Consumer complaint received 2018-08-07
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Our initial purchase was in XX/XX/XXXX, mortgage was through XXXX. As part of that transaction, we chose to pay our insurance directly, only taxes were escrowed. 

Bank of America purchased our mortgage from XXXX shortly after we closed in XX/XX/XXXX. No incidents, all proceeded smoothly until XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX flooded our home. We requested and received a forebearance of six months ( we actually only missed 5 ). We asked whether we needed to pay all back at once, or add five months to end of mortgage. When it became clear that adding five months to end of mortgage was going to require a re-application and perhaps re-negotiation, we said " no thanks, here is the money we owe you. '' A check for {$8600.00} was sent to them in XX/XX/XXXX. 

At approximately the same time that we were deciding whether to pay back missed payments or to modify the loan, we received a letter reducing our monthly payment by {$10.00} because of overage in escrow. ( Letter date XX/XX/XXXX, to be effective XX/XX/XXXX. ) We continue to pay this monthly amount since the XX/XX/XXXX payment, and have not missed a mortgage payment -- or been late -- since we re-started payments in XX/XX/XXXX. 

However, within days of receiving the decreased monthly payment amount notification, we then received a notification that our monthly payment was increasing by {$500.00} because of the loan modification to include INSURANCE into our escrow account. As stated in paragraph 1 above, we have never paid insurance as part of our escrow, and do not wish to do so. I pay the mortgage from my bank account in an easily manageable amount. My husband pays the insurance monthly due to his long-standing and excellent relationship with XXXX. This works for us. Bank of America contacted our insurance company WITHOUT ANY NOTIFICATION TO US OR AGREEMENT FROM US and simply changed the account payor to them. We immediately asked XXXX to change it back, which they did, and they refunded the month to Bank of America. 

As stated above, we continue to make payment monthly in the amount given to us by letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, {$1600.00}. Bank of America is  holding our payments until enough is received to meet their new modified payment ( {$2200.00} ) which we have never accepted or agreed to. In a call to one of their many service lines on XX/XX/XXXX, I was told that we are behind in payments in the amount of {$1100.00}, AND the amount of {$3300.00} is being held by them until we catch up on payments. 

Bank of America continues to inundate us with " offers '' to modify our mortgage. At least three packages for " permanent modification of loan '' have been sent to us, which say, " to accept the terms of this modification, sign and return or simply make payment in the new amount. '' We called and told them we would not be accepting their offer when we repaid the total monthly payments. We are not going to make payment in the new amount. We do not wish to sign and return the modification documents. WE DO NOT WISH TO MODIFY OUR LOAN. 

Along with constant " offers '' we receive letters advising that we are behind in our mortgage. We also receive letters saying " please contact us, we want to help you avoid foreclosure. '' A phone call to any of their numerous customer service lines ( which are nothing but phone banks/call centers ) means a half-hour to an hour spent on the phone explaining to someone with no authority what our problem is and what we want. We receive a comment like " Ah, no problem. I can fix that. '' ( Problem - we do not wish to pay insurance as escrow. Bank of America thinks we want to delete escrow. Person says " I see, I will clarify that you do not wish to delete escrow but only the insurance portion of escrow. Here is your confirmation number XXXX. '' ) Within 2 days, we receive a letter saying " Bank of America regrets that it can not comply with your request to delete escrow. '' We have multiple copies of that letter. 

I have just sent a detailed letter to Bank of America with copies of what I believe are the relevant documents. Phone calls to them are a total waste of time, as no one who answers to phone has the authority to cut through the red tape and see a simple problem, and no one who you can get on the phone knows anything about the previous dozens of calls made. I will include my letter to them in the documents I provide to you.

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