For the past 30 years, I have paid my mortgages on various houses I have financed - ALWAYS on time. I figure that even if you don't have anything else, you still need a place to live, so that bill gets paid first.

Since December of 2009, Charter One Mortgage has begun calling mortgage holders 3 days after the due date 3-5 times per day to offer to take the payment over the phone, and warn me that I am now in my grace period.

Having never missed a single mortgage payment in 30 years of paying them, I was shocked at the collection style call. I asked the operator who called how many payments I had missed in my 3.5 years of being with Charter One. She promptly told me 'none, and would you like to use a mastercard, visa, amex, or direct debit to pay the mortgage today?"

Whn I replied no, she asked me when I would be making the payment. I had been typing in the background furiously to log on to my bank and see if the paynent had cleared yet, and it had cleared the day before. I informed her of that, and she told me "that her records showed no payment had been made, and would you like to use visa, mastercard, amex, or direct debit to pay it right now?".

When I asked for a supervisor, she argued with me that until the payment was made, no supervisor would be provided. I hung up. In January of 2010, my payment cleared my bank on the 4th, and on the 4th through today, the 8th I have received 3 calls per day from them.

If you use the grace period to pay your mortgage in, DO NOT use Charter One, or their collections department will begin to abuse you every month!!!

I've read on another discussion board that these people are actually NOT affiliated with the bank, they are scammers trying to phish personal information from the caller. I've registered a complaint with the Do Not Call registry - apparently the information goes to a database that ultimately reaches law enforcement. Hopefully they'll be shut down soon.