I bought a single-family home, and the lender was Principal Mortgage Group. According to my original loan documents, I was allowed to request PMI cancellation when the LTV hit 80%, and it would end by itself at 78%. Afterward CitiMortgage took over my loan. When I asked them to cancel the PMI, they said no. They told me the loan had to be two years old minimum, and it was, but also that I needed an LTV of 70%, not 80%. None of that matches what I contracted for originally. My newest request brought yet another figure: they now say 65% is needed. When does it end?
My house has risen in value as I have kept improving it: a new roof in March 2009, a covered patio in April 2009, carpet and paint inside and outside in January 2008, and ceiling fans in every room in October 2007. Every payment I have made has been on schedule. Yet CitiMortgage keeps turning down my PMI cancellation, and on its own authority, outside the contract, makes the conditions harder. I have written multiple letters and made numerous calls hoping to settle this, with no satisfactory outcome.
Answers from CitiMortgage come slowly at best, and sometimes never. On each call, someone curtly says I have to reach another department because the one I got cannot handle this. I also never get a proper identification of the person I talked to, just a first name, and when a transfer is supposedly under way the line drops or ends in yet another dead end.
Time after time I have requested written copies of the policies and regulations covering my PMI. Each time I am pointed to someone new who is promised to be able to assist, and it turns out they just pass me on to a person with the identical story. Customer service has apparently been forgotten at CitiMortgage, which seems determined to make it nearly impossible to get a trustworthy, correct, confirmed answer about your loan. Many web blogs describe the same experience, and the gist is that CitiMortgage never answers directly, and its approach is unfair, late, erratic, unethical, and possibly illegal.
I am not reaching out to the regulators that oversee CitiMortgage for help to put an end to this treatment. A recent appraisal valued the property at $90,000.00, and my current loan balance is $63,993.00. That works out to an LTV of 70.5%, comfortably under the 80% I signed up for when I took out the financing. If you can, please send me whatever applies: the rules governing my PMI, telephone numbers at CitiMortgage for people who identify themselves properly and have valid authority to remove PMI, or any other path to end this predicament.
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