Just when you're getting ahead

ASmallWonder

What a weekend.  DH's car failed inspection for emissions and who knows how much that's going to cost.  Then our lawn mower died.  Then the mortgage bill came and for reasons I can't understand, our payment is going up $109 a month.  The additional money is for the escrow account, which I understand is for the taxes and that taxes can go up.  But the wording doesn't seem to indicate that the entire amount is for taxes.  It says something about the law allowing them to make us put in a certain amount extra to cover unexpected expenses or something.  But why is this just coming up now, after a year in the house?  It was not a financially happy weekend.

ETA:  I just did some googling on this escrow reserve issue and found that Bank of America seems to routinely add it.  They're allowed to by law but it's not a requirement and it seems lots of people have had success calling and having the amount removed.  That will definitely be on my list of things to do today.

ATMmom324

Our mortgage did that after we had lived in our house a year. It went up almost 200 dollars a month. They explained they initially set up your escrow as an estimate of that your taxes should be but after a year and they have the actual amounts they had to increase it to make sure we had enough of a cushion in our escrow as we had dipped into it the previous year.

ABColeslaw

ugh that all sucks big time.

Kitiara5512

elmoali:

What a weekend.  DH's car failed inspection for emissions and who knows how much that's going to cost.  Then our lawn mower died.  Then the mortgage bill came and for reasons I can't understand, our payment is going up $109 a month.  The additional money is for the escrow account, which I understand is for the taxes and that taxes can go up.  But the wording doesn't seem to indicate that the entire amount is for taxes.  It says something about the law allowing them to make us put in a certain amount extra to cover unexpected expenses or something.  But why is this just coming up now, after a year in the house?  It was not a financially happy weekend.

ETA:  I just did some googling on this escrow reserve issue and found that Bank of America seems to routinely add it.  They're allowed to by law but it's not a requirement and it seems lots of people have had success calling and having the amount removed.  That will definitely be on my list of things to do today.

They just did that to us. Part of it was that they wound up being short on the taxes a bit for the last year so have to make up the difference, plus the actuall differences in costs. Will see if H can call in with any success.

ASmallWonder

Kitiara5512:

elmoali:

What a weekend.  DH's car failed inspection for emissions and who knows how much that's going to cost.  Then our lawn mower died.  Then the mortgage bill came and for reasons I can't understand, our payment is going up $109 a month.  The additional money is for the escrow account, which I understand is for the taxes and that taxes can go up.  But the wording doesn't seem to indicate that the entire amount is for taxes.  It says something about the law allowing them to make us put in a certain amount extra to cover unexpected expenses or something.  But why is this just coming up now, after a year in the house?  It was not a financially happy weekend.

ETA:  I just did some googling on this escrow reserve issue and found that Bank of America seems to routinely add it.  They're allowed to by law but it's not a requirement and it seems lots of people have had success calling and having the amount removed.  That will definitely be on my list of things to do today.

They just did that to us. Part of it was that they wound up being short on the taxes a bit for the last year so have to make up the difference, plus the actuall differences in costs. Will see if H can call in with any success.

Defininitely call.  Part of the charge was legit - a slight miscalculation on insurance and taxes.  But they removed the $45 "padding fee" without hesitation.  The $45 amounted to a 16.9% increase.  When they refigured how much I needed in escrow without the additional 16.9%, they ended up OWING me $322.  So over the course of a year I would have had that money plus an additional $600 or so tied up in the account.  They would have earned interested on all that money from every person for NO reason. 

ASmallWonder

HilarityEnsued:

We have a BofA mortgage and our payment went up too.  It is escrow so you'll get it back at the end of the year but it made me a little stabby to think about floating BofA an interest-free loan for those months.

Seriously, call and tell them not to take the money!  It's not a required amount but they make it seem like it is.  I literally just said "I don't understand why I have to pay this extra when I have never had less money than I needed in escrow."  The guy said "No problem, I'll take it off for you.  We just recommend having a little extra in there."  Uh, no thanks.  I'll keep my money and give it to you IF I HAVE TO.