Consumer complaint received 2018-02-21
Company: PROVIDENT FUNDING ASSOCIATES
State: IL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Hello, my name is XXXX XXXX and earlier this year I refinanced my house with a group called XXXX XXXX XXXX. On the first day after closing, I set up automatic payments with XXXX and thought I would be set up for the foreseeable future. A month or so later, XXXX turned the loan over to another company called Provident Funding. I received information from XXXX that I would need to create a new account with Provident and set up payments by XX/XX/2018. The first week of XXXX, I received a letter from Provident stating that I could pay them via check or online. On XX/XX/2018, I set up auto-payments AGAIN and thought I would be set up for the foreseeable future. On XX/XX/2018, I received a call from Provident Funding " about my account '' and asked for me to call them back. Within 24 hours, I returned their call and was in contact with a customer service representative. The representative stated that I was late on payments and needed to pay as soon as possible. Confused, I stated that I set up automatic payments and was expecting a draft within a few days. The representative insisted that I needed to make an ADDITIONAL payment or they would report me to all the credit bureaus. I was confused and frustrated that I would need to make a double payment and insisted to know why. Finally, the representative stated that setting up auto-payments does not cover the initial payment period and I would need to pay for the initial payment period separately. I immediately pulled out my checkbook ready to pay as I have never missed a payment for anything in my life! The man stated that he would be more than happy to process a payment over the phone for a ~ {$7.00} fee. Befuddled, I asked why they would charge me more money to accept my payment. He stated that I could pay online and there would be NO FEES OR PENALTIES. While I logged into my account, I asked the person to hold so there would be no further issues. Upon logging into my account there was an additional {$100.00} fee attached. I inquired what this was for and the representative stated that it would not have been there if I would have paid 3 days prior ( coincidentally the day BEFORE I was initially contacted. ) I stated that I thought the {$100.00} fee was unfair and I would be happy to make two payments today, but thought an additional {$100.00} was unfair and, frankly, unreasonable. The representative showed no compassion and stated that they would do nothing for me. I asked to speak to his manager and received the reply of, " I am the manager, there is nothing I can do. '' This was altogether one of the worst experiences I have ever had with ANY lending company and I am ashamed to say that I am having my loan served by Provident Funding. I hope that the CFPB can encourage better, more ethical, and less predatory fee practices from Provident Funding, or at very least, increase their communication to their customers to avoid unnecessary fees. PLEASE HELP!

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation