Consumer complaint received 2023-09-29
Company: ATLANTIC UNION BANKSHARES CORPORATION
State: DC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Sub-issue: Loan sold or transferred to another company

Complaint:
I have a HELOC that was sold to Atlantic Union Bank about 4 years ago. At the time the interest rate was not fluctuating and I was not allowed accessibility online to view my loan, but I was able to send payments from my bank to them via paper check every month. At the time, the loan amount was about {$200.00}. Over the past 2 years, there has been a lot of volatility in the market and interest rates are going up and up. Every time there is an interest rate hike, that affects my loan. The bank sends me paper statements that are somewhat cryptic and outdated in terms of the way the information is conveyed and sometimes I will receive three different notices on the same day. Often these notices will contain different information regarding my loan amounts for the following month because of changes in Federal interest rates. I receive up to 15 or more of these every month. I am a struggling single mother of a toddler with health issues and I can not keep up with the volume of this information nor can I even ensure that it is accurate. For every other account that I have and every other servicer of a loan I have the ability to sign into an online account and see information about my loan in real time. This Bank will not provide me with the ability to see or track my loan in any meaninful way online. I have the ability to make a payment, but all I have is the amount. They will not provide me with any additional information about previous payments, whether that amount includes additional charges such as late or other fees and, most importantly, the interest rate at which I am being charged. I am unable to plan payments in advance because I do not know the amount and I can not rely on mailed updates. The bank has told me to call them multiple times throughout the month to inquire about the amount of my loan. As a busy single mother who has to look after a toddler, calling and explaining what I need to this Bank who generally doesn't understand and seems to not have a lot of experience even with this loan type, is very time consuming. And I can only get data from that point in time or ask questions about other data points. I want to be able to look at all of my information in XXXX place and that has not been provided to me. I can not keep wrangling with them over the phone every month and spending up to XXXX hours at a time to try to get information about my loan. For example today I spent over 2 hours on 3 separate calls and could not even get this basic information. Several times, I unknowingly paid slightly under the actual amount because I did not have the most current information, because there was an interest rate hike, and my loan automatically was marked unpaid- triggering a series of fees and actions. The bank keeps changing their policies/fees on this, and sometimes this goes unknown for several months, even if there is a shortage of XXXX cent. I am currently developing XXXX XXXX and a lot of physical problems because of all of the stress that I'm under. And this bank is making my life more and more stressful by not giving me any solutions to manage my obligations and to try to do so is impossible, time consuming and very stressful. They offer full online services to all of their other customers that have other products through them. I keep getting told to use these services but this bank will not make those services available to me and they assume that I have them. I have been trying to let them know that I do not have access and by assuming that I do they are hurting me as a consumer. In previous phone calls I have asked for each Representatives information as well as some kind of solution whether it be to talk to somebody above them in the chain of command or that they will take this to another party and get back to me. Today, for example, I paid {$30.00} an hour to look after my child so that I can give this Bank the uninterrupted opportunity to converse and after three phone calls I was either hung up on or they went silent and refused to talk to me. I asked them if I needed to perhaps take out another product from them to get online access or do something so I could see my own account information and they go silent. They tell me to call tech support and I have talked to them but this is not a technical support issue because whomever has loans who were bought by this Bank do not have this accessibility. They keep telling me to go into a branch and I do not live near a branch nor will that solve my problems. When they bought the loan, they did not provide any online accessibility to the holders of those loans. I can't tell you the countless hours I have gone to to diagnose their own problem and to tell them in very plain XXXX. Meanwhile, I have been losing a lot of sleep stressing about keeping on top of this loan which is technically impossible this day in age. And this Bank has no means institutionalized to provide customers of this loan product any past or current information. And they should know that if they send something in the mail, that is not current or accurate. Furthermore I should not have to call this Bank several times a month during business hours Monday through Friday just to obtain accurate information regarding my loan. This is not reasonable, and it is getting to the point where I can not physically do this every month. All I need is to have my information accessible online. That's it. And every time I call to check my balance and that everything is paid, I should not have to go through the same conversation that I am a XXXX step child of this Bank and they bought my loan without my engagement. I never selected them to service my loan. Furthermore they are also not honoring all of the terms of the original service agreement which provided for checks and a means to draw against the account. Becoming a single mother during this pandemic, I certainly could have used my equity to pay my bills. My payments have balloon from {$200.00} to over {$1000.00} a month, so this is affecting me in a very significant way. And the fact that I have no ability to even manage this is really problematic and I need a resolution right away because I am spending more time energy and money than I have to keep up with the loan. I am not disputing any of the terms or any of the increases. I am only asking for real-time online accessible information and the ability to access my remaining credit.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief