Consumer complaint received 2020-04-29
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Hello, I just recently had a horrific experience with Truist Bank. I can't describe this in any other way but " theft ''. Somehow the bank is able to bill you for " un-used '' services in the past, with the in-ability for you to acquire the " un-used '' services from anyone else but them. I hope my congressman gets involved to control these institutions and prevent them from destroying people. So here is the SCENARIO : I'm XXXX XXXX military and used my VA loan benefit to close on my home in XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX XXXX XXXX  and was not required to have Homeowners Insurance in escrow due to a Master Condominium Policy in place with the HOA. That's wierd, but awesome. My home is covered! I was pleasantly surprised because this would make the mortgage payment affordable, though it kind of washed due to the higher HOA fee. Our HOA Fee 's covered the insurance requirement on my loan. Sometime after I closed, my loan was bought by BB & T Bank and I received a letter in XX/XX/XXXX that I would need to purchase Hazard Insurance. That's fishy, because my loan requirement for insurance was already met, right? Why would BB & T change the terms of my loan without doing a new contract? So I called the HOA and Insurance Master Condo Policy companies to see if the insurance I had in place would meet  the Hazard requirement. They said " of course! '' it would and I shouldn't need to purchase any additional insurance. So I uploaded the policy info with BB & T and thought everything was good. But, I received another identical letter in XX/XX/XXXX. So, I called BB & T and they confirmed the master policy is uploaded and I should be good to go for the hazard requirement. I thought everything was golden at this point. But, I received another letter in XX/XX/XXXX saying that I will need more insurance. I called everyone again ( HOA, HOA insurance company, BB & T bank ) and decided to go ahead and get the additional insurance ( even though I didn't need it ) to satisfy them and update my policy to include some interior coverage of my home. I acquired this specific Hazard insurance through XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX and uploaded that to BB & T. At this point I'm 100 % confident I'm good to go, right. But, suspiciously BB & T then transitioned to Truist Bank and in XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter that Truist bought more insurance on my property from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and is going to charge me for XX/XX/XXXX -XX/XX/XXXX ( lapse period ) for {$650.00}. Oh my god, how much insurance do I need, and why I'm paying for it?!?!? But wait! We are in XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX, is in the past, so I shouldn't need to pay for that un-used service in that time period right? Wrong, according to Truist, I owe them even though its in the past. Keep in mind, I already have the master policy covering me during that time. So that's one thing, but according to Truist they " require '' hazard for interior structure for the entire time of the loan. Ok, that makes sense, for loan requirements WHEN THEY ARE NEGOTIATED at closing!!! ... but Truist wasn't there and didn't perform a new closing on the loan. In case your wondering how much they are actually charging me for additional insurance that I don't need and can't use, it's approximately {$160.00} a month just for interior hazard which would normally be about {$40.00} a month. I even tried to buy the extra insurance on my own from XXXX, but no insurance company backdates policies! HOW IS THE BANK ABLE TO DO THIS IF I CANT!!!??? I couldn't buy for the supposed " lapse period '' even if I wanted to. But the lender can magically buy this policy without my approval and charge me for it in my escrow. Are you kidding me, is this even legal? So now lets get to the issue of how the notifications were delayed and the mis-information provided me forced the supposed " lapse period '' to grow without any communication from the bank to the current insurance company holding the master policy on the property. Why did I receive a letter in XXXX for a service I was supposed to buy in XX/XX/XXXX/ XX/XX/XXXX? Remember I couldn't have bought it anyway because you can't backdate policies! When BB & T bought the loan, why didn't they check the initial loan requirements and see what insurance was on the property and coordinate with the insurance company to include hazard instead of this round about way to XXXX me? Why is the price so high? When I talked to Truist ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ( HAZARD PROCESSING CENTER FOR TRUIST BANK ),  they said it was " high risk '' and didn't go to underwriting. OMG, XXXX!?!? No underwriting, HIGH RISK!, Are you kidding me? This is insane. Also, I forgot to mention everytime I spoke to the BB & T and Truist I confirmed that I wouldn't be charged and I asked for a manager to confirm, which they always said they would get back to me. But they didn't. I really want the CFPB to red flag Truist as a disreputable organization taking advantage of military personnel during the COVID-19 crisis and attempted increase profit at all cost in any manner, especially through mortgage contract loopholes, mortgage trades, bank acquisition/ name changes. This the most evil organization because of the power they have and their motivation to destroy. Imagine the other people who are affected by this. I briefly looked at some XXXX  complaints, and this Truist is going to be at the forefront of the next financial crisis, no joke! I'm going to pass this complaint to the senators and congressmen in my district as soon as possible and hopefully get this company under control before the next housing crisis. I'm just so appalled at this company.

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