Why I Hate My Mortgage Company

I have spent the last month “working” with my mortgage company, Washington Mutual, to remove the PMI from my mortgage. My first request was via secure message on their website. The website promised a response within one business day. Nearly a week later, there still was no response, so I called them. After endless recordings, menus and button pushes, I was told that I would receive a letter in 5 to 7 business days. The next day, I received a response from my secure message that they were dispatching a letter.

About a week later, two letters arrived on the same day…giving me two different reasons why they couldn’t remove my PMI. I investigated the reasons they cited and found them to be false. I sent them another secure message stating as much and requested, again, removal of the PMI. The website, again, promised a response within one business day. Three days later, no response. So I called them again.

This time I spoke to someone, and she confirmed that I was indeed correct. She promised a letter would come in the mail stating that the PMI would be removed. The letter still hasn’t come. I decided to check online to see if they made any changes to the account. That’s when I found a response to my other message, more than a week after I sent it. It said that we (my wife and I) hadn’t hit the required LTV for our house, but an additional payment would get us there and they could remove it.

Seeing a third different reason for not removing the PMI, I called again. This time, the young lady on the other end politely told me that because we hadn’t hit the required LTV, which was a different number than mentioned above and would require an additional payment 10 times what we were quoted online.

Now we are at four different reasons why they can’t remove the PMI. Oh, and by the way, she told me, it’s the investor for that mortgage that has these rules, not Washington Mutual.

The rules are the rules, no matter how ridiculous I happen to believe those rules to be (and these are pretty bad). That really hasn’t been my problem with this entire situation. My issue is with the terrible customer service. Taking more than a week to respond after promising a day. Giving false information as the basis for a decision. Providing the wrong information. Having a different reason for each interaction why they can’t fulfill a request. And this is on top of how they treated mortgagees after Katrina. For instance, they did not offer any assistance with paying monthly notes, and they held on to a portion of our insurance check for nearly 18 months after we demonstrated that we completed all the repairs.

Hopefully, you are treating your customers with more respect than this and are actually serving them.

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