Consumer complaint received 2019-11-15
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY
State: NJ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Other type of mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I had been paying my monthly mortgage payment ( ~ {$5500.00} ) on time. I generally schedule an electronic payment of {$5600.00} to be paid on the XX/XX/XXXX of each month. However, in XX/XX/XXXX TD Bank, after doing revised escrow calculations, increased the monthly mortgage amount. They say they sent me a letter informing of this ( which letter I have not received ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, when I called TD Bank in response to a voice message they left for me, I was informed that the bank had not received my payment that was due on XX/XX/XXXX. I informed the person that I had paid {$5600.00} on XX/XX/XXXX already. I could also see the payment on their online portal and I also had an automated email that I had received from the bank with a confirmation number at the time I had scheduled the payment. The person was unable to locate this {$5600.00} payment even after a few minutes but explained that as a result of new escow calculations, my new payment amount as of XX/XX/XXXX was supposed to be {$5900.00} and that they had sent me a letter informing me of this ( which letter I did not receive ). He said he was guessing that since the full payment was not made, perhaps the system did not recognize the XXXX payment. In any case, I should pay the remaining {$310.00} and then things would be sorted out. I pointed out that I have also scheduled a {$5600.00} payment for XX/XX/XXXX. He said that in that case I should make an extra payment of {$620.00} ( not {$310.00} ) and that starting from XX/XX/XXXX, I should pay {$5900.00}. I asked if the bank was levying any fines on me, and he said if I would just pay {$620.00}, that is all that would be required. 

I then attempted to pay the {$620.00} for a date of XX/XX/XXXX but the request was rejected by TD Bank 's payment system -- it said there is already a payment scheduled for that date. So I was only able to schedule the payment of {$620.00} for XX/XX/XXXX ( the next business day ). To make doubly sure that this would settle things and to inform TD Bank that the payment of {$620.00} was only scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX ( and not XX/XX/XXXX ), I then called TD Bank again and reached the same person. He assured me that if I had scheduled the {$620.00} payment for XX/XX/XXXX, then everything would be fine and I did not owe anything else. There is a fine on the account of {$190.00} but he would request that it be taken off. 

I then wrote to TD Bank asking them to please communicate with me on email and provided my email details. They responded that this was not possible. ( This implies  that this kind of lack of communication has a potential to happen in the future also ). 

After this, I found out on XX/XX/XXXX that TD Bank has reported to credit bureaus that my account is delinquent by {$190.00}. As a result, my credit score has  plummeted. 

I hope this explains everything. I would also like to point out that : 1 ) TD Bank has charged me {$190.00} fine for a shortfall in payment of {$310.00} by 1 month. This is a hefty charge that is completely unjustified and completely unfair. They are gouging a customer because that fine amounts to 733 % p.a. which is exorbitant by any reasonable measure.

2 ) The bank continues to hold escrow and I am fairly sure that the escrow, on average, is more than {$310.00}. So it is not as if I was delinquent on the whole and that the bank need have worried about inability or unwillingness on my part to make a payment.

3 ) The continual inability of the bank to communicate using email does not help.

4 ) The process of setting up automated payments is cumbersome. It can not be done online. With my previous lender, I had authorized them to withdraw the necessary funds from my checking account, so this kind of issue never arose.

I reached out to TD Bank with all of the above background and justification but they say they can not do anything.

I would like to know how it is that TD Bank can get away with this kind of aggressive and unjustified behaviour, ruining my credit report in the process, all caused by communication problems. They lag other major banks like XXXX and XXXX on communication due to technological or other process issues and would like to charge me this exorbitant fees to cover up their own short-coming. 

How can the CFPB help?

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief