Consumer complaint received 2019-06-06
Company: SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC.
State: DE
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I am submitting this complaint in regards to a recent change in holder of my mortgage. My mortgage was initially held by XXXX XXXX and was sold to Select Portfolio Services ( SPS ). In doing so, I have experienced nothing but grief from being charged to pay my bill online at staggering rates ( depending on when the payment is scheduled ) to being forced to sign up for auto payments in order to avoid the online payment fee. 
At the initiation of the change to this company, I called to obtain information about their company ( who I have never heard of before ), how my loan was going to be handled, etc. It was a poor customer experience from the beginning and I disliked the way that the sell was handled. 
Upon my initial call, I specifically asked if I would be able to make a payment towards my late fees. I was told that any amount that I paid over my normal payment would be automatically applied to my late fees due to the payment hierarchy that was in place. To my dismay, this is not the case. I set up auto payments so that I would not have to pay a fee ( even though it nearly took a month for it to be applied to my account ) and included an extra {$20.00} which based on what I was told would apply to my late fees. It took a couple of months for the extra payment to show up online so I was not even sure of where my payment was being applied. On top of that, it was applied to my principal. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I made a call to SPS in regards to the misapplied payment. It is at this point that I was again frustrated with this company. The rep told me ( after being put on hold numerous times for over 3min each time ), that there was no way that the extra {$20.00} could be applied to my late fees since I signed up for auto-payment. This feature does not allow for the payment to be applied to my late fees. I instantly was upset because 1 ) this is not what I was initially told, 2 ) I felt as if I was forced to enroll for auto payment in order to not have to pay a variable fee to make a payment online when this is actually the least expensive way to conduct business with your customersit cost pennies, 3 ) There is no way online to make a payment towards the late fees, you either pay all or nothing, 4 ) the person that I spoke to told me that I would have to cancel my auto payment in order to pay on the late fees, againincurring more fees, 5 ) She told me that I could call in a payment for the late fees but there would be a fee for them to process, ( she told me that I could ask for a waiver of the late fees but there was no guarantee ) and lastly 6 ) I could call in every month to ask for them move the funds over to the late fees. At that point what is the use since I would be charged a fee for them to do so.

a. To make a call every month to request for them to fix something that should have been right in the first place is ridiculous. 
With this experience I feel as though I am trapped and was not properly informed of all of these nuisances of having an account with this company. On top of all of this on XX/XX/XXXX, SPS hit my credit bureau indicating that my loan was modified. I asked the rep why was they hit my credit bureau and after being put on hold numerous times, she could not answer my question. All she could do is tell me that my loan was modified on XX/XX/XXXX. I told her exactly, if my loan was modified in XXXX why are they reporting it to the bureau five years later. The modification was done with XXXX XXXX and not with their company. She then stated because it was the anniversary of my modification. THIS IS NOT A VALID RESPONSE. I then asked her to verify that what she was telling me was that they will be reporting the modification as if it was new every year. She could not answer my question. I was very upset and told her that I hated that my loan was sold to them. It has been a very bad experience from the beginning. The lack of customer notification of all of these nuisances is unfair treatment and entrapment. From unexplained bureau hits to entrapping customers to pay variable and fees to make payments. 
I am very disappointed that a Supervisor or anyone did not review the recorded call and reach back out to aid is resolving these issues.

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation