Consumer complaint received 2023-06-14
Company: SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage

Complaint:
I asked for and received a Covid forbearance for 3 months on my 2nd mortgage on XX/XX/23. I had already paid my XX/XX/23 payment. Select Portfolio Servicing, SPS, only allows their customers service reps to read off a script, so after putting information into their computer program, they started the forbearance on XX/XX/23, technically backdated. That doesn't make any logical sense, since I had already paid my XX/XX/23 payment. It should have started XX/XX/23. They said there is nothing they can do about it, there is no one else I could talk to, and no one in the company can do anything about it, it's all decided by a computer program, there are no exceptions. 
The " Forbearance Plan '' letter dated XX/XX/23 stated " we will contact you to discuss options to resolve the amount outstanding. '' I received 9 " Covid End Date Solicitation letters '' from SPS from XXXX through XXXX outlining the possible options that would be available at the end of the forbearance. These 9 letters included options for Reinstatement, Repayment Plan, Modification, or Deferral. I was assigned a " Relationship Manager '' who I could never get a hold of when I called. 
In XXXX, a customer service representative told me I could fill out the Covid questionnaire online to see what my options would be for the end of my forbearance. I could not find any such questionnaire. I called again and finally spoke to a customer service representative name " XXXX '' in XXXX  XXXX. He told me I could fill out the questionnaire online, but other than that he couldn't help me, he advised me to call back at the end of XXXX. I looked online again and there was no questionnaire for me to fill out, so I figured I'd have to call again at the end of XXXX. 
XX/XX/23 I received a call from SPS from " XXXX ''. She told me I agreed to pay the lump sum of {$1500.00} and she would collect the payment. I told her I did not agree to pay a lump sum, I did not agree to anything yet, I was still trying to find someone to talk to about the option of a deferral. She said the only option I had was a loan modification or a lump sum payment, there were no other options, they would not do a deferral, no exceptions. She refused to let me talk to a supervisor or manager, she refused to escalate the call, she refused to help me in any way. She stated those were the only options I had. 
There was an article in the XXXX XXXX XXXX at that time about the Federal Government looking into how mortgage investors are forcing people into loan modifications that would ultimately increase their interest rate and extend the terms of the mortgage so the investors could make more money from interest from homeowners. Kind of a nice post Covid surprise. Congress is trying to help government backed mortgage borrowers in some way, but the rest of us are on our own. I became very upset realizing this is what they were trying to do to me after I had already paid 17 years of interest payments to them. These 9 letters were basically deceptive and false advertising, stating that deferral was a possible solution. 
XX/XX/23 I called the SPS Consumer Ombudsman name " XXXX ''. The job of SPS Ombudsman must be a joke. The entire call was a script he was reading from. He reiterated how the the investors would only allow a lump sum payment, a payment plan that would increase the monthly payments for 12 months, or a loan modification. The investors would not allow a deferral, no exceptions.

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation