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Don't Forget to Stop Automatic Bill Payments When Selling Your Home

By
Real Estate Agent with Long and Foster Real Estate VA License # 0225089470

Don't Forget to Stop Automatic Bill Payments When Selling Your Home

In the age of automatic bill payments, it's easy to forget to turn them off.  When you sell your home, however, the last thing you want is an automatic payment going to a mortgage that has been paid off, or an HOA account that has been closed.  Yeah, you'll get your money back, but it may take a few weeks....and that's if you are lucky.  Ever sent a payment to a bank for a closed account.  I did once.  On a car loan that had been closed for years.  I had a credit card with the same bank and picked the wrong loan number when doing an online bill pay.  It took two months to get my money refunded.

So about a week before closing, when you are making final arrangement with the utility companies to turn off service to the residence you are selling, make sure to turn off those automatic bill payments to the mortgage and HOA.  That's something only you can handle.

And so there is no confusion in the future, like with my old car payment, delete closed accounts from your online bill payment center.  

Comments (11)

David Popoff
DMK Real Estate - Darien, CT
Realtor®,SRS, Green ~ Fairfield County, Ct

Automatic bill paying and e-billing are great green services that homeowners can use to lessen the waste of paper and energy.

Jul 30, 2012 04:03 AM
Michael Jacobs
Pasadena, CA
Pasadena And Southern California 818.516.4393

Chris Ann -- a great item to add to the sellers' checklist when selling(and obviously closing) their home.    

Jul 30, 2012 04:03 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

David:  They are super convenient and great ways to go green, but can be a pain in the butt when you've been on autopilot for so long you forget to turn them off and your money is going to pay bills you don't have to pay any longer.

Michael:  Absolutely.  Don't disable auto bill payments until closing is scheduled to happen.

Jul 30, 2012 04:08 AM
Scott Godzyk
Godzyk Real Estate Services - Manchester, NH
One of the Manchester NH's area Leading Agents

Chris Ann this is a tip I needed to use myself and learned the hard way how hard it is to get the money back. Thanks for your comment on my blog, i do not use sarcasm much in my writing and look what happens when I do.... At least it spiced things up...

Jul 30, 2012 06:13 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Scott:  I am very sarcastic person and find that when I write a sarcastic post, I get the same response you did.  Just doesn't translate well in a blog post.

 

Jul 30, 2012 06:52 AM
Will Hamm
Hamm Homes - Aurora, CO
"Where There's a Will, There's a Way!"

Hey Chris Ann, I guess I never figure this out but you are right.  Great informtion from you, thanks.

Jul 30, 2012 07:16 AM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Will:  It's something that I always remember at the settlement table, but I really need to start alerting sellers before that.  

Jul 30, 2012 07:53 AM
Michelle Gibson
Hansen Real Estate Group Inc. - Wellington, FL
REALTOR

Chris Ann - This is a great reminder for anyone who's moving and uses automatic bill pay like myself.

Jul 30, 2012 11:30 PM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Michelle:  I've seen a few clients forget and then panic when the money for the mortgage is automatically sucked out of their account.

Jul 31, 2012 01:07 AM
Elizabeth Weintraub Sacramento Broker
Elizabeth Anne Weintraub, Broker - Sacramento, CA
Put 40 years of experience to work for you

It's especially good advice for those homesellers who might need to be delinquent to do a short sale. They forget to stop paying the bank because it's done automatically for them.

Jul 31, 2012 11:34 PM
Chris Ann Cleland
Long and Foster Real Estate - Gainesville, VA
Associate Broker, Bristow, VA

Elizabeth:  That's right.

Aug 01, 2012 02:59 AM