Consumer complaint received 2021-07-02
Company: Flagstar Bank, N.A.
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
For some time now I have been electronically paying {$2900.00} to my mortgage account. 
{$0.00} ( XXXX  ) extra gets applied to the principal XX/XX/2021 I changed insurance companies and it was billed to my mortgage co. who is serviced by Flagstar. They made two payments totalling {$2900.00}. Right after they did the insurance company found that their quote had a mistake that resulted in an additional {$700.00} plus being due. Some time passed and I was getting emails from the insurance company which showed that this was not being paid by the mortgage company. I went ahead and paid the balance due via my credit card. 

Around the same time I contacted the mortgage company to speak with them on the matter. During conversation I was told ( and I knew ) that this new policy would possibly result in a change in my monthly mortgage payment. I contacted Flagstar and was told that my escrow account would be approximately {$760.00} dollars short. So I choose to send them a check to cover it. I sent a check for {$1000.00} to more than cover the shortage on XXXX which was processed by them on XXXX. However in spite of the check clearly stating in the memo ESCROW SHORTAGE REIMBURSEMENT and the account number, Flagstar suspensed the payment because they had increased my monthly payment amount by {$220.00}, deducted the amount of mortgage I paid it short, applied the remainder of the {$1000.00} to principal and called it good. Nothing got paid back to escrow and therefore the escrow account was never re-analyzed. Meanwhile I'm paying my original amount thinking that it would not change since I had paid the shortage. 

This went on for another month. XXXX I paid {$2900.00} again and then an additional {$200.00} thinking that any minute now they were going to analyze my escrow account because I had paid the shortage and get it all sorted out. 

XXXX, same thing, paid {$2900.00} ( didnt pay the additional ) thinking it's got to happen this month, it's been two months. But it didn't. I'm thinking wow, they are slow at getting this done. 

At this point I started getting statements showing my mortgage was seriously behind and they started calling me - ALOT. At one point I talked to them, explained I was out of town, explained I had paid the shortage and told them I couldn't give them exact particular until I got home on XXXX. 

At this point I checked my online account info andsaw that they had done nothing. Unfortunately I was not home until XXXX and when I opened my mail and the current statement for XXXX and saw they now showed me {$6300.00} plus dollars behind I was home and in a position to call them so I did. 

It took several transfers and finally demanding a supervisor, but she said she got things sorted out. Apparently not. She transferred the original {$1000.00} to my escrow account, but nothing else was adjusted, no analysis was done again, nothing. So any and all payments continued to be suspensed and posted to the month before to coverage the continuing shortages. 

So here it is XXXX and in spite of making a payment every month and paying an additional {$1000.00} on top of that I'm still showing a month behind, I have {$1700.00} plus still showing up in suspense and today I had to make an additional payment of {$1600.00}. I also paid {$2900.00} that posted today. The {$1000.00} is a wash. It was moved to escrow. 

But they won't or can't or don't know how to remove the additional principal payment they posted AND even if you add that to everything else the numbers don't add up. The only way that it could be resolved was for me to pay far more money than I should have. 

I paid my mortgage ( according to their statements which were never adjusted because they never applied the {$1000.00} I had {$1000.00} on suspense until took part for a short payment and applied the balance to pay down the principal and then they reversed it and had made all but {$660.00} in payments. So where did the added {$1000.00} come from on top of the {$660.00} that was needed to bring this current as they say is owed. 

Worse yet they would not do anything about re-examining the escrow balance/shortage unless I brought it current first. That's just extortion and holding me hostage to correct their error ( s ) in the first place. 

Today, we talked to no less than 5 individuals being bounced from dept. to dept. At one point collections said I had to speak with customer service to figure out what was paid versus what was owed so that they could explain why they needed an additional {$1000.00}. When I was transferred to XXXX, the woman ( XXXX ) we asked that question too made excuses upon excuses saying she couldn't do the math and talk to us at the same time. I said how do you say what I owe if you can't explain it. At that point we requested a supervisor and as she continued to protest we told her we didnt ' want to hear it any more and just wanted to talk to a supervisor. At that point the line did NOT disconnect but it went dead silent and no one came online. I called back, requested a supervisor, he did the math we requested, reversed a late charge that was assessed BUT I still had to pay the {$1600.00} to bring this account current.

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