Consumer complaint received 2021-09-23
Company: LD Holdings Group, LLC
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Over the span of six months and with good faith on my part throughout, I dealt with a Loan Depot misstep that lead to a chain reaction of utter failures to address what should have been a really simple problem to solve. Despite months of me initiating communication and innumerable hours of disappointing and misleading phone and chat interactions, at every possible turn, Loan Depots servicing arm confused, compounded and drew out this issue. And to add insult to injury, the situation resulted in two adverse credit events being reported by Loan Depot, which are a reflection not of my creditworthiness, but rather of Loan Depots lack of fundamental competence. Its these  two adverse credit events that I am seeking to wipe from my credit report, a remedy that I think is both reasonable and justified given the circumstances. I have had stellar credit ( XXXX+ ) for many years without a blemish elsewhere and during the same period in question, I was making two other mortgage payments on time as I always am.

[ Note also that my Loan Depot account is currently in good standing several months after this incident. ] Ive laid out a timeline of interactions below for your review : XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  : Loan Depot failed to properly process my insurance verification submitted via XXXX. I submitted it again via XXXX   and direct fax, and still this was not resolved. I have had proper insurance throughout the life of the loan. 
XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  : I received communication from Loan Depot that my insurance was not compliant, and that separate ( redundant ) insurance had been acquired by Loan Depot on my behalf in the amount of {$3600.00}. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I received notice from Loan Depot of an escrow shortage as a direct result of the insurance policy they unnecessarily purchased. This increased my total loan payment amount from {$2200.00} to {$2900.00}, a non-trivial {$750.00}, 34 % increase overnight. This is not a reasonable or sustainable expectation let alone the fact that this was a result of Loan Depots processing failure. I was assured this would be resolved with the insurance verification in place, which is was at this time. 
Fast forward XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  : Loan Depot letter generated stating that my XXXX monthly payment was not made in full. This is a result of autopay having been set at the old amount. This XXXX payment of {$2200.00} was made on time despite Loan Depot calling it a partial payment, which they ultimately accepted months later. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I initiated a chat interaction with Loan Depot. Little did I know that this thread would go on for another three months without ever reaching proper resolution. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I followed up to a Loan Depot response restating the issue. I received only an acknowledgement of receipt of my message from Loan Depot. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I followed up again with Loan Depot after two weeks with no response. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Loan Depot informed me that my escrow had been recalculated and that my new payment would be essentially the same as my original payment ( {$2200.00} ), but that it would only be effective for my XXXX XXXX payment. The implication was that I would be responsible for an additional $ XXXX/mo for both XXXX and XXXX because of their mistake, a total of {$1500.00} out-of-pocket for me that is completely unreasonable to impose. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I followed up noting that the XXXX and XXXX amounts needed to be adjusted back down to the appropriate amount ( either the previous {$2200.00} or the new {$2200.00} poised to take effect in XXXX ) before I would be able to make the payment. 
XX/XX/XXXX : After receiving the same form escrow analysis response, I asked to speak with a supervisor. ( Never once was I given the opportunity to speak to a supervisor and callbacks were automated messages asking me to reach out to Customer Service again ) XX/XX/XXXX : No reply from Loan Depot, so I followed up again. I also saw my first late fee right around this time for XXXX payment, which was short of the {$2900.00} payment they increased it to. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I spoke live with Customer Service and was told that I would receive a call from a supervisor within two business days. That call never came. On XX/XX/XXXX, I started using the Loan Depot.com chat thread to record updates to track the live conversations I was having. 
XXXX XXXX : No response from a supervisor via phone and nothing but receipt acknowledgement from the chat thread, so I spent 75m on the phone waiting for and speaking with Customer Service. I again made it clear for the umpteenth time that I was prepared to pay my mortgage on the spot as soon as they adjusted the amounts due for XXXX and XXXX appropriately. While I had a pleasant interaction with one rep who sympathized and assured me he could get this fixed by transferring me. I ended up talking to Loss Mitigation, a nice way of saying Collections, who promptly informed me that they could and would do nothing, and that any payment short of {$2900.00} ( say, the correct payment amount due {$2200.00} ) would be rejected in whole. This is the first time that the topic of potential negative credit reporting was raised to me. 
XXXX XXXX : I spoke live with Customer Service and expressed my continued frustration with this issue not being resolved months later. The rep expressed sympathy and apologized for the lack of contact from a supervisor and said he would escalate me to Management. I was immediately kicked back to Collections to start the process all over again with another new rep. Same dismissal I got on XXXX XXXX from a different rep, which seemed to make it feel like a standard procedure. 
XXXX XXXX : I requested a physical location for Customer Service via chat that I could visit to get this resolved due to the lack of responsiveness and resolution two months into the conversation. I was advised that there was not an office in my area. 
XXXX XXXX : In parallel, I made a credit dispute request directly with Loan Depot and received a form response the same day that I should take this up with the credit bureaus directly. 
XXXX XXXX : I called back into Customer Service after a few hours getting up the courage to wait again. A rep told me that they could take full payment for XXXX ( at {$2900.00} ) and XXXX ( at {$2200.00} ) and trigger an immediate escrow recalculation to get me a reimbursement quickly. Why did no one suggest this after two months!! This was a Saturday. 
XXXX XXXX : Based on the last live conversation with Customer Service on XXXX XXXX, I made a payment of {$5100.00} to cover both XXXX and XXXX in full. It took nearly a month for these funds to be applied to my loan. More on this coming XX/XX/XXXX : After several follow-ups post-XX/XX/XXXX ( payment date ), I spoke live with a Customer Service rep who said unequivocally that Loan Depot had failed to properly review the request to allocate the {$5100.00} XXXX XXXX payment to XXXX and XXXX as was discussed verbally and agreed with Loan Depot on XXXX XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX : {$2900.00} of my XXXX XXXX payment was applied to cover my XXXX payment in full. It took another two days for the full XXXX payment ( {$2200.00} ) to be applied. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I made a full payment for XXXX based on the adjusted amount ( {$2200.00} ) XX/XX/XXXX : I submitted credit report disputes with XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. Thus far, XXXX and XXXX have returned dispute resolution results and made no changes to the late payments reported by Loan Depot. This is understandable given how Loan Depot has recorded the activity, but it is not a fair resolution of my issue. I believe the only fair and possible resolution has to come from Loan Depot.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation