Consumer complaint received 2021-11-16
Company: REGIONS FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: SC
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Seized or attempted to seize your property

Complaint:
To Whom it may concern : I am writing to you today to complain about how Enerbank USA treats people who are handicapped. I am XXXX. I have been a paraplegic for over 30 years and I have never been discriminated against this way by any entity as I have by this bank. 

In XXXX of XXXX, my wife and I applied for a loan with Enerbank for our Solar Panels and were approved for {$18000.00} at 16.72 % to which the interest would accrue starting XX/XX/XXXX ( same as cash ). The monthly payments were XXXX, of which we made a total of XXXX. ( XXXX ) in payments to them. 

During the course of that time, I had an unexpected health issue and I had lost my job because of it. My wife was still working, but there was no way that we were able to continue to fulfill our monthly expenses. As a result, we defaulted on our home mortgage for over a year and were on the brink of foreclosure. We also became late on other payments. My wife XXXX, spoke to XXXX XXXX, VP at Enerbank and begged her to lower our monthly payments by just {$100.00}. We had two small babies and were having trouble affording basic necessities. My wife stated that we did not want to stop paying and asked if she could lower the payment temporarily or offer a forbearance. XXXX laughed at us and said she could not offer us any affordable solution. I told her that I had to choose between making the payments and feeding my family. As a result, we could no longer make the payments as of XX/XX/XXXX. 

We looked online for help and found XXXX XXXX XXXX. We enrolled 4 debts with them and asked XXXX to work with Enerbank USA first. Enerbank outright refused to work with XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX first contacted Enerbank in XX/XX/XXXX ( in which we were only a few months late at that time ), and they refused to work with them at any capacity. Due to them not wanting to work with them, the interest simply kept accruing with the loan. We started paying NDR and settling other debts as Enerbank refused to communicate with them. We also were forced to borrow an extensive amount of money from a family member to pay more than XXXX that we owed the bank in missed mortgage, XXXX and XXXX tax payments. We put our home on the XXXX XXXX market as we could no longer afford it and continued to pay XXXX XXXX XXXX so we could pay our creditors. We finally sold the house in XX/XX/XXXX, for much less that we had into it and moved to South Carolina. 

As soon as we moved here, a few days later, tragedy struck, I was bleeding, called an ambulance, and was transported to the hospital. There, I almost died of a massive bleeding duodenal ulcer ( all on file with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). They saved me, I was transported to XXXX XXXX and after over 60 days, I was sent home and my wife had to take care of me. I was left with XXXX  XXXX  on my body due to the blood loss and had to be on XXXX XXXX  XXXX. My wife could not balance her job and taking care of me and the children and since her company was downsizing, they let her go. We still owe our family member that we borrowed the {$40000.00} from. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, Enerbank contacted us making erroneous claims. They accused me of making a huge profit on my home and hiding it from them. Even though I gave them a break down to show them we barely had enough money to make the move to South Carolina. 

They also insisted that my wife was getting paid by the government/state for my care! They told me on the phone call ( and I am sure there are phone recordings of XXXX and XXXX of XXXX ) that my wife is probably making money per month caring for me and hiding the money. Do you know how demeaning this is to say to a disable person? Do you even understand how offended I am by this outlandish claim? I was very transparent and honest with XXXX and XXXX. I told them the truth of my situation. We are good people and we have been trying to pay XXXX since XXXX. 

XXXX hired an attorney and we were served without even an opportunity to work this out, they would not agree to a reasonable balance that would include the XXXX already paid, and not to charge interest during the Pandemic ( which all lenders did for people during such horrid times ). They has previously said that we could pay XXXX, but they only gave us about 4 hours to get the money together. I could not get the money in 4 hours, it was impossible and they took that deal off the table. They said that they would only work at a lower rate if they could work directly with us, so we had to drop our attorney with XXXX in order to work with them. We came to an agreement of {$22000.00} ( which I still have the email from the attorney ), and they would not give us a XXXX. I will attach the emails. That was the deal! They came up with this deal. It was their idea. They sent it via email and I called the attorney to accept the deal. I sent my wife right to the bank after getting off the phone with the attorney. I was not happy with it, but I agreed to it. That day, we had the Bank Check made and we were going to mail it out. The attorney that I made the deal with called us and said he was leaving the practice at the end of XX/XX/XXXX ( within a week or so of the deal ) and he told us to wait for his replacement to contact us. So that is what we did. Even though the court date was XX/XX/XXXX. And I held on to the check. Just a day before the court date, the new attorney ( XXXX XXXX ) contacted me stating that Enerbank now took that offer off the table. The offer we accepted, they decided to renege with no notice. Nothing. Their attorney would not postpone it, and we had no legal representation at that point. They coerced us into not having legal representation for the notion that is the only way they would speak to us. This is not fair. We both explained the judge what happened. He encouraged us to work with the XXXX Attorney to which he did not want to budge, and the judge sided with them ( he did not ask to see any of our evidence during the trial which we had on hand ) Now the amount is at XXXX which includes their attorney fees. 

This whole situation has not only been out of hand, but, is criminal. Due to all of this, my health is being affected because of the stress. I tried to contact the CEO of Regions, XXXX XXXX XXXX, who bought out Enerbank. They did an investigation of themselves and found no malpractice. I literally have {$22000.00} sitting here for Enerbank for 3 years and they have been belligerent. I am looking for justice at this point. The loan was for XXXX and we have paid them XXXX leaving the balance at XXXX. If you work the interest from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX at the start of the Pandemic I am willing to pay that interest of 7 months. They are now threatening to put a lien on my home, and it is not easy for a paraplegic to find an accessible home. They are very unreasonable. But that one representative, XXXX from Enerbank, takes the cake, when she was particularly nasty to me on the phone. I explained to one representative at Enerbank that I am on Social Security XXXX. When I explained that to the representative at Enerbank she retorted Well doesnt your wife get paid for taking care of you by the state? 

This misconduct is so unacceptable. I need help to resolve this. They think that because I am XXXX, that they can treat me this way? They dragged this out for years to add on more and more fees on purpose and are demanding double what is owed. I feel like I am being messed with by this bank. A handicapped person should not be taken advantage of like this and I would appreciate any help I can get at this point.

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