Consumer complaint received 2021-06-14
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: AL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
COPY OF LETTER SENT TO MORTGAGE COMPANY AFTER A PHONE CONVERSATION XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX Freedom Mortgage XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, TX XXXX customercare@freedomortgage.com Re : Home mortgage XXXX Dear Sirs : This is a letter making a formal complaint about the fraudulent, deceptive practices of Freedom Mortgage Company. The following payments were made on our home mortgage : XXXX {$1800.00} online with instructions to apply {$1700.00} to the mortgage payment and {$61.00} to the principal When I received a letter dated XXXX stating a short fall in our escrow account, I paid the catch up amount : XXXX {$3800.00} with check XXXX It was my understanding that if we paid the catch up amount our monthly home mortgage payment would not increase. Accordingly I continued my habit of paying our monthly mortgage with the following payments : XXXX {$1800.00} check XXXX - with instructions to apply {$1700.00} to the mortgage payment and {$130.00} to the principal XXXX {$3800.00} with check XXXX escrow account catch up XXXX {$1800.00} online with instructions to apply {$1700.00} to the mortgage payment and {$61.00} to the principal XXXX {$1800.00} online with instructions to apply {$1700.00} to the mortgage payment and {$61.00} to the principal XXXX {$1800.00} check XXXX - with instructions to apply {$1700.00} to the mortgage payment and {$61.00} to the principal ( XXXX payment ) XXXX {$1800.00} check XXXX - with instructions to apply {$1700.00} to the mortgage payment and {$61.00} to the principal NOTE : I did not realize that the new monthly payment amount is {$1900.00} I did not receive one phone call about that. 

At the end of XXXX I paid {$10000.00} in total mortgage payments! ( Enclosed are copies of our XXXX bank statements proving that these payments were made as requested by the phone operator when I asked about filing a complaint with your company. ) I did not receive a phone call asking why the monthly mortgage payments were short {$180.00} each month. When I asked the phone operator why no one from Freedom Mortgage called me, she stated that she could see multiple calls were made to my phone number, with no answer. 

I did not receive one phone call from Freedom Mortgage. If someone from your company called me, why didnt they leave me a voice mail so I could return the call? 

Finally I received letters stating the account was past due and your company would be filing with a collection agency. I assumed it was a big mistake. That is when I called your company. The woman who answered my call stated that I owed {$6100.00}. 

Then she looked further into our account and found that what I had paid was not credited towards our monthly mortgage payments - {$10000.00} was applied to the principal. Your company ignored my written instructions regarding how the payments were to be applied. 

She then said she could apply all those previous payments to the mortgage payments ; after that I only owed {$2800.00}, which I paid on the phone, bringing our payments current in XXXX. 

XXXX {$2800.00} on phone with instructions to bring our mortgage current. 

This is a fraudulent and deceptive practice. I have a habit of putting in writing where I want the overage to go on every mortgage payment. Your company made an arbitrary and capricious decision to apply all our monthly payments to the principal. Then Freedom Mortgage reported us to the three credit bureaus as not making two months ( XXXX XXXX ) of mortgage payments. 

I am now caught up with all our mortgage payments. As this is obviously an error or willful fraudulent behavior I began the process of filing credit disputes and plan to file other formal consumer complaints. 

In addition to those actions, I expect Freedom Mortgage to report back to all three credit reporting agencies ( XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX ) and correct the erroneous and false reports previously filed. We were not late making our mortgage payments. 

Sincerely, XXXX P.S. Suddenly after my phone conversation on XX/XX/XXXX, this week ( XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX ) my husband received repeated calls from Freedom Mortgage. He even has many voice mails requesting a call back. I have yet to receive a call from Freedom Mortgage. 

cc : Consumer Finance Protection Bureau

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