What Are Mortgage Servicing Companies?

A mortgage lender provides the money you need to purchase a home, while a mortgage servicing company collects your monthly payments.

Like a waiter at a restaurant, the loan servicer is the one you interact with, direct your questions to and pay your bill through. And while the same company can perform both roles, mortgage servicing companies are usually separate from lenders, so it’s important to know who’s who.

Key differences: Mortgage servicing vs. mortgage lending

Your mortgage lender is the financial institution that gives you the cash to buy a home. It can be a bank, credit union, online lender or other party. The lender can assign responsibility for collecting your loan over to a mortgage servicing company at any time, usually right after your contract is signed.

Your loan servicer deals with all of the paperwork, accounting and correspondence with you after you’ve signed on the dotted line. It can answer your questions and help solve any problems that come up. It’s also your contact if you have trouble paying your mortgage and might help you come up with a plan to avoid foreclosure (or minimize your losses).

Note that while you get to choose which lender you borrow from, you won’t get to pick your mortgage servicer. In fact, your servicer may change one or more times while you’re repaying the loan.

How to find your loan servicer

Look at your mortgage payment paperwork

You can find both your mortgage lender and loan servicer’s names on your monthly mortgage statements and your mortgage payment coupon book.

Use a the MERS database

If you don’t have your statement or coupon book handy, you can use the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS), a public database that tracks most mortgages in the U.S. All you need to do is call (888) 679-6377 or go to the MERS website.

→ You can look up your mortgage servicer online using MERS with nothing more than the home’s address.

How do I find out who my mortgage lender is?

You can also use the MERS database to look up your loan’s lender. However, to look up a loan’s lender, you’ll need to be the borrower or authorized by the borrower and have their last name and Social Security number (SSN).

You can also write a formal letter requesting to be told who owns or guarantees your mortgage. Federal law typically requires your servicer to respond within 30 days.

What happens if my servicer changes?

If your servicer changes, you should receive a letter from both the old servicer and the new one, telling you what’s going on.

If the change in servicer happened because your mortgage was sold, you may also receive a borrower notification letter telling you who purchased the mortgage.

When your loan servicer changes, you’ll need to:

• Change who you make payments to. If you pay by check, you’ll need to make them out to a different name and mail them to a different address. If you make payments electronically, you’ll need to make sure they’re set up to go to your new servicer.
• Keep an eye out for errors. It’s not unusual for errors and delays to occur when a loan’s servicing company changes. Make sure you’re keeping records of any payments you make — especially extra payments — so that you can spot problems.

Can I change my mortgage loan servicer?

You can’t choose your loan servicer — your lender is in charge of that, and you don’t get a say.

If you’re having problems with the servicer, communicate directly with that servicer and keep records of everything.

The only way you can change your loan servicer is by refinancing your home with a new loan. Be careful, though: You’ll want to ask whether your new lender uses the same loan servicer you’re trying to ditch.