I had a fairly large CD mature last week and today I started the process of paying off the balance of our mortgage. This of course lead me into the world of internet banking hell. I took my loan out with USAA many years ago, and they turned it over to Nation Star for management, Nation Star somehow brought Wells Fargo into the picture. I finally got the payoff balance from Nation Star, but they wanted me to wire the money to a Wells Fargo account that I never heard of before. But Wells Fargo does not want me to wire any more than $5000.00 at a time. After numerous logins, logouts and phone discussion with several different people, I threw up my hands and finally found where I could send a certified check to USAA. This now entailed moving money from my main checking account at Navy Federal to our local Regions Bank account, and an in office discussion with our local bank manager. Tomorrow I will be able to go back to Regions and get a certified check made out to USAA. Altogether five banking institutions managed to get into the act. I told the lady at Regions to give herself a virtual hug for rescuing me from internet banking hell.. How do things get this complicated?
To make things more convenient for us. When I paid off my house I drove to the bank, sat down with a human, got the payoff amount, and signed the paperwork to transfer the monies to their mortgage department. Easy-Peasy. I've had mortgages get sold from one entity to the next. I lived in my last home for over 30 years, so that mortgage got sold a lot during the time from late 70s and early 2000s. When I bought my current home, I had a hard time getting a loan because it was a small older home on over 50 acres. Most places viewed it as a land deal, meaning rates would have been over 7% back when mortgages were under 3%. Long story short, I found a bank to underwrite my mortgage, keep it in an in-house portfolio of loans they knew no one would buy, and charge me an extra 1/2% on the rate to offset the cost of it being illiquid. So due to its nature, it never got sold.
I'm so glad you got that nightmare resolved Steve! The fee for all that wiring would have added up since that's generally the most expensive way to move money, not to mention the ridiculousness of how many wires you would have had to send. And on the final payment of your home....