Warning: a simple wire transfer almost cost me a house closing last month

I was at the title company's office in Phoenix, ready to sign the final papers on a new place. The last step was to wire the down payment, about $45,000, from my online bank. I initiated it the day before, but at the closing table, the funds weren't there. My heart just dropped. The title agent said the wire had been flagged and sent back because the name on my bank account didn't exactly match the name on the title paperwork. My bank account is under 'Lily Singh' but the contract said 'Lily K. Singh'. I had to call my bank right there, get a supervisor, and have them re-send the wire with a note explaining the middle initial. It took two more hours of pure stress before it cleared. Has anyone else had a wire held up over a tiny name mismatch like that?

4 comments

4 Comments

quinna8929d ago

Oh perfect... the bank's fraud detection is a middle initial. That's what stops the scammers, I guess.

phoenixw1129d ago

That sounds like a nightmare. Did the title company give you a heads up about needing an exact name match beforehand? Seems like something they should warn people about.

vera_robinson3629d ago

phoenixw11 makes a good point about the title company, but honestly, the real nightmare starts with the mortgage lender. They'll run your credit, approve the loan, and then underwriting hits you with the name mismatch as a "condition to close" two days before signing. Suddenly you're scrambling for a notary and overnighting a sworn statement to prove you're the same person who got the pre-approval. It's a system designed to create last minute panic.

victorh814d ago

Yeah, I read a whole article about this. It said the main problem is that banks and title companies use totally different computer systems that don't talk to each other. So a tiny difference like a middle name versus an initial can completely freeze the whole process because the automatic check just kicks it out.