Mortgage service charges are a pain, but when dealing with loans – especially home equity loans – they’re just another part of life. Send a payment a couple days late, get a charge. It’s life.

But is it? With some home equity loans, it’s not as much a matter of if you deserve the charges, but if they’re charging you anyway. Its part of a scam that’s most common with home equity loans, and it’s a way to get you to pay more than you actually owe. These sorts of scams are targeted towards low income families, minorities, and the elderly.

So, you’ve gotten a home equity loan – any type of home equity loans, as none are immune to scams – and you’ve paid a few months. You may get a letter in the mail, saying that you’re going to be charged a late fee because they didn’t get your payment until after it’s date, even though you’re sure that you paid on time.

You also may get a letter, or a call, from your home equity loans lender, saying that you have failed to provide the minimum amount of insurance, and that he’s going to buy the more costly insurance at your cost, even though it was agreed that you would take of that.

Charges could be added to your bill each month – charges you don’t know, or understand, like legal fees, which increase the end amount that you owe.

It makes it very difficult to keep track of what you owe, and what you’ve paid – and a lot of times, if you attempt to refinance with another lender, your original home equity loans lender won’t have an accurate or full account of what you’ve paid, making it extremely difficult.

To avoid bad home equity loans like this, make sure to find a lender that you trust, or has been recommended by a friend or family member. If there are any charges you don’t understand, talk to your lender right away, and keep complete records of everything you’ve paid on any home equity loans, so there won’t be any disputes on how much you owe.