I lost my house during Hurricane Ike. The insurance company paid my wife and Citi Residential Mortgage as payees a check for $121,000.00. to pay of the mortgage of $60,000. They are to refund the difference. They received the check on 10/28 and deposited it on 10/30. Paid off the mortgage on 11/10 and now want 25 days to send me the balance. Charged us interest until the pay off and will not pay any interest on the balance. Is this legal to hold the funds that long?

I think you have a strong complaint. The check should have been paid by the time the mortgage payoff was completed (that may be why they waiting that long). There is simply no reasonable excuse for sitting on the balance of your funds for another 25 days.

I recommend that you contact the mortgage group and state your case once again. If you get stonewalled, you should escalate your call to a supervisor.

I opened a savings account online. The bank's website states that they will hold the initial deposit for 10 days, and subsequent deposit for 5 days. I made a deposit 2 days after opening the account and am now being told that they are going to hold the second deposit for the balance of the initial deposit hold time. All deposits were made by ACH so it is not a matter of waiting for funds to clear. They claim that it takes 10 days to verify the account. Is it legal to hold collected funds for that length of time?

There's no federal rule on savings account holds. I agree that those hold times seem excessive given the fact the funds arrived via ACH. However, if the bank sticks to its posted holds schedule, I don't think you have a legitimate complaint.