Loan Servicer

Date of Last Revision: August 8, 2026

Your mortgage lender is the financial institution that originally loaned you the money. Your mortgage servicer is the company that sends you your mortgage statements and handles the day-to-day tasks for managing your loan.

Tip

To find out who your servicer is, check your monthly mortgage statement or payment coupon book. If you can’t find a statement or coupon, you can try the MERS® Servicer Identification System toll-free at (888) 679-6377 or visit the MERS® website  . MERS® is a private company that maintains information about mortgage loans and servicers. Your loan servicer’s identity may be listed in the MERS® system.

After you’ve taken out a loan from a mortgage lender, it’s common for a different company to take over your loan as the mortgage servicer.

Your loan servicer typically processes your loan payments, responds to your inquiries, keeps track of principal and interest paid, and manages your tax and insurance escrow account (if you have one). The loan servicer can offer options if you are falling behind on payments as well as initiate foreclosure under certain circumstances.

An escrow shortage means your mortgage escrow account has less money than needed to pay future property taxes and homeowners insurance. This happens when your local tax rates or insurance costs go up higher than your lender expected, causing your balance to drop below the required safety cushion.

Why It Happens

• Higher Bills: Property tax assessments or insurance premiums increase.

• Cushion Drop: The account fails to keep the required minimum balance (usually equal to two months of escrow payments).

• Timing Gaps: Bills are paid out before enough money is collected from your monthly payment.

Shortage vs. Deficiency

• Shortage: The account balance falls below the required minimum target, but still has money in it.

• Deficiency: The account balance goes completely negative because the lender had to pay a bill when no funds were left.

How to Fix It

• Lump Sum: Pay the total missing amount all at once.

• Monthly Increase: Let the lender split the shortage over 12 months and add it to your regular mortgage payment.

On an escrow shortage, your account balance drops below the required minimum due to your property taxes or homeowners insurance bills costing more than expected. When this occurs, your mortgage servicer will recalculate your monthly payment to cover both the upcoming higher rates and the past shortfall.

Why Shortages Increase

• Property tax hikes from local government reassessments.

• Surging homeowners insurance premiums due to inflation and severe weather claims.

• Failure to keep a required safety cushion (usually equal to two months of escrow payments).

How to Handle an Increase

• Pay in full: Send a one-time lump sum payment to your lender by the date listed on your statement to keep your monthly payment from rising as much.

• Spread the cost: Let your lender divide the shortage over 12 months and add it to your ongoing monthly mortgage payment.

• Audit your bills: Check your annual escrow analysis statement for errors, look into local tax exemptions, or shop around for a cheaper insurance policy.

You can request to cancel private mortgage insurance (PMI) from your lender or loan servicer in writing once your principal balance reaches 80% of your home's original value, provided you have a good payment history and no second liens.

Requirements for Removal

• Equity level: Your loan balance must hit 80% of the home's original value (or 75% to 78% depending on lender rules or if relying on fast appreciation).

• Payment history: You must be current on your loan with no payments 30+ days late in the last year, or 60+ days late in the last two years.

• No other liens: There cannot be any secondary claims like a home equity loan or HELOC on the house.

• Home value proof: The lender may require a professional home appraisal to verify the property has not dropped in value.

Steps to Request Removal

• Check your balance: Review your mortgage statements or amortization schedule to confirm when you reach the 80% threshold.

• Contact your servicer: Call your mortgage company or check their online portal to ask for their specific PMI cancellation packet or guidelines.

• Submit a written request: Mail or securely upload a formal written letter asking to cancel your PMI.

• Pay for an appraisal: If requested by the lender, pay for a certified appraiser to inspect the home value.

• Wait for automatic cancellation: By federal law, the lender must cancel it automatically once your balance drops to 78%, as long as you are current on payments.

To request the removal of mortgage insurance (MIP on an FHA loan or PMI on a conventional loan), check your loan type first. If it is an FHA loan with modern rules, MIP usually lasts for the life of the loan and requires refinancing into a conventional loan. If it is a conventional loan, submit a written cancellation request to your mortgage servicer once your principal balance hits 80% of the home's original value.

Check Your Eligibility

• Payment history: Make sure you are current on your payments, with no late payments in the past 12 to 24 months.

• Equity level: Confirm your loan-to-value (LTV) ratio has reached 80% based on the original value, or up to 20%-25% equity if relying on home appreciation after a required waiting period (usually two years).

• No second liens: Verify you have no other loans attached to the property, like a HELOC.

Submit Your Request

• Contact the servicer: Call or log into your Consumer Financial Protection Bureau portal to ask for the specific mailing address or email for formal cancellation requests.

• Send a written letter: Include your loan number, property address, and a clear statement asking to cancel the mortgage insurance.

• Pay for an appraisal: Be ready if the lender asks for a new home appraisal (costing $500 to $700) to prove the property value has not dropped.

Forbearance is a process that can help if you’re struggling to pay your mortgage. Your servicer or lender arranges for you to temporarily pause mortgage payments or make smaller payments. You still owe the full amount, and you pay back the difference later.

Forbearance can help you deal with a financial hardship. For example, forbearance can be helpful if your home was damaged in a natural disaster, you had unexpected medical costs, or you lost your job. Forbearance does not erase or decrease the amount you owe on your mortgage. You have to repay any missed or reduced payments.

How to request mortgage forbearance

Call your mortgage servicer and let them know your situation immediately. Ask them what forbearance or hardship options may be available.

Some mortgage servicers have a requirement that forbearance or hardship assistance must be requested within a specified amount of time after a disaster or other qualifying event.

Mortgage forbearance options

Forbearance is complicated. There isn’t a “one size fits all” answer, because the options depend on many factors. Explain your situation to your mortgage servicer, and ask them for the options available to you. Keep asking questions until you understand:

• The amount you must pay, and for how long payments are paused or reduced

• How interest accrues during that time

• When and how you pay back the paused or reduced amounts

Paused payments, repaid after forbearance ends

Your servicer lets you stop making payments for a specified number of months. Then, you pay the whole amount back at once when your payments restart.

What to consider:

• You owe a big bill that comes due at one time

• Interest on the paused amounts could continue to add up until you repay them

Paused payments, paid back at the end of the mortgage

Your servicer lets you pause payments for a specified number of months. Then, the amount is repaid either by adding more payments at the end of your mortgage loan, or by taking out a new loan.

What to consider:

• Adding the missed payments at the end of your loan means your mortgage could extend longer than the original term

• Repaying the missed payments with a new loan means that at the end of your mortgage term, you have to pay back the new loan all at once

• Interest on the missed amounts could continue to add up until you repay them

Payment reduction, repaid during the mortgage term

Your servicer lets you reduce your monthly mortgage payment for a specified number of months. When the time is up, you spread out your repayments and pay them back by increasing your monthly payment.

What to consider:

• The amount of the reduction is spread out over a specified number of months and added to your mortgage payment for those months, so your monthly payment increases during that period

• Interest on any reduced amounts could continue to add up until you repay them

Where to find help with mortgage forbearance

Contact your current mortgage servicer and ask to speak with the loss mitigation department. You must formally asked for a forbearance. Many servicers will not volunteer this information.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-certified housing counselors  can discuss options with you if you're having trouble paying your mortgage or managing your reverse mortgage. Find a housing counselor

If you have a reverse mortgage, you can contact a reverse mortgage housing counseling agency  or default counseling agency  approved by HUD.

If you’re facing foreclosure or have been served with legal papers, there could be resources to assist you through your local bar association or legal aid. If you are a servicemember, contact your local Legal Assistance Office .

A mortgage loan modification is a change in your loan terms. The modification is a type of loss mitigation.

The modification can reduce your monthly payment to an amount you can afford. 

Modifications may involve extending the number of years you have to repay the loan, reducing your interest rate, and/or forbearing or reducing your principal balance.  

If you are offered a loan modification, be sure you know how it will change your monthly payments and the total amount that you will owe in the short-term and the long-term.

Worried about foreclosure?

For more information about how to avoid foreclosure, contact your current loan servicer. If you are facing imminent foreclosure or have been served with legal papers, you may also need to consult an attorney.