I'm back. Let me see if I can make any kind of sense with my notes. This thing is complicated first hand, much less filtered through me.

To recap: My brother has been paying double house payments for about 1 year. No problems until they paid through Jan. 2000. (By the way, the statement for this mo. read JAN. 1900!!!)

First off, the loan "company is the USDA RHS, formerly known as the FHA. It is a 30 yr conventional, simple daily interest & no penalties for additional payments. Advance date is not an option in his pay plan. He did designate the payments to additional principal. One month it was applied as requested but the next mo. nothing went on the interest. The next mo. nothing went to principal. The next mo. everything was right. Meanwhile the interest account continues to mount. Now nothing has been applied to the interest since last July. (One rep told them this was a good thing! It was the best thing that could happen to them! Work that principal down, forget about the interest!) Also the dates jump from 1997 to 1998 to 2000 back to 1999.

Another problem is the difference in the dates they receive the payment and date they apply it; up to 2 weeks. This also increases the interest.

By the time Bro noticed the problem this had been going on for quite a few months. How many people really study their statements? As you know it is almost impossible to communicate with these people. There are 40-50 people in a room answering phones. You will never speak to the same person twice. Each time you must explain your problem from the beginning to a new person. It is very time consuming and tiresome.

If they can get a payoff amount they have decided to refinance through our local credit union. They claim to be Y2K compliant. If they can't get a payoff amount they will get a lawyer. I would like them to get a lawyer anyway, but money is a problem. Oh, also, the wise folks answering the phones at the USDA RHS told bro. that this will all be fixed in mid March.

I know I haven't explained this to anyone's satisfaction, but that's because I don't "get" most of what bro tells me and it all is very convoluted. Anyway, thanks to all for your imput. I think we got it across to him that this is something he needs to take care of NOW. Also, Skeptic, you gave us a good laugh. Keep up the good work, we should all be careful of what we beleive.

-- Juniper (thanks@all.com), March 03, 1999

Answers

And this is just the sort of thing that gives Y2K that "personal" touch! Your brother is seeing for himself that Y2K is real, and it is messing with The System that he depends on. It is only a matter of time before enough people get worried enough that they are going to wake up, see how little time is left before it is all going to crumble, and panic.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), March 03, 1999.

Juniper, thanks for the info. By the way, is the USDA servicing this loan, or is a private company doing that? I'm curious about the name of the entity that your brother makes his checks payable to and their mailing address. Any info. appreciated.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), March 03, 1999.

Oh it's federal - explains everything.

Get a better lawyer. Day before yesterday. Quicker, if possible.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 03, 1999.

The lending institution is the Fed itself. Address for Ins., & taxes is USDA, P.O. Box 790170, St Louis Mo. 63179-0710.

We should have guessed all along that Big Brother was in this big time.

Bottom line is there is a direct line to Y2K and they admitted it to him.

-- Juniper (Thanks@all.com), March 03, 1999.