form off their web site and fax it. I was also informed that the transfers would occur as specified by my selection of payment due date and I would be notified of the first month in which the first transfer would occur.
There was absolutely no disclosure on the form or by the rep of the time frame allowed for this type of request to be processed nor was there a way to verify it online or with the 24 hour automated system which left me with no choice but to try to contact the customer care center and sit on the phone for very long periods of time going through the confusing automated system without ever being able to reach an associate. The associate I first spoke to indicated that I was to send my payments by check until I received confirmation that my Automatic Payment had been set up.
I continued to send a check every month waiting for confirmation; even though, without ever being notified my request had been processed 2 months after. This company claims a confirmation was manually mailed to my residence 2 days after my phone conversation (not after my written request had been received 2 weeks after) yet it never arrived even though every single monthly statement did arrive along with a detachable payment stub (every other decent company will send you a monthly statement with no pay stub to reflect a change or specify when your checking account will be debited).
Moreover, even though my request had been processed an automated draft never took place on the date it was supposed to because I continued to send checks that posted before the automated draft due date which is why I was instructed to do over the phone and by the form I signed (in bold letters). There was absolutely no disclosure in writing or verbally about the fact that a check posting before the due date would automatically stop the automated draft. Moreover, there was no disclosure about the fact that if a check was posted after the automated draft due date then both payments would be applied to the loan.
It's interesting how a couple of months after all this set up took place suddenly I saw my checking account go negative after the first of the month by a preauthorized withdrawal and then the check that I had sent was posted 2 business days after so that 2 payments would be applied to the loan. This caused me to make late payments on couple of credit cards and sure enough it left a negative mark on my credit report.
If a check had been cashed and the automated draft would have taken place on the month it was supposed to then it would have made more sense. The form I signed did not even have an option to specify when the first withdrawal would take place. Oddly enough their website was recently enhanced and now they give you the option to pay online.
My written request to review my loan and request to refund NSF fees was treated like a joke and very unprofessionally. A letter of denial was sent to me after exactly 60 days of receipt of my letter with the exact same explanation I just mentioned. There was no acknowledgement of what rep specifically failed to inform me or as to why they arbitrarily chose a date for the first time automated draft which was not the date specified on the notification I never received.
If you request it some decent institutions will give you the name of the rep you spoke with initially, a copy of the recorded conversation if available or even a copy of the signed agreement. None of the above was provided upon my written request.
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