Whaddaya DO all day: PenFed mortgage refinance

[Thingamajigger]

thanks for the reply and the PM Nords

I don't want to jinx things so I'll hold off on discussing things further until I am in the clear

nice to find this forum ... and to see there is a long-time participant from Hawaii

[Nords]

Now that we've made our first mortgage payment, I'll share the stinger which PenFed managed to add to the coda after closing.

We prefer to have our mortgage payments deducted from my checking account. My pension comes in on the first of the month into my checking account, and the mortgage payment goes out a few days later without any of my personal effort. We rarely, if ever, have any transactions in my savings account. Some of you Murphy's Law experts are already smiling in anticipation.

I know how to fill out the ACH EFT form but I was smart enough to bring an extra blank check to closing. So when the title company returned the paperwork to PenFed, one of the forms was the EFT request. I filled in the form's blanks with the routing transaction number and the full number of my checking account. PenFed is probably pretty familiar with NFCU's account numbers (since PenFed is regularly scooping the competition) and I suspect PenFed knows that NFCU's savings & checking account numbers tend to be the same prefix with different suffixes. But I didn't want to leave anything to chance so I also circled the appropriate numbers on the check and even lined out the irrelevant ones.

Because I'm a paranoid nuclear engineer this refi had gone so badly, I decided to make sure the EFT paperwork was correctly processed. Well, Murphy was working overtime. Some supremely confident PenFed employee had decided that my preferences couldn't possibly be what I'd intended to set up, so they'd helpfully ignored the information I provided and arranged for the mortgage payment to be deducted from my savings account. The one I hardly ever use. The one with the $5 balance and no overdraft protection.

They assured me over the phone that they'd fixed the problem, but I was still skeptical right up until the day after the payment was deducted. However it all went OK.

I suppose another explanation for the screwup would be that PenFed's computer system pre-fills a number of the fields for establishing an ACH EFT. But if you're trying to set your mortgage payments up like I did, then it's probably worth getting a little paranoid and making a confirmation call of your own...

[brewer12345]

Nords, I would check that the payments went through as desired for the next few months. I had a "fun" time sorting out with PF how to apply the outsized payments I have been sending them and it took a few months to get everything sorted ut.

[MasterBlaster]

I have found that using my credit unions electronic billpaying service is better. Using this service I send outbound EFT payments at my direction from my account using the the credit union website. I don't need to have my checking account information spread out to everyone who gets paid every month.

I just enter the address from the monthly billing statement and the EFT electronic payment goes out as directed. Recurring payments every month can be set up with this system.

Relying on some company to "request" a payment is, as you post, unreliable.

Does your credit union offer a service like this ?

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewer12345 Nords, I would check that the payments went through as desired for the next few months.

I'm relieved to see that my paranoia has a purpose.

I should probably push the money to them instead of letting them pull it. The "good" news is that it's just the P&I payment, no impound account or add'l principal payments, and we're not going to pay them a penny more than we owe them until we pay it off after my 80th birthday...

Your post reminded me that we got a letter last week from Fannie Mae announcing their ownership of our mortgage but cautioning us that PenFed was still the servicer. I've never received one of those letters before.

[rayvt]

I always use my banks bill-pay service to push the payments out. That is far easier to set up and to change than having the biller do a pull. Also, the bill-paying service guarantees that the payment will get there, or they'll cover any late charges.

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords I'm relieved to see that my paranoia has a purpose. I should probably push the money to them instead of letting them pull it. The "good" news is that it's just the P&I payment, no impound account or add'l principal payments, and we're not going to pay them a penny more than we owe them until we pay it off after my 80th birthday... Your post reminded me that we got a letter last week from Fannie Mae announcing their ownership of our mortgage but cautioning us that PenFed was still the servicer. I've never received one of those letters before.

I started by pushing to them and found out they could not manage to apply the extra cash properly to principal. But when I had them pull, it was no problem. YMMV, but you might have to try it more than one way.

I am very surprised that Fannie sent you a notice. Never heard of that before. I thought all servicing was invisible to the borrower.