A lot of smaller banks and credit unions have gotten out of the mortgage business altogether right now, too, so the larger ones may be your only optioin. I've had the same problem trying to refi one of mine. I owe $33K on it, but the rate is 5.25%. I wanted to re-fi at $50K and pay off a Heloc on another property and do some improvements to the mortgaged property (carpet, windows, paint, light fixtures). Nobody was really interested and the closing costs would have been higher than the interest savings anyway since the property only has 5 more years left on the note.

One solution would be to take out a larger loan - whatever the banks minimum is - and they will issue you a check at closing. Turn around and pay it back on the mortgage. Granted your monthly payments will be higher, but in the end, you will pay it off a lot sooner then the current loan. Depending on what your current interest rate is, the payments may not be that much higher. I don't know.

I know when mine got transferred, there was a 2 month grace period - not that you didn't make a payment for 2 months, but that you could make them to the old mortgage company and they old mortgage company had to accept them. I've had several mortgages sold and one that was sold multiple times (first to CountryWide and then to BofA) and don't remember the due dates changing on any of them. Your original loan docs should have a payment due date and any new mortgage company is not allowed to change the terms of your loan. I'm guessing they probably are in their right to charge fees if they want for online payments because that wasn't really a part of your loan terms and anything not in the loan terms is subject to change. But, I do believe payment due dates are in those terms and can not be changed.