Price of ownership

Today, I had to wrangle with the people who make home ownership possible--the mortgage company. Ours is Chase, who, in their infinite wisdom, has charged us a late fee for a bill that we supposedly did not pay on time.

Here's the skinny: Our original loan was through a company called Loan City. The first bill was due April 1. The sticklers that we are, we wanted to pay way in advance, so we sent our first payment in on March 15, thinking that we were doing the right thing by paying early. But here is where it got complicated. See, three days later, that loan was bought by and transferred to Chase. A few days after that, we got a notice from Chase saying that we did in fact have a bill due April 1, but that it was payable to them. By then, the check we sent was long gone, to Loan City, who also sent us a letter saying that we should continue payments to them until May 1.

Thinking that they would sort each other out, we continued to pay our bills as usual. Only, when the most recent bill came, it showed a late charge. Confused, we called Chase and that's when we found out that the April 1 payment was never forwarded to them, and that we effectively have been paying a month behind since.

The kicker: Loan City is no longer in business.

Here's why I'm pissed. First, both companies sent us notification letters of the transfer but gave conflicting information. Second, we had called Chase at least twice before this last conversation, to check on our account, and nary a mention of the late payments. Third, the man on the phone for Chase made the point of saying that the account will go to credit reporting by the end of the month.

And all this because we thought we'd get ahead by making that first payment early.

Thankfully, we have a loan officer/agent who is working to clear this up. Just the same, we paid our mortgage bill twice this month, just to make sure that our credit does not get affected.

This is the price of ownership that nobody tells you about.

Just the same, I'm grateful for our home. It's a work in progress, in various fronts, but it's ours.

More recent pics to follow.

And by the way, please come visit.