The “Joys” of Having Your Mortgage Sold to Another Company, Part I

It happens all the time your mortgage is sold to another company. In fact it is possible to have your mortgage sold several times over the life of the loan. But don’t expect a smooth transition. Don’t believe the information sent to you by the new loan company that it will be a smooth and easy transition.

This is what happened to me. The first part of the story takes place right when the loan transitioned to the new company. While what happened is not really terrible it was a precursor to part II which was an eye opener of just well how unprepared my new mortgage company was to handle my loan.

The mortgage company was New Penn Financial c/o of Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing. My understanding is that Penn Financial holds the mortgage note while Shellpoint actually takes care of all the administrative duties of the loan like collecting the money.

Sometime in May of this year I got a letter from Capitalone (I’ll have a post about them at a later date), saying that the loan was sold. It said what the name of the new company was and when this would all take place and when the last date it would accept mortgage payments. The letter essentially said there was nothing to be concerned about that all the information would transfer over to the new company and I would not have to do anything.

A couple weeks later came a letter from New Penn Financial that said just about the same thing. When it could receive payments, where payments should be sent to etc. Again all I would have to do is go online and set up my account. That’s all I’d have to do. Don’t believe that for a second in part two of this tale you’ll learn you need to be very much on the ball. And I ended up doing the mortgage company’s job.

June arrived and the problem started. I started getting automated calls saying that the mortgage company needed to get in touch with me. The message seemed to imply that if I stayed on the phone I would be transferred to someone. So I waited for a couple of minutes and was disconnected. This happened a couple of times. Finally I quickly wrote down the number I could call to contact someone. The number was said in the automated call but was said only once and said very fast so it was hard to write down.

I called one day. I said I was getting these calls and I wondered why. I was told they needed to update the information on my account. And that’s what we did updated the information on my account. I’m not exactly sure why this very basic information like my phone number didn’t carry over when the information was transferred by Capitalone but no matter.

I specifically asked during this call if it was all right to mail in the first payment. Also would there be a payment coupon included in the introductory information I was supposed to receive sometime mid-month. I was told there would be a coupon in that packet and mailing in the payment would be fine.

Problem solved right? Nope.

The phone calls continued. One coming as early as 7am.

I called again. The guy on the other end of the phone said it was because they needed information to set up my account. I said I’d already done this but fine we could do it again. There were a couple of questions that were different from the last time but again it was basic information that they should have had to begin with and that I’d given them in the first phone call.

I again asked if it was OK to send in the first payment by mail once the introductory packet arrived later in the month. I was told that would be fine.

So now everything should be fine. Right?

No. Phone calls continued.

I called back for a third time (it was a Friday and I was at a baseball game but I was fed up with all the calls). And again there was the request for my account information. But there was one more thing as well. My payment was late and needed to talk to someone about that.

As quick back ground the introductory packet had arrived. It did contain the payment coupon. I had not gotten around to sending it in yet. I’d written out the check but hadn’t mailed it. It arrived on a Thursday and I was going out of town that weekend. I mailed it the middle of the following week.

I got sent to a supervisor to discuss my late payment (it was supposed to be paid by the 18th). This is what I told that person. I said I had asked repeatedly if it would be fine to wait until the introductory packet came which would have a coupon and mail the first payment in that way. The packet came on the 15th the payment date was the 18th. So even if I had mailed the payment on the 15th it was doubtful that it would have gotten there in time.

I was told well the payment was still late. My response was I should not have been told it was fine to wait for the packet and use the coupon to mail in the payment. I further asked if I was the only person who had waited. I got no response from that one.

I was told they would put a note in the account that the payment was on the way. I responded by saying why wasn’t a note put in earlier saying how I would send in the first payment. If it had this could have all been avoided. There was no response to that at all.

Again not all that bad but it should have put me on my guard about these guys. Part two of the saga is about how
New Penn Financial and Shellpoint Mortgage Servicing didn’t pay my home owner’s insurance.

The Joys of Job Hunting

Just going to vent a little here on the “joys” of job hunting (tongue firmly in cheek on this) on this Labor Day.

I’ve been job hunting for a while and it is really not much fun.

At the end of June, I happened to find an ad on Indeed for a position that well in my opinion I would be perfect for.

So I set out to write my cover letter. I will say I’m not very good at these. I’m never sure how specific I should get on what I do since I have no idea who will read the letter. If you get really in depth on your previous jobs and this ends up on the desk of an HR person or a job site will they even know what you are talking about. What I usually do is come up with a letter and then send the letter along with a link to the job ad to a couple of friends and ask what do you think.

I did that for this particular ad and heard back from a couple of people. I then heard from a friend who had essentially rewritten the entire letter. It was  nothing short of brilliant (thanks Tom for you help with it).

Off I sent letter and resume via Indeed to potential job. A couple of days later I got an email back from the actual firm. The guy asked for samples and what my hourly rate was. I sent back some samples and what my rate was. (I went back and looked at the ad and at the very end of it, in smaller type no less, was the request for samples and hourly rate. I felt a little bad but it really was not all that easy to see.)

A few days later was another request for further samples to get an idea of the different types of layout I’ve used in the past. I sent them along and told him to let me know if he needed anything else. He emailed me back and said “we are evaluating candidates and I’ll be back in touch soon one way or the other.”

I thought OK maybe a couple of weeks and I’ll know.

Well the way I found out that I didn’t get the job was that all of a sudden the ad appeared back on Indeed as a sponsored ad no less so it was listed at the top of the jobs listings (I signed up for emails from Indeed with certain key words and I get daily emails with potential job listings). The ad ran for at least two to three weeks. I looked at it make sure it was the same ad. It was.

I get an email today (six weeks after being told they would be back in touch soon) saying unfortunately, the company (the email actually used the name of the company but I’ve removed it) has moved to the next step in their hiring process, and your application was not selected at this time. The email didn’t come from the guy I’d been emailing with the company. Instead it was a mass email from Indeed. I’m going to assume everyone who didn’t make the round got one of these.

My venting is if you promised someone that you would let them know one way or the other soon then that’s what you should do. How long would it have taken to write thanks but no thanks and sent it to me. And if you had no intention of letting me know (or the other people who applied for the job) simply don’t say that. Say thanks for sending me the information I requested and leave it at that. Or you could just not respond which is what most companies do these days.

So now I’m off to do something really “fun” I’m going to clean the carpets upstairs with my rug shampooer.

Hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend.