On October 30, I received a notice from Option One Mortgage (dated 10/15) that my mortgage was sold (again) and servicing was transferred to America's Servicing Company in Maryland ("ASC")... Effective November 1. I was given a PO Box at ASC to send the November payment, but no phone number, fax number, email contact, or new loan information. I live in Hawaii and it takes a good 5 days even for "overnight" mail/fed ex/UPS to get to the east coast. Further, I'm not about to mail money to some corporation on the east coast without having at least a loan number to write on the payment to ensure it gets posted properly. Mailing the payment was not an option.
On November 1st I went on line to try to get information on ASC and see if I could pay on line that day. ASC has no web page... What I found instead was this site. I got ASC's phone number from here and called them, but they were closed (time difference, 6 hours). I got a recording saying "the mailbox for extension 3904 is full and you cannot leave a message", so I tried the switchboard extension... Also a recording, also not able to leave a message. I tried to call Option One and to reach them on line to get information on ASC, but they don't recognize my loan number anymore and would not give me any information.
I called ASC back during business hours on November 3rd and 4th... More recordings. November 5th came (today), and still no payment coupon or even information from ASC, and still more recordings when I call. From this site I've gleened that I probably can pay over the phone, if I can ever get through to a person. I hate paying by phone, but at least my bank will have a record of the payment date so ASC can't say they didn't receive it when paid.
After what I've read here, I'm very concerned about my payments being posted on time to the right account, irresponsible credit reporting, and the real potential for my property taxes and insurance to not be paid by ASC.
I used to run the "portfolio department" for a large timeshare developer, and part of my job was to sell the developer's Notes Receivable with their securing mortgages to various lenders, and each lender had its own servicing company.in my experience, most loan servicing companies do a decent job, but one in particular was horrible and should be called an "un-servicing company". I got frequent complaints from frustrated buyers about the same things I've read about in this site, and I constantly struggled, to no avail, with the idiots who worked at the unservicing company to do their jobs right, especially getting loans set up quickly and payment coupon books sent out in time for the buyers to send their first payments on time. And I was on a first name basis with the idiots and was supposed to have some clout! Even their top managers were buffoons. Any individual buyers who tried to get help from them got stonewalled, which is why they came to me.
After my experience on a professional level with that unservicing company, and then reading the complaints against ASC here, I'm concerned about my own loan, to say the least. I am hesitant to send them any money, but I have no choice. I can only hope that ASC sells my Note and Mortgage to yet another company as quickly as BNC and Option One sold them (this is the 3rd mortgage company in four months!).
I understand how "the mortgage game" works, and because of the very nature of it (what each transfer entails), there should be strict limits on the number of transfers allowed per year (no more than two), and companies like that Unservicing Company and ASC should be shut down and sanctioned. Consumers have no protection and little recourse when they get screwed.
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