PC Banking

Last Monday I got a delinquency notice from my mortage company. It said that they hadn't received my June payment. I had made the payment with NationsBank online banking software. After talking to different people at NationsBank in several different phone calls, the problem turned out to have been caused by an obscure software problem. They apologized and offered to reimburse the $30.31 late fee. I accepted, saying that I expected as much.

Since it was so close to July, I decided to mail a real check. So I dropped a check in the mail for June, July, extra principal, plus the silly late charge. And I typed up a letter explaining how the payment was to be allocated, making my excuses about the bank error, and asking them to please not call the Credit Bureau Police on me since I was so far ahead in my payments anyway (I've paid more than double my principal amount since the start of the loan).

Today I called the mortgage company to make sure that it was received (since their letter threatened credit bureau reports if they didn't get something by July 1). Their touch tone service said that my big payment was received on June 26th and that my next payment was due on July 1. What - July 1? I punch the button to talk to a Real Person.

The person explains that my check was applied to June's payment, and the extra was applied to principal. "Was my letter just ignored?" I ask. The lady explains that the computer handles all these payments and that computers can't read letters. Oh.

Before getting too irked or nasty with her, I asked if she could correct the problem, and she said she could. So she properly applied the payment to June and July and the extra principal. Then she said that there was $30.31 unallocated from my check. As I wonder about the training required to do her job I explain that that is the late fee that was requested. She tells me that because of the mixup, she will waive the late fee and apply the 30.31 to principal. I thank her and feel proud of myself when I realize that she probably wouldn't have done that if I'd lost it and insulted her intelligence.

So the bank paid the late fee, and the mortgage company didn't want it. Moral dilema? Naw. I somehow feel vindicated for all the quarters I've ever lost in vending machines. Or for the lousy interest rates the banks pay. Or for the fact that mortgage companies can get away with charging so much interest, yet don't pay any interest on escrow accounts. Or that I've whittled my 360 mortgage payments down to 327 by paying extra principal and they still have the audacity to ask for a late fee when a payment is a month late.

Okay, maybe not vindicated, but certainly not guilty.