My mortgage company resides in the Twilight Zone

Within the last month my mortgage was sold to an entity curiously named America's Serving Company. Today I went online to pay my mortgage as I've done for the last couple of years with my old lender. I was armed with the web address and my loan numbers. I got to the web site and registered for online bill pay.

Once I was done registering, I was taken to a screen that gave options like account information, payment options, etc. I clicked on the payment options link and nothing happened. I then clicked on account information - nothing again, except an error message at the bottom of the page that said "Java Script Empty." Next, I looked for the contact information to try and call the company. That link was broken too. Then, I Googled the company and the first result was a site called The Rip Off Report. The site featured dozens of frustrated ASC customers saying how the company was unresponsive and frequently lost payments or "forgot" to put money into customers' Escrow accounts. This was not sounding good.

So I went back to the ASC web site and eventually found a phone number. I sat through 5 minutes of automated options - one being that if I wanted to pay by phone it would cost $15 a loan (we have two loans.) Again, not good. I pressed zero and got a customer service rep. I explained to him my predicament. 1. I had only received a statement for one of my loans (they had my address wrong) 2. The online bill function was not working 3. And, dang, $30 is a lot of dough for paying my mortgage by phone

I told him I wanted to pay online so it would be free, but then he told me that it costs $10 a loan to do that. I then told him that I'd asked a previous customer service rep (CSR) and she'd also said it was free and that I’d seen it on their web page that it was a free service. He persisted in saying it was $10 a pop. He then informed me that the first time to pay on the phone it was free and offered to do that for me. So, being that was a free option, of course, I took it. The CSR was actually really polite and helpful - so far the only ray of hope I have for my new lender.

But, alas at least I have a house and money to pay my mortgage. Additionally, I do realize my own error in waiting until the third of the month (although still well within my grace period) to pay my mortgage. Casey is interested in looking into refinancing our house anyways so maybe I'll be getting a new lender sometime soon. And to cheer myself up I sing, "Keep on the sunny side, always on the sunny side . . ."