Mortgage Sold? where your payment goes during a transfer

A letter saying nothing changes, and a missed payment

A letter tells you your mortgage has been sold to another company. It says the terms do not change and there is nothing you need to do.

Two months later the new company says you have missed a payment.

Where the payment went during the handover

1. Your loan was sold. You got a letter saying so.
2. The letter said your terms were unchanged, which is true.
3. It did not clearly say your payment arrangement would not move, which is also true.
4. Your payment went to the old company, or stopped entirely.
5. The new company has no record of it.
6. Late fees were added and the account was reported as behind.
7. The old company says it forwarded the money. The new one says it did not arrive.

Why the debt moves and your instruction does not

Selling a mortgage transfers the debt. It does not transfer your instruction to your bank about where to send money.

There is a protected window after a transfer during which you cannot be penalized for sending a payment to the old company. That protection is real but it is time-limited, and almost nobody is told about it.

Payments in transit during a transfer are the ones that go missing. Two companies' records have to agree about money that moved while the account was moving, and often they do not.

The signal: the name on the debit changing

The name on the debit changing, or the debit not happening. Both are visible in your bank account in the same month the transfer takes place.

Where Plenee fits

• It sees the payee change. When the company taking your mortgage payment changes,

Plenee can flag it as a servicer transfer on the day, and ask the only question that matters: is your payment going to the right place next month?

• It sees the payment that did not happen. A monthly payment made for years and then

absent is the strongest signal there is, and it appears within days.

• It holds the evidence. Date, amount and recipient for the payment in dispute. When

two companies disagree about where your money went, your bank record is what settles it.

Reversing fees caused by a transfer

• Send proof of payment to both companies, and ask the new one to reverse the late

fees and the credit reporting.

• Mention the transfer window. Payments sent to the old company shortly after a

transfer must not be treated as late.

• Set up the payment again yourself and confirm the first one landed.
• Check your credit report. Late marks from a botched transfer are among the most

successfully disputed, because the paper trail is clear.

How often transfers sit behind other complaints

Complaints specifically about a mortgage being sold or transferred are uncommon, under one in a hundred.¹ But transfers appear in the background of far more: over a quarter of mortgage servicing and escrow complaints mention one.²