| FAQs |
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Index By Topic
I. REGISTRATION/ACCESSQ1. How do I get my organization set up in VA Funding Fee System (FFPS)?A1. Once your organization is approved as a VA lender, submit a help ticket via https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/help and request assistance with “FFPS Organization Set Up” in the Issue Category and Description so VA can route the ticket properly. Your request will be processed by the group responsible for setting up new lenders. Be prepared to provide your lender ID, debit account number and routing number. They will work with you directly to get your organization registered and the first FFPS lender admin user created. The FFPS lender admin can then create any additional accounts your organization needs for other users. Do not include bank information in your help ticket. Q2. How do I register in the VA Funding Fee System (FFPS)? A2. If your organization is already registered (i.e. other employees at your organization can already login to FFPS), your organization's FFPS lender admin must set up your account. Q3. How can I find out who my FFPS lender admin is? I don't think any Lender admin still work for my organization, what should I do? A3. If you are unable to determine who your organization's FFPS lender admin is, submit a help ticket via https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/help for assistance. Be sure to put “FFPS Admin” in the Issue Category and Description and include your lender ID and question so that the Help Desk can quickly identify your organization's FFPS lender admin(s). If it is determined that your firm no longer has any active lender admins, the Help Desk will facilitate setting up a new FFPS Lender admin. NOTE:The Help Desk only assists with ensuring that your organization has one active Lender admin. The new admin will be responsible for conducting any additional maintenance once their account is setup. Q4. How do I link my LGY Hub account to FFPS? A4. If you do not already have an LGY Hub account, create an account via https://lgy.va.gov/ by selecting the link to ‘Sign In or Register for New Account’. Refer to the LGY Hub User Guide for more details. If you already have a LGY Hub account, log in via https://lgy.va.gov/. Click on your name to access your profile. Select the ‘Affiliate Information’ tab. Check the FFPS box and enter your FFPS username and password that have been provided by your FFPS lender admin. If you encounter any issues creating a LGY Hub account or connecting your FFPS and LGY Hub accounts, please reference the LGY Hub FAQs or submit a help ticket via https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/help for assistance. Q5. I was logged into the system but when I tried to enter data I was returned to the login screen. Why? A5. The system terminated your session due to inactivity, you will need to login again. For security, the system times out users after a fifteen-minute period of inactivity. II. USER MANAGEMENTQ6. How many people do we have to add as Users?A6. Only one user is required, but your organization may register additional users. You must have a separate user ID for each person using the system. The initial user ID for your firm was given the FFPS lender admin role. If you have other users, they will need to be added to FFPS by the lender admin. Additionally, each user will need to have or register for an LGY Hub account and link their FFPS user ID to their LGY Hub account. Refer to the LGY Hub User Guide for more details. Q7. I am the lender admin, how do I add/delete users or update their lender role? A7. To add a user, select Create User from the FFPS User menu and then complete the required fields. A user can be given the role of lender admin, lender or lender view-only. To delete a user or change their user role, select Search Users from the FFPS User menu, once the list of Users appears, select View for the user you would like to update and take the applicable action. Maintaining users is the responsibility of the lender. We strongly encourage you to always have at least two FFPS lender admins so that you always have someone available to handle FFPS access and account maintenance issues. Q8. What is the difference between a lender admin, lender and lender view-only? A8. A lender account is the standard user account in FFPS. A user with the lender role can perform all funding fee payment related activities for the lender. The lender admin account can also add and delete lender users. A lender view-only account cannot make payments or corrections. Their role is simply to view the data. Q9. I am the Lender admin, how do I add another lender administrator for my organization? A9. Follow the instructions for creating a new account. When you select the role during the account setup, select Lender Administrator. If the person you would like to make an FFPS Lender Administrator already has an FFPS account, use the "Search Users" option to locate their user account. Select Lender Administrator from the dropdown in the Role field and click Update. Q10. I am the lender admin, how do I reset a password for a user? A10. The password created by FFPS is only used to link an FFPS account to an LGY Hub account. You should only need to reset a password for an existing FFPS user whose password expired before they linked their FFPS account to their LGY Hub account. Users should refer to the LGY Hub User Guide for instructions on registering for the LGY Hub and linking their FFPS account. To reset the password, use the Search Users option from the menu and complete the requested information and hit Search. If there are multiple accounts returned select View next to the correct user account. Click on Reset Password and confirm that you want to reset the user's password. The new temporary password will be displayed. Provide the user their password using any secure communication option your organization has (i.e. encrypted email). If the user's profile is missing information, FFPS will require that you add the information and click update, before allowing you to reset the password. III. SUBMITTING A PAYMENTQ11. How many days do we (the lender) have to pay the funding fee?A11. Lenders must remit the VA funding fee electronically within 15 calendar days (not business days) of loan closing. If not submitted with 15 calendar days, a late fee of 4% of the funding fee will be assessed. NOTE: If submitted more than 30 days late, interest will also be assessed. Q12. Why is it necessary to input cases where the veteran is exempt from the funding fee? A12. This is required to alert VA the loan has in fact closed. It also assists VA for reporting and accounting purposes. Q13. I am entering my first funding fee payment, can you assist me with that? A13. Yes. After signing into the LGY Hub, select the link for FFPS. In FFPS, select Create Payment on the menu. The Payment function has two screens. Complete the first screen with the requested data and then click Next. The second page of the New Funding Fee Payment will show you the funding fee FFPS has calculated. If all figures are correct, click Submit for Processing. All fields on the first page directly affect the system’s calculation of the funding fee. If you aren't ready to submit, you can hit Save. Once you are ready, you can go back and Submit. Q14. How are funding fees calculated? A14. Funding fees are determined by Congress and can change. The fees depend on loan type, down payment, etc. Chapter 8 of the VA Lender's Handbook has the funding fee information. Q15. When paying our funding fee in FFPS a message popped up indicating a payment with the same VA loan number had already been paid. I have checked and we haven't paid it before. How do I get this payment made? A15. First, be sure you are using the correct loan number for that Veteran. Also check to be sure you haven't entered it in a Saved status. You will need go to Payment/Correct and submit the payment from there. If you did not save a payment request and you are sure that you are using the correct loan number, submit a help ticket via https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/help for assistance. Be sure to include Issue Category and Description that includes “FFPS Payment” along with your lender ID, loan number and description of the problem. Q16. I am entering a payment and when I clicked over to the second page the funding fee does not match my paperwork. How do I correct what the system is showing? A16. The calculation of the funding fee and total loan amount is based on the information entered in the 'Financial Information' section on the first page of the Payment screen. The most common reasons for the miscalculation of the funding fee or total loan amount are:
Q17. What does 'Subsequent Use'? mean? A17. If the veteran has used their VA home loan benefit before, they are considered a subsequent user for the purpose of calculating the funding fee. This will be indicated on their Certificate of Eligibility (COE). If indicated, check the box next to Subsequent Use. Q18. What does 'Reservist' mean? Aren't all veterans Reservists? A18. No. All veterans are not reservists. Being in the military reserves requires signing up for a separate tour of duty. So, you can have a veteran that is not a reservist or a veteran that is. If the Certificate of Eligibility has an entitlement code of '11' you would check the box next to 'Reservist.' Q19. I entered my payment, but a few days later the status changed to 'Returned-Unpaid'. What does this mean? A19. A payment in returned-unpaid status indicates that your payment to VA was not successful and that VA has not received the funding fee. This is typically caused due to insufficient funds in the debit account or that your organization's debit account information changed and it was not updated in FFPS. To update your account information in FFPS, a FFPS lender admin should click on "My Lender Info" from the menu. If the debit account and routing number is not correct, the lender admin can simply click "Update". A screen will display that will allow the lender's contact and debit account information to be updated. Once you have confirmed that the reason for the returned payment has been resolved, you will need to resubmit the payment. To resubmit the payment, use the Search Payment Request option from the menu, enter the LIN and click "Search". Click Correct on the View Payment Request screen. Click Continue on the first screen of the correction process. Click Submit for Processing on the second screen of the correction process to resubmit the payment request. Q20. How do I update the debit account information for my organization? A20. Any FFPS lender admin from your organization can update your organization's debit account (and point of contact) information. To do so, select the My Lender Info menu option and click Update. IV. CORRECTING PAYMENTSQ21. How do I correct a payment request that was entered incorrectly?A21. Simply go to Search Payments on the menu. Input necessary information to bring up the payment you want to correct. Once the screen appears, select Correct from the menu and make the corrections. If changes affect previously input financial data, corrections can result in additional payment or a refund. Q22. I submitted a payment with the incorrect VA LIN (loan number.) What do I do? A22. DO NOT submit another payment with the correct number. Simply correct the LIN in the existing payment request using the procedures described in how to make corrections above. V. REFUND PROCESSINGQ23. How does a Lender request a refund of a funding fee paid in FFPS?A23. Lenders can initiate a funding fee refund request by using the Correct link within the funding fee record. Once the lender makes the necessary updates to the funding fee record, such as indicating the Veteran was exempt, and enters justification comments the system will automatically recalculate the funding fee and, if necessary, initiate a funding fee refund request. The funding fee refund request will then show as Pending Initial Approval and can be found under the search Refund screen. If a refund is due, VA personnel will take action to approve. If the loan never closed or if a duplicate payment was made, the lender should use the Full Refund link instead of the Correct link to initiate the funding fee refund process. The lender must enter an explanation and additional documentation may be requested to support the request. Q24. How do I check on the status of a refund? A24. Simply go to Search Refund to check status, which will be Pending Initial Approval/Denial, Pending Final Approval/Denial, Approved, Denied or Suspended. Processing times for refunds to lenders is approximately 3-business days. Processing times for refunds to Veterans is approximately 7-10 business days. If you have not received the refund and it has been more than two weeks since the request was approved, submit a help ticket via https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/help for assistance. Be sure to include Issue Category and Description that includes “FFPS Refund” along with your lender ID, loan number and description of the problem. Q25. My refund has not been approved, or I do not agree with the refund decision. What should I do? A25. If a decision has not been rendered within 30-days or you disagree with the decision, submit a help ticket via https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/help. Be sure to include Issue Category and Description that includes “FFPS Refund” along with your lender ID, loan number and description of the problem. Q26. How do I obtain a vendor code or update my existing credit account information? A26. Vendor codes are issued by the VA Financial Services Center (VA- FSC). A vendor code is required to obtain a refund for a funding fee previously paid in FFPS. Any refunds issued to a lender will be credited to the bank routing and account number that is associated with the vendor code on file. If you need to update your credit account (where VA deposits refunds) you will need to obtain a new Vendor code. The VA-FSC Vendor File Request (VA Form 10091) must be completed online through the Customer Engagement Portal (www.cep.fsc.va.gov). Processing times may vary from 15-30 days. Once a vendor code issued, you should update your lender record in FFPS. If you need assistance updating your vendor code submit a help ticket via https://lgy.va.gov/lgyhub/help. Failure to obtain or provide the correct Vendor code will result in significant delays in processing any refund requests. VI. GUARANTY/ELIGIBLITYQ27. We have paid the funding fee. How do I get our Guarantee?A27. You obtain guaranty through the WebLGY application located in the LGY Hub. Q28. How do I obtain a Certificate of Eligibility? A28. You can obtain a COE for a Veteran by accessing the LGY Hub, navigating to webLGY, and then selecting Eligibility. VII. MISCELLANEOUSQ29. How do you process a case in Saved status?A29. Go to Search Payments and find the payment. Once you see that loan on the screen, click on the loan number (in blue, it is a link). Once the loan payment is on the screen proceed to the bottom and click Next and then from the second page of the payment click on Accept. This will process the payment. Q30. For Lenders that are Credit Unions: We have entered payments and our account has not been debited yet. What's wrong? A30. Do you process your ACH through another credit union? If yes, possibly, due to the fact that a new and different ABA number (FRB Cleveland) is trying to clear your account, your processor does not have pre-authorization to accept the draft. Please contact your processor to check on pending or returned ACH files and the authorization process. Q31. I'm entering an IRRRL (a streamline refinancing), what is the option to ‘Manually Adjust Funding Fee’ on the Payment Request Summary Screen and when should I use it? A31. Lenders should only use this option when specifically advised by VA. Note that the Manual Adjustment can never be less than the calculated amount and only up to $6.00 over the calculated amount. |