Help! AHMSI Phantom Late Fees - Must pay by tomorrow!

[Magnum1]

My mortgage was one of the many from CitiFinancial, but now serviced through AHMSI. I have had nothing but problems with AHMSI and loathe their illegal business practices. I am currently one payment behind and have been in this position several times over the last couple of years due to the economy. EVERY time I am late, I ALWAYS pay the additional late fee of $41.50 and make sure that I let the person taking my payment know that. After each payment, I always ask again to make sure there are NO outstanding fees of any kind on my account. Well, I recently received my "pre-forclosure warning letter" that always comes out when only ONE payment late. It says I owe x number of dollars for two months. MY problem is this: In addition to the two months payments (which I am ready to pay) they have added $539.50 in late fees!! Since I am talking to a robot each time in India, they only know one thing...to collect whatever it says on the screen! They will not let me talk to anyone else and will not listen to me when I tell them I have always paid my late fees. My deadline is tomorrow to pay the amount and I don't owe it!!!! Does Anyone know who I may contact, as the customer service in INDIA refuses to discuss this and just tells me I better pay by tomorrow?

[Richie00]

Do not talk to those crazy people in India! They are horrible and will not help you. Somewhere on this particular forum there should be other possible contacts that are American. Perhaps read through some of the other threads and you will find their info. Also you could try asking for a domestic agent. They will try to pass you on to a supervisor but insist on getting to the domestic agent. They dont know what they are doing and will just keep asking you to make a payment over the phone. Good luck.

[TomEason]

Magnum1
Thanks for your post and sorry for your frustration and aggravation. A suggestion for you. As Richie00 suggests, whenever you end up speaking with an offshore call center like India, insist that you be transferred to a US based call center. They will most often comply, especially if you tell them you cannot understand a word they're saying!

[SurfwhenUcan]

When you get a US Based call center, the first thing to remember is to just stay calm. You are already sounding pretty aggravated just in your post. That is only counter productive. This is just business for them, and I don't see that they have done anything illegal yet in your case.

Tell just tell the rep you want to verify payment history. Don't say anything else, especially anything that could be construed as venting. Ask the rep to go back to Jan, and give you the amount due for Jan 2011, then the date and amount of payment made, then exactly how was the payment applied - how much to principal and how much to interest. Then ask if that month was paid in full or not, and if not how much was outstanding. Repeat this for each month to present and be methodical.

Once you have all the information, do that math while you're on the phone with them and figure out what's not jiving. THEN tell them why you're calling, which is that there are some fees you don't understand. It'll blind side them.

It's just math and the answers are usually easy to figure out. Hopefully you will uncover what the problem is. Otherwise you are in for some real aggravation that could probably be avoided.