Consumer complaint received 2019-11-13
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
We have our mortgage, savings, checking and business account through Santander Bank and have for years. We figured it would be that much simpler. We have NEVER been late on a mortgage payment. 
XXXX My wife used the mail to pay our mortgage, basically out of habit. She mailed out XXXX 's payment, along with the coupon that came with it to Santander ( to the mailbox that came with the statement ) along with the coupon that comes with it. She put our mortgage # and month on the check. 
~XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX My wife saw that the mortgage had not been taken out of our checking account. We decided to wait a few days. 
XX/XX/XXXX According to our internet account, the check cleared ; there was an image of the check on the web page. 
XX/XX/XXXX We received a form from the bank warning us our mortgage was late. 
XX/XX/XXXX First of many calls to mortgage dept. at Santander. They said that, although part of Santander, they had no access to check our account. They asked we email them an image of the check ; we did so. 
XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXXWe got a call from the Mortgage branch. I expected to hear things were straightened out but it was just another " warning '' about being late and the person new nothing about our previous call. 
XX/XX/XXXX Payment was still not credited. My wife went in person to the closest Santander branch ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, PA ) and spoke with the manager there, Ms. XXXX XXXX. She was quite sympathetic and made some phone calls-promised things would be straightened out. While there, my wife decided to pay the XXXX mortgage and handed Ms. XXXX a check ( from our investment Bank ) with explicit instruction to pay XXXX 's, not XXXX 's. 
XX/XX/XXXX We got another letter from Santander saying our XXXX payment was late. We called XXXX and she sent them documentation of the XXXX payment which she had to get from our investment account ( XXXX XXXX ). It turned out that the mortgage company had, against all instructions, paid the disputed XXXX payment with the check paid at the bank, leaving XXXX unpaid. 
XX/XX/XXXX We decided that, as suggested by XXXX, that we pay our mortgage on line. This we did. 
XX/XX/XXXX Received email stating we had just paid XXXX 's payment. NOT XXXX 's You can see the pattern here. No matter what we do, Santander is claiming we are one payment back. 

There were several more phone calls to no avail. At one point the mortgage customer service claimed they could not process the first check because they could not read " who endorsed it ''. Unless the banks have some little XXXX XXXX sitting at a stool with a cribbed hand endorsing millions of checks, it is my understanding that this is all done via machine. One also suggested helpfully that we pay the extra payment from our XXXX account and try to claw back money from them. 

The really crazy thing is that, according to the latest from XXXX, they are now claiming that the money from our first payment went to XXXX XXXX!!! We do not, and never have had an account with XXXX XXXX. The check was not made out to, nor sent to XXXX XXXX!! I should have known ( I'm an XXXX ) that all bad things lead to them eventually. 

We are still in this mess and its been almost 3 months. While they have not ( according to the bank they agreed to " waive '' them ) gotten any late fees, nor have they ( according to them ) messed with our credit. At this point our damages are limited to time and frustration. But we also have been planning to re-finance but can not do so until this is straightened out ; if rates rise we will be SOL. 

As a habit, ( and having dealt with mortgage companies for years XXXX I do not ascribe to fraud what can be attributed to pure stupidity. But the fact that this never seems to be fixed and the appearance of XXXX XXXX is more than bizarre.

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 explanation