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Lending Institution Posting Payments Incorrectly

My lending institution has not been posting my loan payments on the day that I made them. Is the institution responsible for reposting the payment to the correct day and recalculating the interest? What are my rights if they are supposed to do so but refuse to make the corrections?


The first issue here is to ensure that they received them on the day you believe they did. If you send an internet bill payment today, that absolutely does not mean your bank received it that day.

Some people believe that a lender has to credit the payment as of the date of the postmark. That is not correct. Making a loan payment to a drive-up teller at 6 PM also will generally not be considered paid on that day. It may roll to the next business day.

State laws generally require a lender to credit an account as of the business or calendar date the payment is in their hands. Some years ago a credit card payment processor was fined because it failed to do this. They would hold some payments until a late fee accrued. They were fined for this action and subject to more scrutiny in the years to come.

Another issue here is that of the interest. Depending on how your interest accrues, applying a payment today or tomorrow may have no impact on your interest. 30 days of interest may be charged regardless of when you make the payment. Late payments may have a fee added after a predetermined number of days, commonly 10 or 15 days.

In some cases, a borrower may have true simple interest loan. This is where the daily loan balance accrues interest every day. In this instance a day could make a difference. If you know that your bank is crediting your payment a day or more after they actually have the payment, and this is causing the cost of your loan to increase, you need to complain to your bank's regulatory agency or your state's Attorney General.

Published on BankingQuestions.com 3/13/08