Consumer complaint received 2017-05-17
Company: EMBRACE HOME LOANS
State: OK
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Like many others, I too refinanced my personal home mortgage from my previous lender to Embrace Home Loans ( EHL ) to be my new lender. 3 years later, EHL transferred my mortgage note to a XXXX XXXX company to service my account. This is when the issues began. Here they are in chronological order : 1 ) The new service could not accept my automatic weekly payments. I prefer weekly payments because it adds an additional deduction to the balance per year. I did n't say anything at the time because I do n't like to cause trouble, and I could live with a monthly payment.
2 ) Then, I lose my job. It took me 7 months to find another. I still maintained ALL my monthly bills for 6 of the 7 months but I ended up on a different pay cycle and fell behind 2 months on my mortgage payments. These two months continued behind for the entire year of XXXX. I XXXX point, I even asked the lender for assistance. They sent me an application that took some time and money in finding printing, copying and faxing of documents. While I continued to communicate with lender and follow their representatives instructions, they declined my application for assistance anyway. Their reason was because I was not far enough behind on my payments ( yet I had been struggling to keep the lagging two months every month for several months ). So, even though I had followed their instruction, which was apparently inadequate, they denied me any assistance. 3 ) As I continued to struggle with the monthly payment ( still two months behind ), the lender 's system would not allow for me to make a payment by phone or online due to the fact that I was behind on my payments. I would forcibly have to snail mail a paper check. Then, to add insult to injury, I would notice my check being cashed by the lender but not applied to my account for days, even weeks. When I would finally get to talk to someone over the phone, they would inform me that the check had been received and cashed, just not applied to my account. When I asked why, they would all give me a different nonsensical reason. 4 ) This is the final blow. So, this year XXXX XXXX XXXX, I finally pay the lagging two months and catch up to being on time and start making regular monthly payments ( and not behind payments ). Now, I am being told by the lender that I must pay a new higher monthly payment because of my escrow account needing more money due to the fact that my property tax has gone up. The monthly payments goes from {$840.00} to {$1000.00}. XXXX. That is a monthly increase of {$160.00} ( or {$1900.00} per year ) to my mortgage lender and it all goes toward escrow. After investigating the issue, I found that my property tax went up by {$200.00} but my Insurance cost dropped by {$120.00}, making a total YEARLY increase to my escrow of {$77.00} ... YEARLY!!! Why are they increasing my escrow by $ XXXX/year??? 5 ) I spoke to another rep ( by the way, they are all useless, some of them ca n't do simple math ), and after 30 minutes of skirting, she finally transferred me to a supervisor who said she would send for a " review of my escrow account '' and yadda yadda yadda. I told her that I just needed her to tell me how to submit a request for the lender to stop collecting escrow funds with my monthly payment. I had done this with my previous lender, I paid my own Insurance and taxes and I preferred to keep doing so, because it was obvious that it was not in my best interest to continue to allow for them ( the new lender ), to continue taking advantage of me. She gave me the details which included the words " Review '' and " Approval ''. I explained to her that I was not asking for their permission, I was submitting a " Request '' as a formal document in writing for it to be recorded ( as on the record ), and not for a " Review '' or " Approval ''. I also explained that if they did not release MY money to ME, then I would follow up with legal action against them, and I will ... This is just the beginning. I will bring as much light to this issue as I can and will not stop until they have complied with my request and if needed, to pay for court and legal fees at the least. 6 ) I did submit the request in writing on XXXX XXXX, XXXX which they received XXXX XXXX, XXXX. I have received their response today, XXXX XXXX, XXXX and they have denied it. That brings us to date. I believe that their right to secure and collect payment should not cause or put any undue hardship on my right to protect my interest and financial well-being and it has. Either through purposeful intent or thoughtless mistake ( negligence ), this lender has mismanaged my hard earned money and has unnecessarily made it more difficult for me to maintain my responsibility and obligation to the repayment of the loan on my personal home/property. When in fact, my only obligation to this company is the repayment of the loan by a monthly payment of principal and interest ( approx. $ XXXX ), yet if I do n't pay them an extra {$260.00} each month, they will call my loan in default ... Why? who gets to say which part of the total monthly amount of {$840.00} is not being paid to the loan? Now they want to increase the escrow monthly amount to {$420.00}, for a total monthly amount of {$1000.00} ... Again, of which, only {$580.00} is my obligation to the lender. I understand that some people prefer/need this service, but I do not. I have not given any reason for the lender to doubt my ability to manage my own money, I kept up all my monthly bills thru the 7 months of unemployment and even caught up with my mortgage payment, with no assistance from the lender ( who actually made it harder ), which by the way, would have been a lot easier if it did not include escrow. Their is absolutely no rational reason/relevant reason as to why they have the right to collect funds for escrow from me or any other person unless they have PROOF of good cause, for example, if I had failed pay my property taxes or property insurance, which I have NOT. Other than that, there is no other reason. I have maintained my obligation with this lender since XXXX and if I want to stop sending them MY money for them to hold in escrow, I should be able to do so by simply notifying the lender in writing so they can have it on record. This is a Formal Complaint for the record. I just want it logged for future use by me and/or any other borrower whom may need it. Thank you, XXXX Borrower

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation