I have a bone to pick with Bank of America. I’ve been disappointed with the company since my husband’s first deployment, when his paychecks were off-cycle and late posting. I would never, ever willingly choose them to hold something as important as our mortgage. Unfortunately, the loan was sold, and BoA bought it. Blerg.

It hasn’t been a big deal until recently. I had the monthly payments set up through online banking, and I never had to deal with BoA directly. Unfortunately, our credit union decided to quit doing online bill pay as a cost-saving measure, so I had to change our payment setup to another account. I didn’t miss a single payment, wasn’t late on a single payment … simply changed the auto-pay arrangement. (In fact, I paid double that first month of the switch, because I forgot that the auto-pay was already scheduled.)

The holidays came and went, and then, the first FedEx envelope arrived. It was filled with a form letter advising us that we’d missed two scheduled payments, and BoA shared its heartfelt concern that we might need to read the enclosed 20+ pages on how to avoid foreclosure.

What. The. #(&Y*(^@>?!?

I called and talked to Customer Service and was informed (like I already knew) that our account was, indeed, current. In fact, she didn’t even have record that another arm of the company had contacted us! That’s what is so frustrating. How can a customer service rep NOT KNOW that their company had sent me a foreclosure counseling packet?? Not only that, but our account is flagged as deployed military, which means that they have no business sending foreclosure-related anything, even if we were behind on payments (which we aren’t). That’s part of the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act!

I enclosed my own “heartfelt” reply in the pre-paid FedEx return envelope and sent it right back from whence it came, hoping that would be the end of it.

Of course not.

Next came the phone call. A concerned mortgage rep called and left a message expressing his interest in talking to us to help address any problems we may be having paying our mortgage. Again, WTH!? And, another FedEx envelope. This time, I called the number Mr. Concerned left, got his voice mail and really gave him a piece of my mind. I told him that these notices are not only infuriating, but they are flat-out insulting, that the left and right hands at BoA need to get their acts together, and I expect the issue to be resolved immediately with no further mail or phone calls.

I am so ticked off about their ineptitude that I’m seriously thinking of refinancing the mortgage, just to not have to deal with Bank of America anymore! The problem is, how do I know that a refi will not be sold to them, eventually? Are there any banks or credit unions out there that actually KEEP their loans? I understand that as a borrower, you are somewhat at the mercy of your lender, but you are still a consumer. The public policy analyst in me says that customers ought to have some say in who can (and CANNOT) purchase their mortgages.

Bank of America got into some deep doo-doo recently for robo-signing mortgage-related documents. Apparently, they haven’t learned their lesson, and a simple change in the payment system prompts an automated deluge of foreclosure doomsday bulletins.

I, for one, am livid.