I typically pay my monthly payment via snail mail. I generally mail it Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation three or four days before it is due. I always check the usps.com website to confirm receipt. It has always been received before the due date. The company has consistently charged Me a late fee for my monthly "late payment." I have always successfully disputed these late fees and had them removed.
Recently, I encountered an exaggerated form of this same problem. This month I spoke with Customer Service Representative Kunksh about the late fee for the June. I was advised that the late fee would not be removed because my payment was not posted until the seventeenth although it was received on the fifteenth (confirmed on the usps.com website) and was not due until the sixteenth. I asked to speak with a Supervisor and was directed to Mr. Edrick. Edrick, informed Me that although my payment may have been received by the office, in their lockbox, on the fifteenth (at 4:06AM according to the usps.com website), it was not processed until the seventeenth and the late fee would not be reversed.
He further recommended that I not utilize the United States Postal Service (how UnAmerican!) for making payments. He suggested I use one of many services that would charge Me up to $16.95 per payment. So, let Me get this straight - I need to use one of their recommended methods of payments and pay an additional fee to simply make my monthly mortgage payment or I will most likely be charged a late fee? A late fee that will be assessed to Me although my payment is actually in their possession before it is due if they do not process it before my due date?! This is insane. Who made up these criminal extortion rules?! Is this even legal?
Dmparks
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.