Consumer complaint received 2020-11-01
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: NM
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My last entry somehow was erased. I will start over. 

I am XXXX XXXX. I have paid my mortgage faithfully to B of A for over 15 years except last year when B of A stopped my auto pay by mistake and failed to renew it for some reason. I paid them {$15000.00} plus my {$5000.00} in attorneys fees due to their mistake and moved on in life. I was not happy although did take care of the problem they created for me. 

Now that COVID is making a mess of our country, I signed up on the forbearance program passed by President Trump in XXXX. I made sure that the {$13000.00} for 6 months would be deferred to the end of the mortgage before signing up on this program. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from XXXX of B of A. He told me that my 6 month program would be deferred to the end of my loan and I should pay XXXX 's payment which I did. I did not receive his letter after a week and called back. XXXX XXXX of B of A took my call and would not transfer me to XXXX. She sort of hemmed and hawed as I explained that we already agreed to defer this 6 months of payments to the end of the loan. She passed me on to XXXX XXXX ( sp? XXXX. XXXX was rather rude and told me that the deferral program was not available anymore. He said he would ask his boss if he could transfer me to XXXX. That did not happen and somehow the call was disconnected. I did not hear back from him so I called back again on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with yet another rep named XXXX. I had a calm and reasonable chat with XXXX. He said he would have XXXX of customer relations call me and that B of A had no intention to circumvent congress in regards to the Cares Act. I asked him to have XXXX read the Cares act before calling. I did not hear back from her either. 

Having so many different reps at B of A really confuses the whole situation and nothing is progressing in any kind of reasonable fashion. They have it set up so you can never speak to any of the past reps nor will they let you speak with your past contacts. 

I called an attorney for help and he said that he already went through this same thing with another client with B of A. The client paid him for 2 hours of his time {$500.00}. He too was passed around to 7 different reps and then on the 8th rep it turned out to be the first rep again. 

The cares act states that you can have up to 6 months of forbearance and at termination you can request for another 6 months with no application or review process. I believe that I did ask that of XXXX. He said that was not possible. 

B of A has admitted that they explained the whole forbearance situation wrongly to mortgage holders and it was causing them a big problem. 

In my opinion B of A is acting very egregious and inappropriate way. They are using the forbearance program to lead home owners into a trap where they will then come after you and try to foreclose on you if you don't pay them for 6 months of back payments within 2 weeks after the program ended, even if you have an agreement to defer the 6 moths of payments to the end of the loan. This is contrary to the original agreements of which I requested from XXXX. XXXX also told me that XXXX had no authorization to offer a deferral program to me even though he was trained by B of A as a B of A representative. 
B of A is acting in bad faith and not keeping their agreements or taking time to review the Cares Act. They seem to be making up their own version as they go. XXXX of B of A said, " We are not trying to circumvent congress here '' I then requested that he let me speak to XXXX again and he refused to allow that. Something needs to be done to resolve this situation Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief