Consumer complaint received 2023-07-14
Company: KEYCORP
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
Approximately XXXX XXXX I refinanced my home with XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX In the refinance I included my home plus a personal loan. The refinance was a fixed 15 year mortgage. I was doing this to get out of a 6.35 % apr to a 2.5 % or so mortgage rate. I was informed that my mortgage monthly payment would be less or equal to what I was already paying ( {$760.00} ) The new monthly payment came up to about {$700.00} but I continued to pay what I was used to paying so I paid an additional XXXX toward the principal each month. My loan was to include ALL taxes and fees as my previous loan had. I was informed that everything was included and had been paying for just a little over a year when I received a notice in XX/XX/XXXX that due to a significant escrow shortage, I would be required to pay XXXX More per month for the next 12 months starting with my XX/XX/XXXX payment. I began calling Key Bank 's main toll-free number toward the end of XXXX XXXX. I was passed around from department to department until finally, I began speaking with a representative named XXXX who attempted to reach out to parties involved in my closing, she tried other " departments and supervisors '' and she provided me weekly updates through XXXX. She stated that she had found the error that caused the shortage. She stated that during my refinance my school taxes were severely underrepresented and that the township tax amount is what was put in. So approximately {$470.00} was put down as my school tax amount when it should have been over {$1900.00}. XXXX finally came back with a resolution of Key Bank knocking off " XXXX '' of what I owed in escrow shortage. But indicated that my mortgage payment would still be approximately {$1000.00} a month for the next 12 months. I informed her I did not agree with that, and that paying {$1100.00} or even close to it would create a financial burden. She let me know she could not do anything further except transfer my case/complaint to the " escalation department '' From the moment I was referred to the escalation department, communication became nonexistent. I called and called through XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and each time I did I was either patched thru to the person assigned to my case ( XXXX XXXX and she informed me she had " no new news to report but they were working on it '' or I was patched through to someone else in the escalation department only to be told that XXXX was the only one who could provide me an update on my case. After several weeks I got XXXX on the phone and informed her that the communication about this issue was not satisfactory and that the payments were creating a hardship that I had never had to deal with in the previous 16 years of paying this mortgage with another company and that Key Banks lack of urgency seemed to demonstrate that they were just going to make me pay what they told me, risk late payments and bad credit reporting, or ultimately losing my house and that it wasn't ok. She stated she understood that I was frustrated but she had nothing new to report. When I told her that what was more frustrating was not hearing anything about my case at all and that she doesn't return calls she snickered and then stated she would set weekly calls up with me. She asked what a good time to call would be and I told her whenever she called I would make myself available for this matter, she snickered again and then agreed. The weekly calls on Wednesdays that she promised never occurred NOT EVEN ONE. I continued to have to call in and get connected to the " escalation dept '' and when asked if I could speak to a supervisor I was told they " don't have supervisors " in that department and whoever is working on our case is the only person you can speak to. I told them she wasn't calling me back and the new payments just kept being due. I called at the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX and specifically asked a customer service rep if they were aware of any regulations or timeframes that complaints within the escalation department had to be answered because I have been trying to get a solution for 5 months. The lady on the phone stated she was not aware of timelines and that she has seen cases resolved in a few days to a few months. She attempted to reach XXXX and couldn't so she promised to have XXXX return my call stating she would send her an urgent marked email. NO return call. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I have been paying XXXX for the last 3 months with the XXXX ( XXXX ) payment scheduled to come out of the bank in the next day or two. That is a total of XXXX MORE in 4 months that I had to come up with. And Key Bank is dragging it out probably to get the 12 months of payments they requested and not deal with my requested resolution. My proposed resolution was that they rework my escrow shortage payment over whatever amount of time they had to, to not have me paying any more than XXXX more a month because anything over that amount felt like a punishment for something that was not on me, and not my error. I don't feel I should be financially inconvenienced because that error was made on SEVERAL levels of the closing process and not caught for one year and now the urgency is on me. I acknowledged that I owe it, but should not be penalized to pay it all upfront or in a year if it creates a financial burden.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief