Consumer complaint received 2018-04-26
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My wife And I currently have a TD Bank Line of Credit last advance dated XX/XX/XXXX. We dealt with the TD Bank branch in XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, N.J. I will post a copy of that agreement. My wife recently noticed that the principle on the monthly payments was not going down despite making payments well in excess of the minimum on the bills. We have always done this on other loans and mortgages to save finance charges. 
When she checked the bills, she noticed that in fact, she had been paying {$100.00} to {$300.00} more per month, but that this entire amount was going towards finance charges, and none of it apportioned to principle in any way. Now, the bills we receive are difficult to interpret, but I can not understand what is occurring. 
By way of some background, we live on pension income, and the dates we receive those payments do not easily coincide with the due date for these payments. Mty wife tried on XX/XX/XXXX to get the due date changed by a couple of days so we could make the payments before due. A XXXX told us that they can not do that ; and besides we have the 15 day grace period so not to worry about it. My wife does worry about these things, and again spoke to a XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX about this request ; he also told her not to worry about the late payment due to the grace period. On XX/XX/XXXX a XXXX also told her the same. As you can see, my wife kept asking. XXXX also spoke to a XXXX later with the same result. 
When my wife discovered this problem with finance charges on XX/XX/XXXX she called XXXX and explained this new issue about not being credited with payment towards principle, and XXXX stated this must be a mistake. We had always known, for many, many years, that payments in excess of the minimum are to be applied to the principle. 
She told us that the bank would do an audit to find out why this was occurring & we would get that within 10 days. XXXX told her to just pay the minimum {$560.00} until this was corrected. On XX/XX/XXXX, after waiting for this audit, we called the main office and spoke to a XXXX at XXXX who was unaware of any audit but gave us this convoluted explanation that seems to be that because we were : late on our payments, we owed the last late month finance charge, PLUS the current month finance charge. This is why we never get to the principle. I asked about this so called grace period that apparently has no grace in it, and he said that that grace period does not forgive the so called late payment re : finance charges,. 
This was the very first time anyone ever mentioned this element of their grace period. Now there may be language somewhere about this, but I read the note we signed and did not see any reference to this exception that was intelligible to a layman. I did receive a 1 year statement of our payments from this XXXX ( enclosed ) that shows our over payments and the finance charges with no principle applied. Again, there should be full and clear disclosure of these penalties to the consumer, and employees need to be aware and clearly explain these policies. Clearly all those employees we dealt with either did not know of the policy ( I believe this ), or they were all intentionally misleading we consumers. XXXX was truly surprised at what she saw on our records when we spoke to her in XX/XX/XXXX ; I do not believe that she was lying either. 

I feel TD bank engages in deceptive banking practices by obfuscating policies in legal gobbledygook that no one would reasonably understand, and fails to ensure consumers are informed in the true sense of the word. I feel TD bank deliberately does not train their employees in these policies in order to make profit based on the ignorance of consumers, and clearly does not practice ethical business. Their grace period is a sham. I also have to wonder how many other people have been getting cheated across the country by this non existent grace period, and finance charges that are fraudulent ; clearly the verbiage in their agreements is intentionally designed to create circumstances that are confusing to consumers, and line their own pockets. 

Remedy Requested I am asking for an audit of all my payments to TD bank dating to XX/XX/XXXX to discover how much money in fraudulent finance charges TD bank has collected. ( previous lines of credit should also be audited dating back several years before this particular advance in XX/XX/XXXX ). I believe they owe us that money, plus reasonable interest. 
I am asking that their billing form include a field for Amount to be applied to principle ) for those of us who want to ever actually pay off these loans. As of now, this option does not exist. We had always known that payments in excess of the minimum are to be applied to the principle. 
I am asking that if this policy about collecting finance charges in advance of the next payment, even when it falls within their own grace period.is actually legal (??? ), that it be explained in clear language. Because this is such a key point, a separate initial block should be on the agreement that documents that they not only read the policy, but were briefed on it by an employee. 
I am asking that the entire agreement be reengineered and that the misleading legalese be translated into consumerese. 
I am also asking that the grace period be fully and completely explained, including ALL penalties for late payments.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation