We receive a lot of "last minute" calls from settlement service providers saying "The closing is in 1 hour and we need loan payoff information immediately!" Our employee then has to drop everything and get this information out to the requestor. I was wondering if any of you charge third parties (not the customer) a fee for this service, and if so, how much do you charge and how do you handle it operationally?
Leslie

Of equal importance, how do you justify confirming that your customer has a loan with your bank and disclosing the current balance and still conform to your privacy policy?

Quoting payoffs is an exception to complete a transaction. The question is to verify whom you are giving it too. And yes we'll charge a fee. I haven't looked at that in some time and don't know if we require a form up front with payment or set up accounts for those worth the credit, so to speak.

We do not provide payoff information without a written "demand statement" and we do charge for it. Some states regulate how much you can charge your customer but if you federally regulated those provisions may be preempted and you can charge what you want.