Wave goodbye to escrow
It’s final: our escrow payments are no more. It was surprisingly easy to have escrow stopped on our mortgage. (One phone call was all it took.) We got the official letter saying that we are now responsible for paying our own taxes and insurance almost right away, and a check for the balance of our escrow account shortly afterwards.
The mortgage company’s only requirement is that we send them proof of payment annually so that they know we’re not slackers. (Ok, so presumably it’s so that they know their interest is protected…) I set up an ING account specifically for our “self-escrow”, and have the due dates for the taxes and insurance written in the calendar now, so we’re all set.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
I’ve got taxes & insurance payments going into an escrow account. What are the advantages of doing it yourself?
December 6th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Pretty much that you can earn interest on the money in the meantime, and that you’ll know your taxes and insurance are paid on time. (Although I have never had a problem with them being paid on time through escrow either.) I wrote a little more about it previously.