FAQ

We project annually how much you’ll need to set aside in your escrow account for the upcoming year. The projected amount is based on the taxes and/or insurance premi­ums you paid during the previous 12 months. The total amount is divided by 12 to determine your projected monthly escrow payment. An important thing to keep in mind: customers are required to have a “cushion” in their ac­count, which is equal to two months of escrow payments.

An escrow shortage occurs when, even with a positive escrow balance, there are not enough funds in the account to pay your yearly project­ed taxes and insurance. By having a two-month cushion, you should have enough funds to cover unexpected tax and/or insurance increases; however, in some cases, insurance and tax premium increases may still exceed the amount in your escrow account.

Please note: Changes to your tax and/or in­surance premiums could result in a change in your monthly loan payment. This information is supplied on your escrow analysis statement described above.

An escrow surplus occurs if your taxes and/or insurance costs were lower than expected.

Every year, we review your escrow account to make sure there’s enough money in it to cover your taxes and/or insurance premiums. We send you a summary statement of this report on August 1st. It includes a review of escrow account activity during the past year, and payment projections for the next 12 months. It’s important that you take the time to review this document when you receive it.

Your escrow account, in a sense, is a savings account that is managed by First Internet Bank as your mortgage servicer. We deposit a portion of your mortgage payment into the escrow account to cover your estimated real estate taxes and insurance premiums.

APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate, a measure of the cost of credit expressed as a yearly rate. It is the finance charge on a loan over a one-year period expressed as a percentage. This is used to calculate and compare the actual finance costs of your loan. Learn more.

A fixed rate does not change over the life of the loan. A variable rate, also known as an adjustable or floating rate, is adjusted periodically and is usually based on a standard market rate outside the control of the bank, such as the prime interest rate. These rates often have a specified floor and/or ceiling, called a cap or a collar, which limit the adjustment.

First Internet Bank does not sell your information to any third party for marketing purposes!

During the course of reviewing a loan application, we will request your credit report and credit score from the major credit bureaus. All three national credit bureaus have ‘event-based trigger’ programs, which identify you to be in the market for new credit in the near-term based on certain changes in your credit profile. In this case, the fact that you are applying for a mortgage may indicate that you are likely to be shopping for a mortgage. Other lenders purchase this information and will contact you quickly in an attempt to win your business before you close your loan.

Event-based trigger programs are legal, even if you don’t particularly like them. They meet all Fair Credit Reporting Act regulations and guidelines and are presently offered by all three national credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion). Consumer information could vary depending on the credit bureau providing the trigger notification service, but lenders may purchase a list that includes your name, address, inquiry type, credit score, and other optional data attributes. They may buy your phone number from a third-party provider.

If you do not want to receive pre-screened offers of credit and insurance, you have two choices: You can opt out of receiving them for five years or opt out of receiving them permanently by calling toll-free 1-888-5-OPTOUT (1-888-567-8688) or visiting www.optoutprescreen.com for details. The telephone number and website are operated by the major consumer reporting companies. When you call or visit the website, you’ll be asked to provide certain personal information, including your home telephone number, name, Social Security number, and date of birth. The information you provide is confidential and will be used only to process your request to opt out.

If you have joint credit relationships, like a mortgage or a car loan with a spouse, partner or other adult, you may continue to receive pre-screened solicitations until both of you exercise your opt-out right. Opting out has no effect on your credit score or your ability to apply for or obtain credit or insurance. Requests to opt out are processed within five days, but it may take up to 60 days before you stop receiving pre-screened offers. Calling the opt-out line or visiting the website will stop the pre-screened solicitations that are based on lists from the major consumer reporting companies. You may continue to get solicitations for credit and insurance based on lists from other sources. For example, opting out won’t end solicitations from local merchants, religious and charitable associations, professional and alumni associations, and companies with which you already conduct business. To stop mail from groups like these — as well as mail addressed to ‘occupant’ or ‘resident’ — you must contact each source directly.

Your online banking password ensures that only you can access your confidential information. Your password must more than six characters, is case sensitive, and must contain a mix of letters, numbers and special characters (!@#$ etc.), but cannot contain spaces. Please remember this password and keep it secure. If you forget your password, you will have to be reset.

Your password is one of the most important defenses you have for protecting your account information! Here are some tips for choosing (and protecting) a strong password: Try to memorize the password, and avoid writing it down. Mix letters, numbers and symbols, and use case sensitivity (upper and lower case letters). This makes it harder to ‘crack’ your password. Find a good way to remember it. For example, choose the first letters of a sentence that you will remember. ‘I have 2 dogs called Rover and Fido’ translates to Ih2dcRaF. Use punctuation to your advantage.

Also, avoid using:

• The name or birth date of your spouse, child, pet or other loved one
• Social Security or phone numbers
• Any part of your physical address
• Other information that is easily obtained about you (your alma mater, mother’s maiden name, or past address, for instance)
• Any username on the computer in any form
• A word in the English or foreign dictionary
• A password used on another site
• Any of the above spelled backwards
• Sequences: “12345678,” “abcdefg” or passwords that could easily be advanced: “January2015,” “February2015,” “March2015,” etc.

Above all… Do not share your password with anyone! The employees of First Internet Bank do not need your online banking password to answer your questions or troubleshoot your account.

Pending: We have not yet received confirmation of a successful transaction. This process generally requires four business days. You may see an indication of the transaction in the account balance of the source account but not the destination account of your funds transfer.

Complete: The transfer is confirmed. The transaction will be reflected in your account balances with your institutions as a withdrawal from your source account and a deposit in your destination account. It’s a good idea to verify the transaction with your financial institutions.

Rejected: We were unable to remove the funds from the source account or place the funds in your destination account. You will be notified by email if we receive a return notice on your transaction indicating the transfer could not be completed. Typical causes of failed or returned funds transfers are: incorrect account number or bank ABA routing number provided during the account setup or lack of sufficient funds in the source account.

Complete (Return): Occasionally, we’ll receive a return from the ACH system indicating a problem with the transaction after the normal four business day waiting period. This designation indicates that we received the return notice after having already designated the funds transfer as Complete. It’s possible that you’ll see a record of the debit on the account statement of your source account. If this does occur, the funds will be automatically returned to that account, appearing as a credit on your account statement.