Consumer complaint received 2023-01-14
Company: NEW YORK COMMUNITY BANCORP INC
State: IL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My mortgage was on hold under the CARES Act. When I was able to make payments again, I contacted Flagstar to let them know. Flagstar offered me a loan modification. I accepted that modification. Under that modification, I was required to make XXXX on-time payments by calling to speak to a human; online payments were not permitted. I called and spoke to a human and made all three payments on time. For some reason, only the first XXXX payments were successful. Unbeknownst to me, the third payment did not go through. When I finally realized Flagstar had not removed the funds for payment XXXX from my checking account, I called them. They said that because the payment did not go through, I had broken my loan modification agreement and that I would have to apply for a new agreement. They said that since I did not have a confirmation number for payment XXXX, they would not do anything about it. However, when I asked the Flagstar employee to give me a confirmation number for payment XXXX, he told me they do not give out confirmation numbers. I told Flagstar that I had done my part in making the XXXX on-time payments. They refused to do anything about it and told me I had to apply for a new loan modification. 

I applied for a new loan modification. Although I was approved for the new loan modification, it came at a higher interest rate and a higher monthly payment than the first loan modification. At this point, I still did not know why payment XXXX in the first loan modification did not go through. I ended up learning that later. 

I successfully completed the second loan modification by making XXXX on-time consecutive payments to a human. I was told by Flagstar that I could now begin paying online. 

I made my first payment following the loan modification successfully online. However, subsequent payments were not accepted. I tried to pay via Flagstar via their online system, their automated phone system, and via speaking to a human on the phone. XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX payments were unsuccessful. I was told my checks were bouncing and that I was writing bad checks. This was not the case since I had funds to cover all of the charges. 

I finally found out from Flagstar that their system was not processing my payment because I had a change of bank account number. In fact, I did not have a change of bank account number ; I have had the same bank account number for over a decade. I learned that the system was confirming the last XXXX digits of my account number, but not the preceding digits. Therefore, the Flagstar computer system either incorrectly truncated my account number or used incorrect preceding digits that I did not have access to confirm or deny and therefore the Flagstar system did not recognize my account number. I have no idea why the Flagstar system changed my account number that I have used to pay for this mortgage for over XXXX years. 

We have called Flagstar on a daily basis to try to pay our mortgage. They have told us our account is locked due to paying bad checks and that we can only pay via money order or XXXX XXXX. They also refuse to remove the {$75.00} of bad check fees. Further, they have stated we will have to pay our mortgage via money order or XXXX XXXX for the next XXXX to 12 months, the duration an account is locked when someone writes bad checks. 

Once again, today, XXXX XX/XX/2023, we called to speak to a human, a manager, and was told the payment was processed. We were given a confirmation number. However, we have attempted to pay to a human several times before, and were given a confirmation number, but the payment has never actually gone through. We are not sure why or how the manager processed our payment today ( and we still do not know if it was actually processed ) since all other Flagstar staff we have spoken to do date have informed us our account is locked and we can not pay except through money order or XXXX XXXX. 
Each and every month, for the last three months, we have been unable to make our payments due to a technical error on the part of Flagstar. Still, they continue to blame us and falsely accuse us of writing bad checks. We have been targeted by Flagstar, and are being retaliated against by Flagstar, for engaging in the CARES Act. This must stop. We need to be able to pay our mortgage through the banks online bill pay like a normal human being. Further, we need the interest rate and monthly payment amount from the first loan modification agreement to be honored since we now know that the third payment of the first loan modification did not go through due a technical error on the part of Flagstar bank. This issue needs immediate attention before our account gets further behind and before we need to make our next payment on XXXX XX/XX/2023. We need to be assured that we will successfully be able to make our payments using the Flagstar online system and we need the {$75.00} fees and any negative marks on our credit or Flagstar account removed at once. Your swift attention to this matter is not only appreciated, but mandatory.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation