Consumer complaint received 2020-01-27
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I will be including all of the available statements from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. Please note that the finance company has not issued a statement for XX/XX/XXXX, which is why there will be no statement for that period. 
For XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX I was set up for automatic withdrawals in the amount of {$1400.00} deducted from my checking account on the XX/XX/XXXX of every month. My payment due date was not until the XX/XX/XXXX of each month, so statements issued for the upcoming month would always indicate no payment due as I was paying in advance.

There was a problem with my XX/XX/XXXX payment processing due to my checkbook being stolen resulting in an account number change. I had to call in to have the account information updated, this process can not be done online, and has to be processed by an Shellpoint employee. During this conversation I requested to be set up on the bi-weekly payment withdrawals that were now being offered, and instructed to send in a copy of a voided check. I returned the forms requesting to switch to bi-weekly withdrawals along with my voided check. This is where things start to go wrong. The person who was to have updated my bank account information to deduct my payments did not do so correctly, and the result was me making my payment manually on XX/XX/XXXX ( 5 days after the due date ) for the amount of {$1100.00}. A female supervisor confirms that she has discontinued my monthly withdrawals without verifying my bank account information, and can not understand my frustration at her error in judgement. The fact that your institution has requested a copy of my check for verification that you did not verify absolutely infuriated me. 
After another phone call to Shellpoint, I was informed that my bi-weekly payments would start being deducted in XX/XX/XXXX. When more than three weeks had passed and no payments were deducted I called in again and was told that it was now to late to deduct the payments for XX/XX/XXXX. I again made a manual payment in the amount of {$1100.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. At this time I set up monthly withdrawals to start again on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$1500.00}, because now they were saying the bi-weekly payments would not begin until the end of XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I call Shellpoint again, because the bi-weekly payments are still not being deducted from my bank account. On this call I am connected with a supervisor who informs me that there has been an error in setting up my bi-weekly withdrawals and that he will manually set up two {$700.00} payments to be deducted in XX/XX/XXXX and from this point forward there will be a {$700.00} deduction every other Monday. 
Coincidentally there is no statement available for XX/XX/XXXX, and the next few statements issued do not provide a payment application breakdown. I go from having no payment due, to having a payment and a half due, to now showing that I am actually a full payment behind every month. 
I have asked for an audit to be done on my account as there is no rhyme or reason to how the payments have been applied. I always pay an additional amount each month, a minimum of {$200.00} up to a maximum of {$900.00}. The institution is not applying the payments on a bi-weekly basis, reducing the principal balance, which is not providing the savings implied by making the payments sooner, nor do I earn interest on the money they " hold '' every month. Some month two payments of {$700.00} are withdrawn and some months result in three payments of {$700.00} being withdrawn.

I am averaging about {$840.00} a month in interest being deducted from my payments, yet the 1098 I just received for XX/XX/XXXX shows that there was a total of {$9200.00} total interest paid for XX/XX/XXXX ( an average of {$770.00} per month ). The math continues to leave me scratching my head. 
I have sent emails, made phone calls, submitted requests online with the customer service portal and have received no response to date. 
There has to be someone that can hold this company accountable. Surely there are rules for the processing and application of payments. The whole appeal of the bi-weekly payment agreement, is that is a savings on interest paid because the interest is compounded daily. From the payment activity it appears there is absolutely no consistency in when or how the payments are applied.

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