Consumer complaint received 2018-10-04
Company: Seterus, Inc.
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
This is now my fourth complaint filed against Seterus Inc for their lack of ability to do simple math and simple accounting. They have displayed the lack of ability or intelligence to track and/or manage fees and payments and now I have found that they do not stand by their agreements with me or with CFPB. 

On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted a complaint to CFPB concerning Seterus and their procedure for assessing late fees based on the date processed instead of the date they received the payment. Case number : XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from XXXX XXXX, Consumer and Government Affairs at Seterus. It was stated that they would credit my mortgage account for the 3 late fees which they applied to my account even though they received these payment on time. I had the signed USPS receipts showing that someone at Seterus signed for the payments within the standard grace period. 

Seterus did indeed remove these 3 late fees but they did nothing about the payment I had already made to them concerning part of these fees and they also did not abide by their previous agreement to reduce the previous balance by 50 %. They have turned this into an accounting nightmare trying to keep track of whether their late fees are legitimate or not. 

I will attempt to make this as easy as possible for anyone at Seterus with basic math skills to understand. 

As of XX/XX/XXXX, I allegedly owed Seterus {$100.00}. They offered a deal through mail on XX/XX/XXXX to reduce this amount by 50 % if I paid by XX/XX/XXXX. I accepted that offer and paid the 50 % with the full expectation that Seterus would indeed remove the other 50 % from my balance. Instead they only applied my payment toward the full balance. 

What makes this is worse is that 1 of the 3 late fees they agreed to remove in compliance with the CFPB complaint I filed was part of this 50 % reduction agreement. 

Here are the 3 late fees that were part of the 50 % agreement that Seterus did not comply with : {$36.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$36.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$36.00} XX/XX/XXXX Two additional late fees were supposed to be removed by Seterus : {$36.00} XX/XX/XXXX {$36.00} XX/XX/XXXX If these 3 fees are removed, my total fee balance should have been {$72.00} which is the first two fees on the list above of {$36.00} each. Based on the 50 % reduction agreement Seterus made with me, I agreed to pay 50 % of the balance due and the other 50 % would be removed from my balance. Seterus again did NOT do this even though I paid them. 

Based on the 3 fees being removed, the 50 % payment should have been only for a total of {$36.00}. The other {$36.00} would have been removed by the 50 % reduction agreement. I have paid Seterus {$54.00} so I've actually paid more than I should have to bring my account fee balance to {$0.00}. My actual late fee balance should have been a credit in my favor of {$18.00}. 

Instead, Seterus is still showing a fee balance that I owe for a total of {$18.00}. They did not take into consideration that I had already paid them {$54.00} to bring my balance to {$0.00} back in XXXX of XXXX. Nor did they abide by their 50 % fee reduction agreement of the initial balance that was brought over from XXXX XXXX XXXX when they acquired my loan that totaled {$72.00}. 

I can't believe a company that deals with debt collection and mortgage processing can have such horrible math and accounting skills. 

As per the remedy offered by XXXX XXXX due to the CFPB complaint I filed, I want Seterus to resolve this and pay penalties, fees and interest for these errors that have not been corrected since XXXX. Even after having a complaint filed against them, they still have not done what is necessary to correct their errors or reconcile my balances correctly. Just as Seterus expects me to pay them {$36.00} each month my payment to them is late, I also expect them to pay me {$36.00} for each month since they agreed to correct this issue based on the initial CFPB complaint dated in XX/XX/XXXX. This is a total of 31 months that this XXXX up has gone uncorrected even after they offered to remedy the problem due to the CFPB complaint. Seterus, based on their own late fee assessments to me, now owe me the following : {$18.00} balance that should have been credited back to me in XX/XX/XXXX 31 months of late fees since the XX/XX/XXXX date when this was to be corrected which is equal to {$1100.00} The total owed would then be {$1100.00}

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 monetary relief