Consumer complaint received 2020-08-01
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
Email to Executive Office Thu XX/XX/XXXX XXXX I have a 30 year Mortgage with Chase. Theres 12 years left, so Ive been with the Bank for 18 years. Always paid on time & receive the statement by post. Never had an online account. I wanted to see if our Mortgage rate could be reduced from 4.5 % which is high. On line website says 2.64 % is available.After spending 3.5 hours on the phone with various departments, being transferred, being cut off each time a transfer is made, going backwards & forwards to the same departments I gave up. Didnt achieve anything. Total waste of my time. Im currently in the XXXX XXXX. 

The email above was read Mon XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. I have a receipt.I tried to call customer services again, The wait is up to 1 hour on an international call. I tried the call back but this is not available to international customers. Someone answered after 10 mins then cut me off. No one phoned me back as promised to discuss the refinancing. The Pandemic is not an excuse for this dreadful customer Service. 

Tue XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. Hi XXXX, So the Bank is happy for me to continue to pay my loan back at 4.5 % over the next 12 years as a XXXX XXXX  but will not consider a rate change on a fixed rate over 10 years, because I am a XXXX XXXX. Note : The loan was transferred from XXXX XXXX during the banking crisis. My XXXX XXXX status was accepted at that point. With this policy I am locked into Chase for another 12 years with no means of exit or revsion with the loan. Is this acceptable practise? I am requesting a means of reducing the rate as advertised on the Chase website approximate rates available under 2 %. As Chase accepted the original XXXX XXXX position legally can the company use this status a a reason to disallow a revsion? The original rate is fluctuating & has constantly changed. I have an excellent credit rating & the Loan to Value ratio is 20 %. The request was to review. I do not believe the answer to use XXXX XXXX status to be legal. 

The next situation was the closing of the Escrow account as the House Insurance & TAX was to be paid direct on the XX/XX/XXXX XXXX. An email was sent to XXXX, she advised that the Escrow will be closed on the XXXX XXXX. I requested that the balance of $ XXXX was transferred to my NY XXXX account. This was just ignored. Without an further communication a cheque arrived on XXXX XXXX. I said, I did not want a cheque sent to XXXX. With all the problems with transport, banks not opening & means of paying a US cheque into a XXXX bank this is not acceptable. I stated " DO NOT send a cheque. The funds need to be transferred electronically as requested. I provided the details, routing & account number. 

I find it incredible that Chase could not send funds electronically to XXXX both world class banks. I have asked for compensation for now having to convert the funds to Sterling to bank in the XXXX & then back again to Dollars to deposit in the US with all associated costs. 

Chase at Agent level has been incredibly difficult to deal with & at CEO dept level it has been complex, no offer of an apology for the way I have been treated. Complete disrespect of my long time with the bank. No consideration of trying to find a way to make the transaction easier for me. 

This was the last email Fri XX/XX/XXXX XXXX as it seems that the Mortgage payment that will be drawn on XX/XX/XXXX has not been revised to allow for the reduction for the Escrow now being closed Dear Mr XXXX office. 

So your office is ignoring me too. I just received a voice message from XXXX. The message is attached & related to the cheque that has in fact been sent to the XXXX. Dollars are not the centre of the worlds currency, believe it or not. We have our currency in the XXXX its called POUNDS STERLING. The reason I asked for the cheque to be deposited into the US account was because funny enough the currency is in US Dollars!!

I have a cheque that once converted with fees paid & an exchange rate that will rip me off ( as all bank do ), I will lose money. I would then have to change it back to Dollars to pay my House Insurance in, yes youve got it, in Dollars so I will have lost money again. Your officers, agents, colleagues, whatever youd like to call them work for A BANK, so they have access to a million ways to transfer funds. But of course you cant send funds to another US bank, silly me, why would I think that this would be possible. No you have to make everything as difficult as possible & send me an antiquated old fashioned cheque. 

It has been such a pleasure doing business with your bank. Emails ignored, messages left that do not answer the questions that have been continuously sent on email, strangely nothing put in writing, no response to say that a cheque cant be sent to my bank in the US. Its just sent out. On my US XXXX account I can send money to anyone I like, I can send an echeque I can send a mobile payment, I can send a XXXX payment, a Swift paymentI can send a echeque to any address. Its totally amazing. 

I will list my question with big numbers next to them so each numbered question can be read, hopefully understood & logically replied to. Im having so much fun dealing with Chase. 

1. The attached image XXXX is a picture of the last statement received this week. It shows that the Escrow balance is {$3400.00}. This is equivalent to the cheque received today ( in answer to Shareses question yes we have the cheque ) My question is one of clarification. On the XX/XX/XXXX a payment of {$960.00} will be drawn, this includes as the explanation {$540.00} Mortgage & {$410.00} Escrow. As the cheque has already been sent & the Escrow is closed what will happen to the {$410.00}? Or will the Autopay just take the {$540.00} Mortgage payment. It just seems confusing. 2. XXXX XXXX XXXX I asked for online to be  set up now, you never replied, this is a change of mind awaiting our decision on the account moving forward. Please let me know how youll do this. If you are going to ring me please book a time we are 5 hours in front of you. 

3. The cheque I now have in the XXXX is going to cost me money to bank in the XXXX as explained above. Chase needs to compensate me for traveling to the bank, my time, the cost of changing to XXXX & then changing back to US Dollar. This compensation is set at {$540.00} one mortgage payment. 

4. I asked for a formal reply to why the rate cant be changed to a fix rate the email Sent : XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX requires a FORMAL reply so I can pass on to the SEC. The reply I have had to date is not acceptable as explained in the email below, my foreign national status is identical to my original status when the loan was provided. 

I hope the situation is clear & look forward to a reply from the Department. The SEC put me in touch with this department following sending the complait to them.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation