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Mortgage Servicing Transfers: When Your Payment Address Changes

The company collecting your mortgage payments can change without a new loan replacing the old one. Knowing the difference between the lender, owner, and servicer helps you interpret the notices. Keep your payment history, verify the new contact details independently, and check that balances and automatic payment instructions survive the transfer correctly.

The questions below use selected Consumer Financial Protection Bureau guidance, adapted and organized by Fynoptic. Source links and the dates displayed by those sources are provided at the end.

What happens if the company that I send my mortgage payments to changes?

The company that you send your monthly mortgage payments to is your mortgage servicer. Your servicer can change.

Your mortgage servicer may transfer the mortgage servicing rights for your loan to another company to service your loan.

If your mortgage servicing rights are transferred to a new servicer, you will need to start sending your monthly payments to the new servicer after a certain date. You will also need to direct any questions about your loan to the new servicer.

You should be notified of the transfer before it happens

Your old and new servicers generally must send you a notice telling you about the transfer of the servicing rights to your loan. Your old servicer generally should send this notice at least 15 days before your loan’s servicing rights are transferred to the new servicer. Your new servicer generally should send a notice to you within 15 days after the servicing rights for your loan are transferred unless it was combined with the first notice. The notice(s) should tell you:

  • The date on which your old servicer will stop accepting payments
  • The date on which your new servicer will begin to accept payments
  • The new servicer’s name and their contact information
  • The specific date the right to service your loan transferred to the new servicer

Make sure to send your payments to the new servicer

If you send your payments to the wrong servicer after you’ve been notified of the servicing transfer, your payments may not be credited properly. Here’s what to do:

  • Pay attention to the date you need to start sending your payments to the new servicer. Be sure to account for additional time if you send your mortgage payments by mail.
  • If you authorize your bank’s or credit union’s online bill payment system to automatically pay your mortgage payment, you will need to tell your bank or credit union to make those payments to the new servicer. Learn more in our blog about automatic debit payments.
  • Carefully review your monthly mortgage statement to confirm that your payments are being credited accurately.

Additionally, for 60 days from the date your loan servicing transfers, your new servicer cannot charge you a late fee or treat the payment as late if you sent it to your previous servicer on time or within the applicable grace period.

Issues related to servicing transfers

If you’re having issues with your mortgage because your servicer has changed, you may want to send both your old and new servicers an information request or a notice of error. For example, you should send a notice if:

  • You never received a notice of transfer
  • You think your payments are not being applied correctly
  • You had an application for loss mitigation with your old servicer and your new servicer isn’t working with you on that application

How can I tell who owns my mortgage?

You can look up who owns your mortgage online, call, or send a written request to your servicer asking who owns your mortgage. The servicer has an obligation to provide you, to the best of its knowledge, the name, address, and telephone number of who owns your loan.

It’s not always easy to tell who owns your mortgage. Many mortgage loans are sold and the servicer you pay every month may not own your mortgage. Whenever the owner of your loan transfers the mortgage to a new owner, the new owner is required to send you a notice.

If you don’t know who owns your mortgage, there are different ways to find out.

Call your mortgage servicer

You can find the number for your mortgage servicer on your monthly mortgage statement or coupon book.

Look it up online

There are some online tools you can use to look up who owns your mortgage.

You can look up your mortgage servicer by searching the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) website.

Send a written request

Another option is to send a written request to your mortgage servicer. Your servicer is obligated to provide you, to the best of their knowledge, with the name, address, and telephone number of the owner of your loan. You can send a Qualified Written Request or a Request for Information.

Here is a sample letter to help you write your mortgage servicer to request information.

What happens if my mortgage is sold? Is my loan safe?

If your loan is sold, then your lender must provide you with a loan ownership transfer notice.

If your loan is sold, then the new owner of your loan is required to notify you within 30 days of the effective date of transfer. The notice will include the date of transfer, name, address, and telephone number of the new owner (and, if different, the person who can resolve issues concerning your loan payments).

It is common for loan holders to sell loans to another financial institution. It’s called the secondary market and frees up money for lenders to give mortgages to new borrowers.

Just because your loan is sold does not mean that your servicer will change. If the servicing rights to your loan are sold, you will receive a notice about it. They cannot change the terms of your agreement, but it’s important to follow the new loan payment instructions in that notice, so that you do not miss any payments or send payments to the wrong address.

Learn more about what to do if the company that services your mortgage changes.

What's the difference between a mortgage lender and a mortgage servicer?

Your mortgage lender is the financial institution that originally loaned you the money. Your mortgage servicer is the company that sends you your mortgage statements and handles the day-to-day tasks for managing your loan.

Tip

To find out who your servicer is, check your monthly mortgage statement or payment coupon book. If you can’t find a statement or coupon, you can try the MERS® Servicer Identification System toll-free at (888) 679-6377 or visit the MERS® website . MERS® is a private company that maintains information about mortgage loans and servicers. Your loan servicer’s identity may be listed in the MERS® system.

After you’ve taken out a loan from a mortgage lender, it’s common for a different company to take over your loan as the mortgage servicer.

Your loan servicer typically processes your loan payments, responds to your inquiries, keeps track of principal and interest paid, and manages your tax and insurance escrow account (if you have one). The loan servicer can offer options if you are falling behind on payments as well as initiate foreclosure under certain circumstances.

Sources and further reading

The CFPB source passages are U.S. government work in the public domain. Fynoptic has selected, organized, and adapted the material for this guide, including corrections identified through the additional sources listed above. Sources accessed October 27, 2026. This use does not imply agency endorsement or affiliation.

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