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written requests for information about your loan
or for reporting an error your servicer has made;
and how to contact a housing counselor for help
Payments credited promptly
Servicers have to apply your full payments to your
account as of the day they come in. If you pay only
part of what you owe, the servicer may hold your
partial payment(s) in a special account.
The servicer must tell you about this on your
statement. When that special account collects
enough money to make a full payment of principal,
interest, and any applicable escrow, the servicer
has to credit that payment to your account.
Quick responses when you ask
about paying off your loan
If you write to ask how much it costs to pay off
your mortgage, the servicer generally has seven
business days after receiving your request to
answer you.
You may be allowed to make extra payments on
your mortgage’s principal that can help you repay
your loan more quickly and with less interest. Check
whether your loan allows extra payments and, if so,
make sure they are applied to the loan’s principal
rather than interest. Even $100 more per month
may reduce the loan term by several years.
Notication about force-placed
insurance
If you fail to keep your home insured, your lender
usually has the right to buy “force-placed insurance”
and charge you for it, to cover the lender’s interest
in your home. Force-placed insurance is usually
more expensive than a policy you buy, and it
generally protects only the lender, not you. The
insurance cost varies, and the servicer is not
permitted to overcharge you.
The servicer must warn you at least 45 days before
it charges you for a force-placed insurance policy.
The notication tells you what kind of insurance you
need. You might use the time to shop for a better
or lower-cost policy, and then send proof to the
servicer that you have insurance.
Process for resolving errors and
information requests
If your servicer doesn’t properly apply a payment,
charges improper fees, fails to pay taxes and
insurance premium or other charges on time, or
fails to refund money in an escrow account within
20 days of you paying off your mortgage in full, you
should send your servicer a written notice of error.
Many servicers have set up specic addresses
for information requests and errors, so that your
request is received by specially trained employees.
This address appears on your monthly periodic
statement or coupon book and on the servicer’s
website. Take care to mail your request to the
correct address. If your servicer has set up an
address to use for written notices of error and
information requests, you must use that address.
Your servicer is not allowed to charge a fee or
require a payment for responding to you.
When you write to your mortgage servicer to
ask for information or to tell them about an error,
the servicer generally has ve days (excluding
weekends and holidays) to acknowledge your letter.
The servicer has extra time to respond to errors or
requests for information in a few situations:
§ Errors related to foreclosure—For errors related
to foreclosure notice, judgment, or sale, the