Consumer complaint received 2017-11-07
Company: GATEWAY FIRST BANK
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Gateway Mortgage Issue Billing A payment was made on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX for the amount of XXXX and the money was supposed to be taken out of the account and then rejected on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, stating that the account was not found. Then on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, over the phone, I talked to XXXX, and explained that they are having some type of billing/payment issue and it needs to be looked into and fixed, because of errors in the billing/payment system a payment of XXXX was made, Again the money was supposed to be taken out of the account. Then on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX it was rejected for the same reason. In both case the same routing and account numbers were used. I called Gateway Mortgage and talked to XXXX to try to get this fixed and verified that they have the correct routing and account number in their system, which they did. At this time I felt that I needed legal representation, so I contacted my attorney which contacted Gateway immediately and got a complete run a round. My attorney XXXX XXXX, from XXXX XXXX XXXX Law firm spent weeks contacting Gateway Mortgage and he was told that the problem would be fixed immediately. While waiting to hear back from Gateway Mortgage, my attorney discovered that the conventional account loan has been completely frozen. At this time I contacted Gateway and talked to XXXX to try to get this fixed and verified that they have the correct routing and account number in their system, which they do. At this time he stated that in the past they were having some issues with account numbers that 14 digits that were not working or going through and being rejected. He stated to me as this time no payment or access could be made to the conventional loan account. My son-in-law which was an authorized to handle accounts, contacted XXXX about 2 week of XXXX XXXX to confirm that there was no issues to worry about with foreclosure or penalties do to errors and was told by XXXX that there was many more options before it got to that point. 

Application for Assistance On XXXX XXXX, XXXX I was emailed by XXXX XXXX which he sent a LMP, Application for Assistance document, which I which I needed no assistance what so ever with funds being available for transaction the assistance was needed in Gateways billing issue. I filled out and signed the application and then email back on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. Filling out this application was to give time for XXXX Mortgage to find out the exact issue with their billing. On XXXX XXXX, XXXX I received an email from XXXX XXXX, who stated that she is working with Gateways payment processing department and working on figuring this out for you. As soon as I know something I will let you know. 

Conventional change to Escrow without any notification or consent : Then about XXXX XXXX, XXXX Gateway Mortgage had sent a check to my insurance company, XXXX XXXX, paying the full cost of the premium. I found this out from XXXX XXXX, my insurance agent that I had been insured for 6 years, she explained that she was not able to give me very much information but she was able to tell me that Gateway Mortgage had paid the premium and insured the conventional as an Escrow account, which was very odd to me. At this time XXXX XXXX stated to me that I would be receiving a full refund for what I had paid in to the annual premium. Very uncomfortable and worried about what changes Gateway Mortgage was making with no consent from I XXXX XXXX Loan borrower. I then contacted XXXX at Gateway Mortgage he had no clue or idea of what was going on and advised me that someone form Gateway Mortgage would contact me. Nobody from Gateway Mortgage made any attempt to respond to me by, phone, email, at this time. I contacted my attorney which contacted Gateway Mortgage and was referred to their legal department where he spoke to Gateways legal representation. I then later found out that Gateway had changed my account from a Conventional Loan ( non-escrow ) account to an Escrow Conventional Loan account. I spoke to many sources that were knowledge in the field of loans and real estate and was advised that was happening was very incorrect. During this whole time I was still willing to make payments. I even got a checking account, to ensure that the account number was under 14 digits. But I did not receive any billing statements or emails with instructions. The only item that I got was a letter stating that my property was going on a foreclosure docket list and my property was being auctioned off. I once again frantically contacted my lawyer which contacted county of XXXX, Texas and was able remove from docket list and contacted me back. My lawyer contacted Gateway Mortgage at this time and stated to them that Legally they had to give me 20 day prior to auction day which fell the first Tuesday of every month, their letter of foreclosure was provided to me 10 days prior to auction day WHICH WAS ALSO INCORRECT.
Selling of Property : At this my attorney advised me to think of other options, referring to selling of property. At this time Gateway Mortgage had not only concerned me enough to list the property on real estate market. I contacted local real estate agent XXXX XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX in the XXXX area, which assisted with the selling of the property. I informed XXXX of what Gateway Mortgage had done and that the foreclosure process was still being pushed so that there was no lack of information given, he at this time stated to me that he being in the real estate market had never heard such thing. At this time I nor my attorney had heard back from GatewaXXXX Mortgage about anything. I had been waiting at this time roughly 5 months to make payments and had taken every measure to make payments, and could not even do so due to some so called frozen Escrow account that was created by Gateway Mortgage. So basically at this time I was forced to sell my property unwilling due to WRONGFUL FORCLOSEURE. For the record To Whom It May Concern the property sold within 3 weeks. Derogatory Statements : With all of the stress that was caused, all legal fees paid, having to uproot, and relocate I felt like Gateway Mortgage h
ad completely tried to rob me for my property seeing how they had the upper hand by being the Mortgage company and Lien Holder. 

I had never heard of a derogatory statements on a credit report due to always being responsible and paying my bills, I carried an XXXX credit score up to this time. The complete time that all the issues were trying to be situated I was never AT ALL informed that ANYTHING WAS BEING FILED ON MY CREDIT. 7 months of negligence waiting on Gateway Mortgage to respond to any issue that they had caused, I not once was ever told my credit was being complete destroyed. There was not only a 30 day, 60 day, 90 day but there was a derogatory that was filed as a 120 day on going active non-payment and this was 45 days after Gateway Mortgage had been paid in full of XXXX I also discovered that Gateway Mortgage added roughly about XXXX in penalties to the pay off. Again I nor my attorney ever informed of any such penalties along with derogatory statements. This tells me that Gateway Mortgage clearly by far were treating me fairly, being very dishonest and should have no right at all to carry the responsibility of loaning to anybody. For the record I had no idea that Gateway Mortgage had ruined my credit to the fullest. Gateway Mortgage has started dishonestly and unfairly ruining my credit from the start of the issue without ever having any intent on informing me of doing so. My credit had been destroyed so bad that it went from XXXX credit score to a XXXX credit score, do to Gateway Mortgages indentations. For the record I was completely blinded by this that I found all this out in the middle of the process of buying another property in a completely different city. I contacted several resources and finally I was able to file this complaint against Gateway Mortgage hoping that nobody else ever will have to experience all the dishonesty and unfairness I had to experience with Gateway Mortgage.
BBB information about Gateway Mortgage : In this complaint I also did some research, and found out that I was not the only victim of Gateway Mortgages lies and unfair wrong doings, I learned that there was so much as 17 other occurrences that Gateway Mortgage have had in the past, WITH 1 GENTLEMAN having THE SAME EXACT issues at the EXACT TIME TO THE TEE. This proves to me that Gateway Mortgage is not only very dishonest and very unfair. I will be providing all documents supporting my complaint on my behalf.
Write about yourself : To Whom It May Concern, My name is XXXX XXXX and Im a military veteran, which I served for XXXX year. I always tried to do the right thing, like providing for my family and making sure bills are paid on time. I had planned to keep the property at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, Texas and the pass it along to my children and grandchildren, which was debit free until a new home was built. I worked very hard to try to make this happen but with what Gateway Mortgage did, which was unfair and dishonest. I now have to start all over and work even harder so that my children and grandchildren could have something that they could have as their own.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation