Consumer complaint received 2018-10-09
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
XXXX informs us that ... Fifth Third Bank will now be servicing a loan they successfully serviced for months? Why? XXXX has our most recent loan and the prior loan for years without any issues or late payments.. ever. Why switch? 

Things go from bad to worse. .. starting with bank errors, many phone calls and promises, and mountains to climb ... just to make " timely mortgage payments ''. WHAT IS THE UNDERLYING PURPOSE OF ALL THESE ERRORS AND MIS-INFORMATION? 

These are just some of the errors and concerns : 1. Told we do not even need to make payments for several months upon our first call to Fifth Third Bank before these other issues serviced. ( Although we insisted and made them anyway what was the purpose of that? ) 2. Double billed ( accident? ) 3. Un-returned credit with constant delays after many promises for double payment? 
4. What happened to our built in XXXX insurance? 
5. What happened to our built in payoff death insurance? 
6. How many others is this happening to? 

Fifth Third Bank took over servicing our mortgage at XXXX with just a uncertified letter ( s ) several months ago. This was completely out of the blue, but shouldn't have caused any issues with our mortgage, since we have made all payments for this loan and the one previous on time. But, apparently, due to disorganization on the part of XXXX XXXX and Fifth Third Bank, we have had to climb mountains just to make sure our payments are made and made on time. It seems impossible to logic, that a mortgage company would make it difficult to actually pay them ''. But, this is what has been going on since the transfer of servicing. 

The paperwork sent to change the mortgage servicing from XXXX XXXX to Fifth Third Bank was vague and misleading, so we called Fifth Third Bank to see what changes on our end were actually necessary to make timely payments. They were vague and uncertain about how to make the payments, and even indicated that -- payments would not have to be made on the mortgage for several months without penalty. We found that preposterous, so insisted on a method to make our payments and make them timely. 
They said we could simply go to any Fifth Third Bank, present the loan account paperwork, and make a payment. They also agreed to send the paperwork to set up new automatic payments to them. This was done, and the paperwork was signed and sent. 

Automatic payments were set up, but no one knew at Fifth Third Bank when the automatic payments would start. So we would follow our statements and if the automatic payment was not taken out by the first of the month, we would make the trip to the local Fifth Third Bank and make a manual payment. 






In XXXX, again the automatic payment was not made, so we waited an extra day or so and it still was not made. We went to Fifth Third Bank and told them that automatic payments were to be made on this account and if they knew when they would start, they said they did not know anything about the account, except they could accept payments on it. So the manual payment was made. The next day, Fifth Third Bank pulled the automatic payment as well. 

We have been told over and over that the more than {$1800.00} in overpayment was going to be returned to us. The latest call was last week Wednesday and Fifth Third Bank noted that they were going to have the overpayment credited back to our account by the end of the week. Again this was not done. It is not just the {$1800.00} overpayment, but there are other issues, potentially -- - much more serious -- - as well. 

1 Told do not even need to make payments for several months upon our first call to Fifth Third Bank before these other issues serviced. ( Although we insisted and made them anyway what was the purpose of that? ) 2. Double billed ( accident? ) 3. Un-returned credit with constant delays for double payment? 
4. What happened to our built in XXXX insurance? 
5. What happened to our built in payoff death insurance? 
6. How many others is this happening to? 

Should others that have dealing with XXXX and/or Fifth Third be concerned or even warned? Are these methods just accidents and disorganization, or are they done intentionally? For what purpose? Should the media be informed? Social Media?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation