Mortgage servicer claimed I had a $3,410 escrow shortage after transfer. After I challenged the math, it became $708.

My mortgage was recently transferred to a new servicer, and almost immediately I received an escrow analysis increasing my monthly escrow payment by $291.

My taxes did not go up, nor did my insurance - the explanation they gave was that I supposedly had a $3410 escrow shortage.

Except I could not make the math work out to that amount.

I pulled my final escrow statement from the previous servicer, county property tax records, homeowners insurance statement for next year, and the records from the new servicer.

The original analysis projected that my escrow account would reach -$2183 in October, and said I needed a minimum balance of $1227, creating the $3410 shortage.

But the analysis appeared to be based on some imaginary escrow balance that didn't reflect any real numbers.

Using the base escrow contribution of about $614/mo., I calculated that my lowest balance would be about $518, not negative. So...technically there was a shortage relative to their required two-month cushion (which is insane to me on its own, but here were are), but again, not negative.

So when I called, the person on the other end first tried explaining what an escrow was for about 5 minutes. Then at one point, I was told part of the problem was that they pay my October property taxes in September to avoid late fees, even though the actual written escrow analysis shows that's disbursed in October.

Eventually she agreed to submit a request for a new escrow analysis using current account numbers. It took about nine business days, and I called again yesterday (after eight days) because I hadn't heard a peep.

Anyway, my new analysis reflects the numbers I was able to calculate on my own now. My new "shortage" is $708, which is only because I need to have a two month minimum.

Had I just accepted the original analysis, they would have collected an additional $284/mo for the next 12 months to cover a $3410 that didn't exist.

So PSA: If your mortgage gets transferred and you suddenly receive a massive escrow shortage, don't assume the servicer's computer must be right.