Consumer complaint received 2020-07-15
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
In XX/XX/2020 I was notified that Wells Fargo would be offering mortgage forbearance options for my home mortgage, with the stipulation " We wont charge late fees or report additional missed payments to the credit bureaus. '' I opted to put my mortgage into Forbearance, and deferred two monthly payments. On XX/XX/2020 I had my credit report run for a potential new mortgage, and my WF mortgage came back as 'MORTGAGE FORBEARANCE ; PAYMENT DEFERRED. I immediately paid the two missed payments, and WXXXX confirmed that the Forbearance was removed. I then called WF mortgage, who confirmed the forbearance was removed and said that they would investigate why it was reported that way but they would process my pre-approval. When I spoke to WF to clear this they also informed me that my HELOC was under forbearance, which I had not requested. This account was up to date on payments and did not appear under forbearance in the credit report - which leads one to believe only those with missed payments are reported. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from WF, confirming the forbearance had been removed, although I had received this confirmation the day before. 

I continued the mortgage process with WF, in hopes that they would provide me the pre-approval I needed. 

After 10 days of going through the pre-approval process, I was informed that I was denied due to starting the pre-approval on XX/XX/XXXX, when in fact it was not removed until XX/XX/XXXX. I had been provided in accurate information and confirmation that it was removed on the XXXX. When I started the pre-approval process with WF on XX/XX/XXXX, the confirmed no issue, but when I was denied I was told it was because the policy changed within the time the pre-approval was being processed. 

The home mortgage consultant, XXXX XXXX, started filed a case for internal review of the issue, in hopes of determining why my pre-approval was denied, when WF changed their policy and also to determine why it was inaccurately reported to the credit bureaus. 

I received a phone call from WF notifying me that they would have 10 business days to do their research, at which time they would call me back with an update, if not sooner. This is what started and endless cycle of 10 business day phone calls. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call stating they had reviewed my pre-approval AGAIN and would be willing to offer me the pre-approval since they changed the policy after my pre-approval process had begun. I stated that we had already lost the house we were hoping to buy, and since they had already provided me proof of denial, this was no longer needed. XXXX apologized and agreed that this was frustrating and unfortunate do to the timing. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX XXXX who was assigned to researching my case, he was supposed to have called me that day ( 10 business days later ) with an update. He had no update for me and informed me he was still investigating the case and would get back to me in another 10 business days. He said he would try to get back to me on XX/XX/XXXX with an update as I expressed that it had now been over a month since this was inaccurately reported and affecting my credit. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received no phone call, so followed up again. I sent XXXX my credit report from XX/XX/XXXX showing that it said PAYMENT DEFERRED. He said he would send this back to the legal team, and again, get back to me within 10 business days. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I emailed XXXX, he was supposed to have called on the XXXX as per our phone call. He called me back in the afternoon to say that it was still not resolves, but it had been removed from my credit report. He was not able to provide any proof of this - but said he was still investigating why it was reported that way. 

On XX/XX/XXXX a woman called on XXXX behalf to tell me that he needed more time to continue his research and instead of hearing from him on XX/XX/XXXX it would be XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX another woman called on XXXX behalf to tell me that he needed more to continue his research and he would not be calling me on the XXXX. I informed her that I needed to hear back from XXXX on the XXXX, as agreed upon, with a resolution to this issue. 

On XX/XX/XXXX there was no phone call. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX directly and he informed me that after investigation WF determined they were not at fault, that it had been removed from my credit report and there was nothing else to be done. 

There are many aspects of this that are frustrating and upsetting, poor customer service being one of the many. This started due to Wells Fargo lying by omission - their communication did not provide accurate information to the consumer. As per their representative, the missed payment would not affect my credit score, and that is correct, but the missed payments were reported to the credit bureaus and did affect my ability to receive a loan. The credit report clearly stated payment deferred which by definition means to put off or postpone. WF should have stated that missed payment would be reported to the credit bureaus but would not affect ones credit score. 

In addition to that, even when I did clear my forbearance, the internal policies were unknown to their own employees. During these rounds of phone calls I was asked what I wanted out of this - I explained I wanted to understand why this happened, what WF was going to do to fix it, and compensation for the financial burden this caused my family. During my last call with XXXX he informed me that was not possible. But then why ask in the first place? I feel as though they had no concern for the consumer and were only planning on dragging this out as long as I would continue to call back. I want answers. I want to know why this happened, and how many other people were affected by WFs lies.

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