1 Mortgage. 2 Lenders Demanding Money. It Doesn't Add Up.

Q: We refinanced our home loan in March with an online lender. Within a couple of weeks, we received a letter from another mortgage company, advising us that our May payment was to be made to it.

I contacted the original lender and was told that the loan was not sold. The representative said that if and when that occurs, we would receive a "goodbye letter." That has not happened.

We now have May payment invoices from both lenders and only two weeks to go until the payment is due. We contacted the second lender. It insists that it owns the loan. What should we do? We do not want this to hurt our good credit rating.

A: Until you get notices from both lenders advising that your loan has been sold or assigned, you should continue to pay the first lender.

When you get a mortgage loan, your lender has two options. It can keep the loan in-house -- called a "portfolio" loan -- or it can sell or assign it to an investor.

Why do lenders sell their loans? Many do not have the cash to make all the loans they would like. To get more cash, they sell loans and use the proceeds to make more loans.

The original lender makes money in two main ways. It charges upfront fees, and it may be paid for servicing loans on behalf of the investors. A loan servicer collects your monthly mortgage payments, including escrows for taxes and insurance.

Over the years, there have been serious problems with these mortgage sales. And now, in a turbulent mortgage market, the problems are escalating. There have been a number of documented fraud cases, in which an unscrupulous person obtained the names and addresses of homeowners, which are publicly available, and sent them letters saying that, effective immediately, loan payments should go to them.

You would be surprised at the number of gullible people who blindly follow such dubious instructions without any investigation.

After one or two months of receiving mortgage checks, the scamster folds up and moves on to another locale.

As a result of such mortgage scams, Congress in 1990 started regulating the assignment, transfer and sale of mortgage loans.

When a potential borrower applies for a mortgage from a federally regulated lender, the lender must disclose its policy on assigning or selling loans.