Consumer complaint received 2017-11-01
Company: LoanCare, LLC
State: CO
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I will begin by stating I have ALWAYS paid my mortgage fully and early every month, plus more toward principal ( except my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment which did not contain any extra for principal since I do n't seem to have a say in which account my money is going ). I also write on every money order directions for where the money is to be allocated 'mortgage ' or 'principal ' ( I send up to four money orders a month - get paid weekly and it 's easier to get a money order on each payday ). I was told when I bought my house that I could pay twice a month, which would cut down on the amount of interest that would accumulate. So, for the last year I have been sending two money orders in the beginning of the month and two in the middle of the month. All mortgage money has arrived well before the end of the month. Everything had gone according to plan until XX/XX/XXXX, at which time Loancare took it upon themselves to put my first mortgage payment of the month for {$600.00} into Principal Curtailment instead of holding it for the rest of my mortgage payment. I have since been told by Loancare and my mortgage company that I was not suppose to send two payments a month, etc ... But, regardless if I paid two payments a month they ALWAYS received my mortgage in full, plus additional principal way before the end of the month and I never had a problem ( or heard from Loancare not to continue this practice ) until XX/XX/XXXX. 

The following is the sequence of events which have led me to making this complaint : In XX/XX/XXXX, I opened my mortgage bill and discovered that Loancare was requesting that I pay {$1400.00} ( mortgage payment of {$900.00} plus fees and charges due to my mortgage payment in XX/XX/XXXX being {$350.00} short ). I called Loancare and spoke with customer service. I was informed that {$350.00} of XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment had gone into my escrow account. I was also informed that they would go into the escrow account and move the {$350.00} from this account and put it towards my mortgage payment. I was requested to email Loancare, through their site, to have any blemishes for an 'alleged ' short payment removed from my account, as well as, added on fees and service charges. I emailed Loancare and requested all fees/service charges be removed and that any bad credit reports they put into my account be removed immediately. Later in XX/XX/XXXX I received an email stating no bad credit had been attached to my history and that the money had been transferred to my mortgage. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the same situation appeared to happen again. My bill dated XX/XX/XXXX stated I owed {$1500.00} ( XXXX mortgage plus {$310.00} with fees and service charges added on ). I once again emailed Loancare and all I received was an email stating they do not take 'partial payments '. First : to me a 'partial payment ' is someone struggling to make the full payment and that 'partial payment ' would be all the mortgage company would be receiving from that individual that month to be put towards their mortgage. Second : If they DO NOT take partial payments then why did they accept all of my double payments every month prior to XX/XX/XXXX and put this money towards my mortgage without a problem? Why not send the 'partial payment ' back to me and tell me to send them the full payment at one time? I sent them a couple of emails regarding this latest notice in XX/XX/XXXX.
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a notice stating my loan is delinquent. This time they claimed I was short on my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage. 

When my account payments were assessed on the Loancare website this is what was discovered : XX/XX/XXXX - Loancare took my first payment of the month which was mortgage for the month of XX/XX/XXXX, since I always pay for the next month a month in advance, in the amount of {$600.00} and they placed this in the Principal Curtailment fund. Then when I called for them to fix this problem they never took the {$600.00} they had randomly placed into the 'Principal Curtailment account ' in XX/XX/XXXX and applied this to my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage. Instead, they took {$600.00} for my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment from my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment. Then in XX/XX/XXXX I received a delinquency notice because of my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage being used to pay my XX/XX/XXXX 'delinquent ' account. They received my XX/XX/XXXX payment on XX/XX/XXXX ( the full amount this time with no extra for principal ). But instead of paying my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage they used {$600.00} ( amount they had randomly placed in the Principal Curtailment Fund in XX/XX/XXXX, and have been dipping into the future months mortgage payments to cover for their mistake ) to pay for the XX/XX/XXXX 'shortage ' and then again randomly placed the last {$300.00} of my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment into the Principal Curtailment Fund. So ... as of this date XX/XX/XXXX, although I have paid my mortgage every month early I am once again delinquent because Loancare has decided to designate my mortgage payments to be placed where they want the money to go and not for the intended purpose. Despite phone calls and emails Loancare has not gone back into the Principal Curtailment fund and redistributed the {$600.00} from this account towards my mortgage, as previously stated, they just continue to pull from the future month to cover the current month. 

I have also contacted my mortgage company XXXX XXXX XXXX and asked for assistance in dealing with this situation but to no avail. They just chastised me for making two payments a month and although they reportedly had their accounting dept. look at the situation they did not find anything wrong. This whole situation is so ... wrong!! I even paid the full amount together in the same envelope for my XX/XX/XXXX payment and they took it upon themselves to dole out my money where they deemed it should go, not where I had requested 'mortgage ' on all of the money orders ( three this time ). I have learned my lesson. I will send only one money order for the full amount and a separate money order for any principal, I will send in one envelope ( two if necessary for the principal money order since they appear to get confused by too many money orders ) and get certified if I have to, but in the mean time this situation has be fixed asap. I will also be looking at getting a different mortgage company who can display actual concern for their clients and who deal with a different payment agency. Loancare is awful. All the people who have had to have been involved in the inappropriate shuffling of my mortgage money and did not catch on to their mistake is unbelievable. It is truly scary. 

Since Loancare deemed to place my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage money where they saw fit I am once again showing as 'delinquent ', but for XX/XX/XXXX this time. I should not have to pay two mortgage payments for XX/XX/XXXX. Please help Loancare fix this problem ASAP so I can stop having to deal with their incompetence.

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