Consumer complaint received 2020-04-12
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OR
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
After paying off my mortgage, SunTrust still owes me a total of at least {$680.00}. This is because SunTrust did not take into account the additional principal payments I made in XXXX and how that adjusted the allocation of principal and interest for the advanced payments I made. SunTrust provided an inaccurate payoff statement. 

To briefly recap, I had been ahead of my mortgage payments with no payment due until XX/XX/XXXX. This meant I had prepaid both interest and principal up through XX/XX/XXXX. In addition, beginning in XXXX, I began paying down the principal of the loan. This meant the prepaid payments should have been adjusted to reflect the actual, lower principal amountmeaning, more of the payments should have been applied to principal. SunTrust did not do that. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I informed SunTrust that I would be paying off my loan before the end of the year. I was given incorrect instructions, which is what led to this mess. Because no payoff amount could be calculated ( likely because of my prepaid payments ), I paid an additional {$51000.00}. I was then informed by SunTrust representatives that I did not need to provide any additional payment, as I would be owed money from the prepaid payments I made. I specifically asked if I needed to pay more to avoid this nightmare situationI was specifically told not to pay anything more. As SunTrust admits, the numerous SunTrust representatives did not tell me the funds needed to be certified for a payoff to be processedhad they done so, I could have done so. I then was out of the country due to the holidays. 

Upon my return, I was frustrated to learn that SunTrust still had not processed my payments. On or about XX/XX/XXXX, after futile attempts to resolve by phone, I submitted my error resolution notice and request for information pursuant to 12 CFR 1024.35 et seq. 

In that notice, I specifically requested an accounting showing how its calculation of the {$720.00} overpayment of interest was made, to ensure that SunTrust did not take more interest than it was entitled to, and that the payoff calculation was correct. Given the numerous times I tried to resolve this over the phone, I was concerned about SunTrusts competency. 

Even though the law requires that SunTrust respond to my 12 CFR 1024.35 et seq notice within 30 days, I did not receive the requested accounting until XX/XX/XXXX, and only because by then I had submitted a CPB complaint. In other words, SunTrust closed my case even though it did not address all my requests. 

Upon evaluating the accounting, it confirmed my suspicion that SunTrusts calculations were inaccurate. In particular, I am still owed {$200.00} for the pre-paid XX/XX/XXXX interest. Even though SunTrusts XX/XX/XXXX letter claims that they did not receive any payments from me in XXXX, it specifically omits reference to the XXXX prepaid interest. That omission is a misrepresentation. In addition, I took the time and effort to put the information from the Customer Account Activity Statement into an excel spreadsheet. I have attached information here. I realized that SunTrust never adjusted my advanced payments to reflect the substantial decrease in payment from my additional payments in XXXX. By using an amortization schedule obtained from my SunTrust account in XX/XX/XXXX ( before it got closed down ), I was able to roughly estimate how those advance payments should have been allocated. From those calculations, it is apparent that I overpaid at least {$470.00} in principal. In other words, SunTrust tried to get the benefit of the higher interest application of my advance payments. Had I waited to pay those payments when they were actually due, more of my payments would have gone towards principal instead of interest. But SunTrust tried to penalize me for making advance payments by taking more interest than it was entitled to. 

Please see the attached documents for details.

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