Consumer complaint received 2022-02-11
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: LA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Sub-issue: Was not notified of investigation status or results

Complaint:
Freedom Mortgage Company Hurricane IDA Forbearance Program misleading explanation on the Program by Freedom Representative : Here we go! I was contacted the week after Hurrican IDA asking if I was affected by the storm. I explained that we had numerous trees down and several on the house. The Rep. told me that she was new and proceeded to inaccurately explain the Forbearance Program to me. She said that it was a 90-day program and they would halt my mortgage payments for that time period and at the end of the 90-days, they could extend, if needed or end the program. She said that the missed payments would then be added to the end of my mortgage. For Example, if I had 15 years remaining, I would then have 15 years plus the three missed payments. It made sense to me and I was not sure what the status of my company was going to be after the storm, so I said that it sounded good to me. I took advantage of the program and missed the one months payment and then continued to make my mortgage payments by the XXXX  of the month, as I have for the duration of my mortgage obligation with Freedom Mortgage. I began receiving weekly calls 30 days later asking how everything was going and if I was planning on making my mortgage payment. I told them that I only took advantage of the forbearance program for the 1 month and that all was back to normal and I would be making my payment by the XXXX as usual. During these weekly calls, nobody every said anything about me being behind a payment and that I needed to make the missed payment, as well as my current payement, they simply acted as though it was a courtesy call. To my surprise, I received a Credit report on XXXX and when I opened it I found a delinquent mortgage submittal by Freedom Mortgage for the one missed payment. I immediately called them and spoke with someone expressing my concerns. I pride myself on never missing a payment, nor being late, with a credit rating of high 700+ and with this delinquent credit submittal, it dropped me down by XXXX points to high 600+. I have worked hard in my life to build great credit and this fraudulant submittal is unacceptable and has ruined my credit. I was told at that time that I was misinformed of the forbearance program and needed to pay the delinquent payment or they could send me a packet to complete and return to make arrangements. The lady informed me of being able to keep the missed payment into a seperate lean account and that if I would ever sell the home, this lean could be paid off at that time. I waited for the packet for about 3 weeks and upon receipt of the packet and attempting to complete the packet, if there were 30 pages in the packet, 90 % of them did not apply to me. They were asking for things like how much we spend weekly on groceries, fuel, etc. I completed what I could and forwarded to the address that I was given. I received my usual weekly call and explained to the rude lady that I had completed the packet to the best of my ability and had sent it in. Frustrated at this time, I asked the Rep to speak with a manager. She gave me XXXX ID # XXXX who I spent XXXX hours on the phone with. She explained to me during our call that their was no way to call her back and therefore she had to keep me on hold while she researched the situation. Her recommendation was to try and re-initiate the forbearance program, due to the bad credit rating and she also said to not worry about the late fees. That was several weeks ago and again, I received a call the week of XXXX from XXXX ID # XXXX and again, I have to explain the situation to him. They are obviously making courtasy calls and do not read any of the notes. He was able to message here on their internal message system and he told me that she was in training and would get back to me in the next couple of days. Again on XXXX, I get the weekly call and again I have to explain the situation to the Rep. He was able to pull up the notes and verify my story. He told me that XXXX was waiting on approval for re-initiating the forbearance and I would probably hear from her, once this was approved. I the mean time, I continue to receive weekly calls and I still have a negative report and late fees on my account. First off, I was totally misinformed of the forbearance program. ( They tell you that they are recording the conversation for quality assurance/I am sure that they can review the call and see that I was in fact misinformed of the program ) Secondly, nobody every explained anything when they called me on a weekly basis and were simply going through the motions and each person acted as though it was a courtesy call ( They definitely need major training internally ) Thirdly, they submitted fraudulent delinquent credit rating without informing me first. Latly, on top of everything else, they have the nerve to tack on late fees for their mistake. In all of my dealings with mortage companies, I have never dealt with as unprofessional a company as Freedom Mortgage. I will continue to do everything in my power, including legal action against them to get this resolved, as soon as possible. Feel free to review my credit rating, if this capability is available to verify the validity of my credit rating. Thank you in advance for any assistance that you may be able to provide.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation