We inadvertently missed a mortgage payment for December.
In December we received a statement from the mortgage company stating we owed them a late charge of $782.34 (12 months x $65 ea). That amount was subtracted from the extra principal payments we made during 2011. Those payments were held by Citi the entire year and were not applied to the mortgage until December as a lump sum.
The fact we were late on a payment was only brought to our attention in December and no late charged appeared on any statements during 2011 except for December, when it was first brought to our attention. To be explicit, for 12 months, monthly late charges were accrued and applied as a lump sum in December with no late notice provided to us at anypoint during that time. Although our issue was supposedly sent to a resolution department, the letter denying our request to drop the charges was issued the same day indicating our request was given no serious consideration.
The Consumer Protection Financial Bureau closed the case I filed stating they did not have the authority to pursue this problem. The attorney general's office in the state of Texas where I reside stated they do not investigate non-criminal matters. You can always sue, I suppose, but a judgment does not equal payment. So you send it to collections and get 1/2. Not worth the effort.
The lesson for me is that I will not do business with commercial banks in the future and instead deal with credit unions only.
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