Consumer complaint received 2018-02-26
Company: HUNTINGTON NATIONAL BANK, THE
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Huntington Bank took over my land mortgage back in XX/XX/XXXX. They were one five banking institutions who have taken over my land mortgage over the past 12 years. Unlike the other mortgage companies before them, I received no notice letting me know they were taking over my account. I pay both my home mortgage and this land mortgage automatically through my XXXX online pay. Over the past 12+ years, I have never been late on either mortgage accounts. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notice that my account was a couple months past due, I called and spoke to Huntington and they explained that my ARM adjusted up in XX/XX/XXXX and that my payments were short approximately {$30.00} each month. During the phone call, I explained that this was the first time I even heard of the Huntington Bank and never received a notification about the payment going up. I made a payment during the call for the difference and requested that any late payments would be forgiven and removed. The agent agreed and stated my account was now up to date. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I received another late notice stating my account was a couple months past due. I called and spoke to another agent. After reviewing the account and I providing payment dates from my XXXX automated payment, the agent stated they found the issue and that my account was indeed up to date and that I had actually been paying {$1000.00} dollars versus {$1000.00}, which was the actual payment I owned. I was paying too much! They agreed to fix the false late payment issue and remove any Late Fees charged to my account. They confirmed my account was now up to date in their system. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I received another late notice stating I owed for two months. This time I asked to speak to a supervisor. After two hours on the phone, the supervisor stated she found the problem. Due to the rate increase in XX/XX/XXXX, my account was short and now my payments were going into a suspense account, The extra money I paid to take care of this shortage was being misapplied and going towards principal. Each month, I was being charged additional Late Fees, which was further showing my account was not up to date. The remaining partial payments were being applied to Late Fees and principal. She then stated that the bank had sent me a check for the remaining balance of the funds that were being held in a suspense account. So, the system was showing I was 30 days late and owned two payments. The supervisor agreed to stop payment on the check they were sending and then reconciled the payments that went to my principal and removed all the late fees. She admitted this was a system error and that the agents I spoke to in previous months did not take care my issue. She also issued me a check to cover my over-payment of {$9.00} over the past several months, along with Late Fee I paid in XX/XX/XXXX when I tried to reconcile my account. Lastly and most importantly, she agreed to take remove any and all derogatory reporting to the three credit bureaus. 

All this to say ... I recently applied for a Home Equity Line of Credit and was denied due to Huntington 's mistake and them not removing their inaccurate derogatory late report. 

I also want to note that I received another late notice this XX/XX/XXXX. I called XXXX to learn that they had added a home inspection fee to my bill for XX/XX/XXXX. Again, no notice was sent! What is more suspicious, I don't have a building on the property, It is a wooded, unimproved lot. They have agreed to remove the charge and remove any late fees. XX/XX/XXXXpayment was being held in a suspense account, so they were asking for two months of payment, when in fact I was current. How can they get away with adding fictitious fees to mortgage invoices without telling the mortgagee prior? Then try to collect an extra month of payment. And damage someone's credit for their billing error and not fix the error. 

I would very much appreciate your help in getting Huntington Bank to stop adding fees to bills without notification prior and expedite them to remove their false bad credit claim with all three credit bureaus. Also, confirm that in fact the XX/XX/XXXX Late Fee for not paying their inaccurate home inspection fee was removed and my account is up to date.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation