Consumer complaint received 2019-04-06
Company: SELECT PORTFOLIO SERVICING, INC.
State: WA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My husband and I divorced in XX/XX/XXXX, in XX/XX/XXXX my home loan was taken over by SPS, Inc. I called SPS, Inc. to change my name, as it was legally changed in our divorce, I was told that the only way to change my name was to send a copy of my Drivers License and Social Security Card. I didn't like this idea and was told that this was the only way it could be done. I did this and sent it with another document that they were asking for. When I called back to check on this I was told that they received the document but did not receive my copies of my id 's that were in the same envelope. I was told that they only way they could change my name is this way. I did not want to try this again, in this age of stolen identities. I called back again and asked if there was any other way and this time I was told that I could fax a copy. I did this and again they lost it. I called once again and this time was told that I could email a picture of both ID 's, but this time it was over a year and a half since my divorce. Unacceptable! 

Per our Divorce Decree my ex-husband is supposed to pay all fees on our home loan because he messed it all up before our divorce. He made payments when he chose but SPS would let them sit in an Unapplied Balance Account and wouldn't put them on fees until they wanted to. On XX/XX/XXXX, I made a Principal payment to my account and was given a confirmation # XXXX. They never made this payment and added it to the Unapplied Balance Account also. I called numerous times and was told it was paid on the fees, then the next time they couldn't find it and finally fees didn't have to be paid up front they could be paid at closing ( being told different things each time I called-and speaking with many customer service reps and customer service supervisors ). 

Payments made by my ex-husband : XX/XX/XXXX {$140.00} XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX total {$1400.00} All the while my house payments were being made on time also. 
Now when I made the {$500.00} payment I was told that it was going on the principal but this never happened. I have called and talked to numerous CSR 's  and CSS 's. One Customer Service Supervisor ( XXXX XXXX ) went through all the payments made by my ex and told me that if he paid {$160.00} the following day that he could go through and make sure all these payments were added appropriately and that my {$500.00} payment would be added to the principal and post dated back to XX/XX/XXXX. My ex called in the payment the next day XX/XX/XXXX. This was never done, I called back once again and talked to another Customer Service Supervisor ( XXXX XXXX ) who could not understand what happened and said she would be following it to make sure it happened, this was in XX/XX/XXXX. Again it did not. Now they realize the money is sitting there and they see they have enough for XXXX 's payment and they apply it to that without my knowledge, even with an automatic payment setup to come out on XX/XX/XXXX. They tell me they had to make XXXX 's payment because it was due but they made them in XXXX and it was actually not due until XXXX. I have now written a letter to The Ombudsman and gotten a reply but it has still not fixed any of my problems. They told me that the {$500.00}, in addition to other funds that were being held in suspense were used to satisfy {$890.00} of the loan level advances that were due and that I still have a balance of {$170.00}. They also said that the payment scheduled for automatic withdraw on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX did not automatically withdraw because the amount due for XX/XX/XXXX was satisfied early on XXXX XXXX ( but it did not have to be paid until XXXX, shouldn't it then go to principal instead of making a payment a month early? ) They also go on to say that it was {$5.00} less than the amount required to satisfy a payment ( but it wasn't supposed to be a payment ) and SPS advanced the {$5.00}, now I don't know if they are going to charge a fee on this {$5.00}. If they would have just applied all the money where they were supposed to the whole time we would not have this problem going on and on. I am afraid to make any other principal payments again but I am told by many Loan Officers that this is the best thing I could do. {$500.00} is a lot of money for a single mom to come up with and I had finally saved enough to put it down only for them to play around with it for 7 months and then make a house payment they felt that they needed to pay a month early. Also I am sure that the fees on my account should be paid in full with the amount that my ex-husband has paid but SPS says I still owe {$170.00} and the way they deposit into the unapplied balance account and not to the places they are asked to I don't know how to find out the truth. 

I am sorry if this doesn't make sense to you but it hasn't made much sense to me either and I'm trying to make it as clear as possible. I just worry that if they are doing this to me, are they doing it to others also?

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation