The Sideshow80 cent check typo nearly costs man his home
A Florida man who accidentally put a "0" near the end of his mortgage check instead of an "8," nearly lost his home.
The Tampa Tribune reports that Tom Mudie had recently been approved for a mortgage modification program that lowered his monthly payment by $200. But when Mudie's monthly check was off by 80 cents, authorities threatened to take away both his reduced payment rate and the home itself.
"I want to keep my home," Mudie said. "And to lose it over 80 cents is crazy."
Mudie said he'd committed the typo while paying his monthly mortgage bill over the phone, mistakenly entering $615.02 instead of the required $615.82 payment. A customer service representative at Bank of America told Mudie to just send in a second check for 80 cents, which he did.
"I did everything they told me to," Mudie said. "I wrote the check for 80 cents, as crazy as that sounds. I included it with my next payment. They cashed it."
But the next month, Bank of America returned the check with a letter declaring,
"Your loan is not eligible for the Fannie Mae modification program because you did not make all the required trial period plan payments by the end of the trial period."
He also received a "hone transition guide" from United Way designed to help him prepare for his foreclosure. "When you start seeing that," Mudie said, "you start thinking charities and stuff. So I knew that I am in trouble."
Thankfully, Bank of America has responded to Mudie's complaint and is addressing the issue. Bank of America spokeswoman Jumana Bauwens said the bank is in the process of correcting the error and will restore Mudie's lower mortgage payment plan.
"He's in the process of getting a permanent modification," Bauwens said. "The paperwork is not finalized, but that 80 cent error is not going to create any additional issues for him."
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