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One of my duties as a CSR at a small-town midwestern bank is to keep track homeowner's insurance on our customers' mortgages. If a customer's insurance lapses, we have to "force-place" insurance, which involves advancing funds on the customer's loan to pay the insurance premium. Now, this force-placed insurance only covers the amount of the loan, which means that if the customer's house was to burn down, the loan would be paid off, but the customer would get nothing. It also doesn't include liability, which means if someone broke their leg on the customer's property and sued them, they would have no insurance to pay for it.
Today's incident started with receiving a cancelation notice from the SC's insurance company. Today is May 28. The notice was dated yesterday. The cancelation was effective May 1. For those following along, you'll notice that this means the customer has been without insurance for almost a month already. So, following the normal procedure, I called the insurance agent. The agent verified the information on the notice. She also commented that the customer had changed her policy so that her payments were due on the 1st (which was supposed to be easier for her to keep track of), but that she still hadn't made the payment.
So I called the customer. Keeping in mind that this is a customer that's a brick or two shy of a load (and I'm not sure if it's because of age or if she's always been this way), and that this customer frequently tosses bird seed and cat food from her car into the parking lot we share with the city building next door, causing bird spots on all the employees' cars, I was already in no mood to deal with this customer. I told the customer about the cancelation notice and how she should have gotten the same notice in today's mail. She claimed that her premium wasn't due until June 1. I said, No, that she needed to talk to her insurance agent and pay her premium. Then the agent could fax us proof of payment and everything would be ok.
The customer comes in to the bank about half an hour later. I go over everything with her that I did on the phone call. I tell her that she needs to go to the insurance agent's office (about 3 blocks away) and make her payment. She still tries to claim that her payment isn't due yet.
About an hour after that, the customer calls me again. She's just gotten home from the agent's office. Evidently, this isn't the first time she's been late on her homeowner's insurance premium because the company that she had her insurance through isn't willing to insure her any more (I've seen that happen frequently with repeat offenders). But she says that the agent is trying to find another company that would be willing to insure her.
Here's where the real fun starts. I try to explain to her about force-placed insurance. Here's approximately how the conversation went:
Me: You realize that without insurance, if your house were to, for example, burn down, you would be without a home and still have to pay back your loan.
SC: Oh, I don't want to think about that! I'm just going to assume the best case scenario. (I swear on Darwin's grave, that was exactly how she worded it.)
Me: But even though it's nice to think of the best case, you still have to prepare for the worst case. That's why the bank has to force-place insurance on your home. We will have to advance about $300 on your loan to cover the premium for the year.
SC: I can't afford that!
Me: I'm sorry, but I have no choice. With the force-place insurance, if your home were to burn down, using the example from before, your loan would be paid off. You still wouldn't get anything, so it's in your best interest to get insurance for your home.
SC: Well, my agent is going to call me back this afternoon.
Me: Ok, I'll do a binder, then. I won't have to advance on your loan if you get insurance coverage right away.
Normally, the customer has 45 days in which to get insurance to the bank before I have to advance funds on their loan for the force-placed insurance. Often, I get it within a few days because they have simply changed insurance agencies and forgotten to have us listed as mortgagee. In this case, however, I have to backdate the policy to May 1, so she only has 17 days in which to get the proof of insurance to the bank before I have to advance funds.
Her saving grace in this situation might be that her sister is a cosigner on the loan, so I was able to send the letter of notification for the force-placed insurance to both of them. The sister is a lot more together than the SC, so she will probably be able to get everything straightened out. I hope so - I always hate to force-place insurance on anybody's loan, even if it's somebody as irritating as this woman is.
Today's incident started with receiving a cancelation notice from the SC's insurance company. Today is May 28. The notice was dated yesterday. The cancelation was effective May 1. For those following along, you'll notice that this means the customer has been without insurance for almost a month already. So, following the normal procedure, I called the insurance agent. The agent verified the information on the notice. She also commented that the customer had changed her policy so that her payments were due on the 1st (which was supposed to be easier for her to keep track of), but that she still hadn't made the payment.
So I called the customer. Keeping in mind that this is a customer that's a brick or two shy of a load (and I'm not sure if it's because of age or if she's always been this way), and that this customer frequently tosses bird seed and cat food from her car into the parking lot we share with the city building next door, causing bird spots on all the employees' cars, I was already in no mood to deal with this customer. I told the customer about the cancelation notice and how she should have gotten the same notice in today's mail. She claimed that her premium wasn't due until June 1. I said, No, that she needed to talk to her insurance agent and pay her premium. Then the agent could fax us proof of payment and everything would be ok.
The customer comes in to the bank about half an hour later. I go over everything with her that I did on the phone call. I tell her that she needs to go to the insurance agent's office (about 3 blocks away) and make her payment. She still tries to claim that her payment isn't due yet.
About an hour after that, the customer calls me again. She's just gotten home from the agent's office. Evidently, this isn't the first time she's been late on her homeowner's insurance premium because the company that she had her insurance through isn't willing to insure her any more (I've seen that happen frequently with repeat offenders). But she says that the agent is trying to find another company that would be willing to insure her.
Here's where the real fun starts. I try to explain to her about force-placed insurance. Here's approximately how the conversation went:
Me: You realize that without insurance, if your house were to, for example, burn down, you would be without a home and still have to pay back your loan.
SC: Oh, I don't want to think about that! I'm just going to assume the best case scenario. (I swear on Darwin's grave, that was exactly how she worded it.)
Me: But even though it's nice to think of the best case, you still have to prepare for the worst case. That's why the bank has to force-place insurance on your home. We will have to advance about $300 on your loan to cover the premium for the year.
SC: I can't afford that!
Me: I'm sorry, but I have no choice. With the force-place insurance, if your home were to burn down, using the example from before, your loan would be paid off. You still wouldn't get anything, so it's in your best interest to get insurance for your home.
SC: Well, my agent is going to call me back this afternoon.
Me: Ok, I'll do a binder, then. I won't have to advance on your loan if you get insurance coverage right away.
Normally, the customer has 45 days in which to get insurance to the bank before I have to advance funds on their loan for the force-placed insurance. Often, I get it within a few days because they have simply changed insurance agencies and forgotten to have us listed as mortgagee. In this case, however, I have to backdate the policy to May 1, so she only has 17 days in which to get the proof of insurance to the bank before I have to advance funds.
Her saving grace in this situation might be that her sister is a cosigner on the loan, so I was able to send the letter of notification for the force-placed insurance to both of them. The sister is a lot more together than the SC, so she will probably be able to get everything straightened out. I hope so - I always hate to force-place insurance on anybody's loan, even if it's somebody as irritating as this woman is.