Our move to Angelborough was cursed. Plagued. Beset by evil. If you were reading here when that happened, you’ll remember all sorts of fun ranging from missing paperwork, to stupid people, to individuals who didn’t even recognize, let alone do, their jobs, to people who couldn’t add, to an apocalyptic rain that had manhole covers floating down main street and left frogs drowned in our driveway.
Two months after we moved, I got a cold-call from a mortgage company saying, “If you refinance now, you could save big,” and I replied, “After the hell we went through to get here, even if we were saving a thousand dollars a month, it wouldn’t be worth it to refinance.”
[Ask any of the Kiddos, by the way, and they will tell you, “The only way Mom is leaving this house is in a plastic bag, feet first.” That’s how bad the move was.]
Four months later, my Patient Husband approached the same question from a logical, mathematical perspective and reached a different conclusion. So we refinanced. On a day when the bank had to cut the same check three times and we finally trapped our injured stray, the deed was done.
The refinance company then sold us to GMAC Mortgage Company, and I will go on record in public saying I loathe them for being five times stupider than dirt.
They have continued the flood insurance saga. They didn’t have any record of our flood insurance (I don’t know why — they have all our other records) so we had to provide it again. So did the flood people. Three weeks later we got a nastygram: if we didn’t provide them our information, they would charge us $3,000. I had the flood insurance people resend the info, and I resent it myself. A phone call verified they’d received it. All’s well.
Hah! Yesterday I got another nastygram stating that we needed to purchase an additional $250,000 in flood insurance.
Here are some facts:
1) We had enough coverage to cover rebuilding the structure of the house, which was the point of us having to get two surveys and fill out countless wrong or lost forms (or rather, get the surveyor to fill out wrong forms, or the right one incorrectly.)
2) you can’t buy more than $250,000 in flood coverage. It’s not allowed.
They threatened to charge us $1250 if we didn’t get the additional flood coverage.
First I called my flood insurance company, which agreed that GMAC is whacked, and then upped my coverage to the max of $250k even though I don’t have to do that. For four dollars more.
Then I called the mortgage company. Here’s the information they gave me:
1) the letter says I need $250,000 more
2) the automated information spiel on the phone said I only need to cover the structure
3) the CSR said I needed exactly $250,000.
I told the CSR that if GMAC can’t even get its own story straight, then I am singularly unimpressed and beyond infuriated with them, and if I could help it, I would never have done business with them, nor will I ever again. They can’t follow directions, can’t keep their paperwork straight, can’t get their own facts straight, and deserve whatever horrors the economy throws at them.
CSR: The increased coverage is effective today?
Me: By law, it won’t be in effect for thirty days.
CSR: So July 24th?
Me: No, July 8th.
CSR: June 8th?
Me: No, thirty days from now. Today is June 8th. Thirty days from now, July 8th.
CSR: But it says July 24th.
Me: That’s the date we started coverage.
CSR: So coverage will be on July 24th?
This is why I would never deal with GMAC again. The moving curse has moved to our new company.
LOLOLOL! Poor you! I hope you don’t have to deal with them much!
However, those conversations do bring back memories of my student loan days.
Me – “Hello, Bank Of Nothing? I’d like some info on my account. The acct. # is 555-55-5555.”
Bank – “OK, Black, what info would you like?
Me – “Um, My name is Blue.”
Bank – “Blue?”
Me – “Yes, Blue. B-L-U-E.”
Bank – “Ok, Blue, I’ll just change that in the computer…”
five minutes later…
Me – “Could you give me the info on the interest?
Bank – “Sure, Brown. No problem.”
Me – “Um, my name is BLUE.”
Bank – “It’s Blue?”
Me – “Yes, Blue! B-L-U-E.”
Bank – “Ok, Blue, I’ll just change that in the computer…”
After a while you start thinking this has GOT to be a prank… no one could be this bad and stay in business…
Ah. Sounds like what we’ve dealt with ever since my surgery last fall. We’re still getting bills. Why? Because for some reason, these people cannot ever seem to get our insurance information correct and so the insurance is rejecting the claims. We provided the correct information prior to the surgery at my pre-op appt. We’ve provided the correct information now about half a dozen times and it’s still not correct. We just got a bill again yesterday with the incorrect info on it and DH called them yet again to correct it.
Ugh — you have my sympathies.
I should blog sometime about the time I had to threaten the hospital that I’d turn them in for insurance fraud. That was fun.
There’s a reason the refinance companies offer great rates — they have low expenses (or think they do — they don’t realize that half the brains takes three time as long). They also nickel and dime you on the sillies, and go out of business.
Our mortgage is through the bank that has our main account. My family has used them for 3 decades. They’ve annoyed us exactly twice. Once was a small misunderstanding and not worth fussing over. They went out of their way to find loopholes to keep us happy.
Yes, it’s 0.25% more than the brokers can get us, and it will add up. But, because we were regular customers we didn’t have to pay $500 for the appraisal, and another $500 for other assorted paperwork.
After hearing all the mortgage broker horror stories, even from Canada where they control them better, I’m happy to pay the premium.
T S Eliot said that the world would end not with a bang but a whimper. That was way back last century. It’s a slow process. We see it now. Lost postal items. Wrong entries in computer systems that can’t get corrected. Not being able to deal with the same person in a company beyond a few weeks. Businesses coming and going so quickly you can’t buy the same thing twice.
What Eliot didn’t say directly is that it would be us doing the whimpering.
Pingback: My mysterious house « Seven angels, four kids, one family