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.
