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Payoff and balance request letter
You are entitled to know what you owe. Getting a written payoff figure is also the fastest way to find out whether the numbers you have been told add up.
Ask three funders for a payoff figure and you will get three different levels of cooperation. That in itself is information. A written payoff with a good-through date is what you need to refinance, to settle, or simply to check that the debits you have been watching leave the balance where anyone says it is. Ask in writing, and ask for the ledger, not just the number.
There is a second reason to ask. Some agreements price a payoff at the full remaining purchased amount, no matter how early you pay — meaning there is no discount for paying in month two instead of month six, and the effective cost of an early payoff is brutal. Others build in a small early-payoff schedule. The only way to know which one you signed is to make them put the number in writing next to the contract term.
The letter
Reading the answer
- Compare item 3 to your bank statements yourself. Missing debits, doubled debits and fees that appear in the ledger but not in the contract are all things people find on the first honest look.
- Item 6 matters more than it looks. If the paper has been sold, the company calling you may no longer be the party you can settle with.
- Item 7 tells you why the phone rings. A UCC filing is public, and it is the reason a dozen brokers know your business took an advance. See why brokers call you.
- Silence is an answer. A funder who will not put a payoff figure in writing is telling you something about how the rest of the relationship will go, and the unanswered written request belongs in your file.
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