Consumer complaint received 2021-10-15
Company: GUARANTEED RATE INC.
State: GA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
The real estate transaction was closed on XX/XX/XXXX, with a first payment due on XX/XX/XXXX to Guaranteed Rate Inc. ( GRI ). After the closing and before the XXXX payment date, I received several email and hard copy notices from GRI concerning methods by which I could make that payment. One of those offered was trough an online portal-apparently, a third party service provider at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. As a young XXXX, I was eager to take advantage of 21st century technology and use the portal as offered. I proceeded to establish my credentials at the portal and make my XXXX XXXX payment there ( Confirmation included here ) .I was concerned in the following days as my bank account failed to reflect the transaction. After consulting the portal site several times, I concluded that I might have made some mistake, and so on XXXX XXXX, I repeated the payment process ( Confirmation included here ). ON XX/XX/XXXX, I received a hard copy Mortgage Statement from GRI listing a XXXX XX/XX/XXXX receipt of my full {$1700.00} payment. ( Statement included here ). During the week of XX/XX/XXXX I received Borrower Notification, dated XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX indicating that they had purchased my loan. While the notification clearly instructs me to continue to make mortgage payments to GRI, I thought this end of the month transaction between GRI AND XXXX could explain the delay in withdrawing the payment funds from my bank account. 
On Friday, XXXX XXXX, XXXX at XXXX XXXX, I received a call from a GRI representative who informed me that 1 ) the bank account number that I submitted to the portal was incorrect, 2 ) GRI charged me a {$60.00} bad check fee for both the XXXX XXXX and the XXXX XXXX payment efforts on my part. ( I recognized the incoming call from XXXX as the same exchange as the GRI customer service number that I had called at XXXX XXXX on XXXX XXXXto confirm that in fact my XXXX XXXX payment was received and credited to my account ). I was instructed to correct the bank account number in my portal profile and pay again. As the screen capture ( XXXX XXXX file included here ) indicates, the portal blanks out the payment account number on the screen, so at no time since establishing the credentials could I have verified he number for myself! 
My experience clearly documents inadequate, unverified customer facing communications on the part of GRI, whether mis-intentioned or mal-intentioned I can not say. GRI did in fact fail to notify me in a timely manner after the XXXX XXXX payment did not process, as I result, they do me a favor and waive the second bad check fee while I face a substantial potential late fee. Maybe God and GRUI know if my XXXX XXXX portal transaction is complete and effective, but I certainly have no way of knowing until Monday XX/XX/XXXX. The effect on my credit rating ( over 800 at the rime of this loan application ) is at the mercy of the unverified, unreliable, and beyond consumer inspection. 
I want your agency to assure that I pay no penalty, financial or credit rating wise, for the GRI portal, and the corporate handling of the XXXX XXXX payment failure ( waiting 14 days to advise this consumer of an input error is a corporate practice, not a software system glitch. I am not familiar with the scope of your authority, but I would hope you all have the authority to compel GRI to incorporate effective consumer protection safeguards in their software and their management practices.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation