Mortgage Watchdog Program

[Dude]

Hi,
Has anyone tried this Mortgage Watchdog program Quapi keeps promoting...?

Sounds interesting, that they will give you your money back plus $100 if it doesnt work.

I guess it probably does work but only finds a couple of dollars worth of errors...

Dude

[becareful]

Dude,

I haven't tried it because I have a spreadsheet I have used to check my loan - have never found an error on mine (AMP Bank). However I have spoken to people who have found errors on their loans (mainly with the major banks).

Most common error I have heard of is the "leap year" error which most banks seem to sneak in - they quote an annual interest rate (eg. 8%) but during a leap year they still divide this by 365 instead of 366 so basically you are charged an extra days interest that year. I notice that the conditions on the $100 offer require you to check 4 years of history so this is probably the error they are counting on finding.

Other relatively common "errors" are calculating interest on the daily balance BEFORE any payments are deducted. eg. Outstanding balance today is $100,000 but you make your monthly payment of $1000 - the correct calculation should be to work out interest on 99,000 but some banks have been caught "mistakenly" calculating on 100,000 - this one can add up to quite a lot of interest over the life of the loan. Also incorrect rounding of interest rates and/or interest deducted from account are almost always in banks favour as are mistakes in changing interest rates (eg. rate drop in middle of month but not reflected in interest calculation until the next month)

So would I buy the program? Probably not because I know how to check it myself. If you don't have this knowledge then it comes down to a bit of a gamble - most likely the program will only find a few dollars but there is the real possibility of many thousands of dollars in errors. If you have a big loan then I would probably give it a go (bigger the loan the bigger any error will be) or find someone who can check it with a spreadsheet.

[Mark]

I guess we'll soon find out. My bank has actually undercharged me a few cents each & every month.

[Dude]

Mark,
Did you say undercharged ??

Did you use the program to find that ?

Thanks
Dude

[Mark]

Dude
Sure did, it ranged from 9c to $1.80 p/m every month for around 3 years.

[Dude]

Mark,
I hope you havent brought this to the banks attention, that could add up to a lot with the compounding effect.

So, it didnt find any errors in your favour then ?
Was the program easy to use ?
Would you advise it ?

Thanks,
Dude

[Mark]

Ssshhh they might be listening.
Relatively easy to use after a bit of mucking around.
Not one month did the program come up with me being overcharged.
Depends if you trust your bank, or banks in general, I certainly don't.

[becareful]

So have you got your money back + $100 from the Mortgage Watchdog people?