Consumer complaint received 2024-01-20
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Sub-issue: Escrow, taxes, or insurance

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX We have a VA loan with Freedom Mortgage. 
This is a difficult company to work with. It gives confusing, conflicting information and the attitude of employees is Freedom is always right and the consumer is at fault. 
WE HAVE TWO ISSUES : Wrong house insurer and escrow. 
1st House Insurance. XX/XX/XXXX Freedom Mortgage sent us a letter stating that our house payment was going up. I called Freedom Mortgage and found out they had the wrong insurance company. XX/XX/XXXX, we changed from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I verified with XXXX XXXX that they sent correct information to Freedom, I also in XX/XX/XXXX sent the information to Freedom with the change and I called XXXX to let them know. The change did not occur. XX/XX/XXXX I emailed to Freedom the XXXX XXXX Policy while on the phone with a Freedom Mortgage lady. I told her we had already paid for the year. She said she would process the change and it was up to me to get a refund from XXXX for the overpayment. I called XXXX and got a nice lady who saw some incomplete paperwork from XX/XX/XXXX that was not processed correctly and cancelled the policy backdating to XXXX and processed a check to us. So, I thought we were fine. I called Freedom back to ask a question and they still showed XXXX and said I owed a lot more in escrow and I would have to pay more. I tried to explain I changed insurance companies and paid the new insurance company for the year. I was at fault according to Freedom. I am attaching a letter I faxed, mailed to various addresses with attachments to get the change. On XXXX XXXX XXXX I went online to the Freedom portal and again sent the letter and attached documentation to correct the insurer. I told Freedom that the insurance had been paid. On XXXX XXXX XXXX Freedom sent me a note saying they changed insurers, and they sent a check for {$2600.00} to XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX never asked for payment ; Freedom just sent it. So, I went to XXXX XXXX office got them to send me back the amount of {$2600.00} which they were holding since no payment was due. On XXXX XXXX XXXX I asked Freedom where to return the check back to that I got back from XXXX XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX Freedom told me in the portal in a letter to send it to XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX IL XXXX which I did with return receipt signature requested. So I mailed the check XX/XX/XXXX stating both on check and with note attached to be put back into escrow. On XX/XX/XXXX a lady called from Freedom Mortgage called on my husband 's phone which I happened to answer. She wanted to know what to do with the check. I assumed she had it, but she said no She said I sent it to the wrong address. It should have been sent to an address in XXXX XXXX. She gave me another address and said to call XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to see if they have received the check. I called the number she gave me on XX/XX/XXXX and it is a fax number. This is normal with Freedom incorrect information is the norm. Today XX/XX/XXXX I have no idea where the check I sent is or if Freedom has it. When I mailed, faxed the change of insurance companies to Freedom I got silence. It took a lot of effort to just get insurance companies changed. I will attach documents so you can see this. As of now there is a missing check of {$2600.00}. What am I supposed to do now? Stop payment on this check and send another check to another address?? At what point will Freedom change the escrow amount to show the correct amount with XXXX XXXX? They are still using XXXX information. 
2nd ESCROW : What a mess. We pay the taxes on the property. Recently we started to pay for the house insurance. 1st the escrow still reflects XXXX information, which is incorrect, see above. We are asking Freedom to discontinue escrow. Our goal is to reduce the house payment. Also, in looking through all the notes back and forth on the portal there was a reference to my loan. So, I pulled out the VA loan paperwork and there is a place for escrow, and it also states it can be discontinued. So, I have repeated asked for it to be discontinued which Freedom won't do due to having a balance. I have asked Freedom how much more needs to be paid after they cash the {$2600.00} check and they will not answer. First the question is where is the {$2600.00} check. ( What is interesting is that the lady at XXXX XXXX cautioned me that some insurance companies require escrow. I contacted the VA since Freedom employees say the VA requires escrow and VA said they do not require escrow. It is up to the insurance company. Again misinformation. ) Freedom Mortgage is such a difficult company to work with. The answers keep changing depending on who you talk to and customer service tells me it's an escrow question and and escrow says its customer service. And I found out that the portal is handled by a computer, so the portal sees one word and addresses that and misses the intent of the letter. I am at a loss. I have spent many, many hours trying to get documentation correct. If I could afford it I would pay off the loan, but I can not. So I am stuck. I need your help.

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