This post is more for amusement than anything… this was incredibly frustrating.
My original intention was to make a large additional principal payment with the first scheduled P+I payment, leaving only two payments plus a modest additional balance to pay off right after the third scheduled payment was due.
Unfortunately, I ran into some obstacles:
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BMWFS’ site would only accept $7,500 in payments per calendar month (for reasons they could not explain).
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BMWFS will not accept a payment by wire (our bank doesn’t charge us a fee to send a wire).
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Our bank’s bill pay service would only make payments to BMWFS by ACH under a certain dollar threshold (which they either can’t or won’t disclose; the threshold is set by the payee). Over $X and the payment papers out to a check, which has to be printed and mailed.
So shortly after I got my BMWFS account number I scheduled the first $7,500 ACH payment directly with BMWFS, scheduled a $32,500 paper check to be mailed by B of A, and then waited until 1/1 and scheduled another $7,500 ACH pull directly with BMWFS.
B of A’s bill payment system said the $32,500 payment would arrive by 1/6, but it didn’t, it took until 1/12… so I contacted the bank afterward and they gave me a credit of ((($32,500*0.009)/365)*6)=$4.80 for the additional finance charges I incurred due to the delayed payment delivery.
Since then I’ve made the scheduled January and February payments, leaving $135.xx to be paid on 3/13, the third scheduled payment date… at which point this lunacy should all be behind me.
