I have had two mortgages in my life, I've never had a late payment, I've never had any hiccup whatsoever. Provident Funding is just a scam waiting to happen. I signed up for autopay right when I got the loan and assumed that my first payment would draw like it did with my previous mortgage company, like the utilities, like my credit cards, like every other autopay system out there. When it didn't draw I called in the day it should have and asked about it. They said that it wouldn't work for your first payment and I asked why and was curtly told it wasn't going to happen. Ok, how long do I have to get the payment in? Two weeks. So I fired off a bill pay payment the same day and forgot about it.
Two weeks later I got a notice from them letting me know that I haven't paid my bill and that they were about to levy a penalty. I checked my bill pay records at US Bank and the check had been mailed out 12 days previously. How would they not have received it? I called in and Provident told me that if they didn't have payment by 4pm the same day (Pacific Time) I would have a late payment. I said gosh can you just check to see if you got my payment today? Most mail to California takes 1-2 days and this was sent 12 days ago. No, they said that they can't check.
So I did what I had to do. I went to a Western Union. First time in my life that I had to use Western Union. I had to pay a fee to send the money. Guess when my bill pay check cleared? The same day. They took both payments and cashed them.
This is not a normal mortgage company, this is a company who looks at you the way a correctional officer would. They don't have a care in the world about ruining your life (via ruining your credit). They view customer service as a necessary evil to owning a loan portfolio.
I think they are dishonest in their dealings, my check was sitting there for a week but there's no way I could prove it. Also, the fact that they deposited the check the same day as my western union payment suggests that they had in fact processed my payment and weren't telling me so. Then they were happy to keep my next month's payment for 30 days without paying me interest on my money.
I can't believe I'm actually suggesting that you shop around your mortgage servicer, but after working with Provident Funding, I can tell you that you will be happier by just dealing with a normal bank with normal customer service.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
mrsfluff
Jackson,New Jersey,
United States of America
I'm Going Thru The Same Thing!
#2Consumer Comment
Sat, July 21, 2012
I just had the same thing happen to me today. I've been online researching to see if this is a common occurrence as I suspect, or, as you aptly suggest, a scam. I had one other late payment back in late 2010 and went so far as to contact the CEO to lodge my complaint. Of course, I'm sure he never so much as saw it, but no surprise I got no satisfaction, as Mick would say. Now here it is July 2012 and voila! another incident. This time though, as with you, they took 2 payments from me. After receiving a robo-call, I called back whereupon they told me that they would put a stop payment on my check and that if I wanted to avoid the online or pay-by-phone payment fees (since they don't offer a free payment through their site which is unreal in this day and age) I should start a bill pay with my bank, which I did. They also told me the stop payment would take 24 hours! 24 hours?!?! Worried that the check had in fact got lost in the mail, I made an electronic bill pay with a 'pay by' of 3 days after (this was a Friday and I made it for the following Monday).
But low and behold, Provident quickly snatched it out of my account immediately WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY processing the alleged missing check that somehow mysteriously appeared the same day. I am now overdrawn in my checking account and bouncing all the bills I had set up to be paid. I called Provident but they have NO CUSTOMER SERVICE on the weekends!!! WHAT?!?! I sent an email through their site and told them I expect a refund first thing Monday. IF I do not get one, I WILL take legal action. I do not for a second believe that my payment took TWELVE DAYS to get from NJ to CA. Normally it takes about 2 days SO I refrain from mailing it until the 9th of the month. I found a few other similar complaints online where payments were mailed (in one case the same day as mine, the 9th) and the customer was told on a few occasions it was late and was charged a late fee.
I am fairly convinced that this is a scam whereby they randomly hold payments until they are late in order to collect "x" amount of late fees over the course of each loan. Some of us might get hit more times than others. I also read that when asked for the post marked envelopes by the aggrieved customers, Provident outright refused to produce them. Again, if they fail to cooperate, I will file suit - class action - and those who want to hop on board can do so. I highly recommend that any of you out there do the same if ever confronted with this type of situation. P.S. like you, I NEVER make late payments - to anyone!