Consumer complaint received 2021-02-24
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CT
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Problem when making payments

Complaint:
Background : I have a practice finance loan from Wells Fargo XXXX XXXX Small Business lending. I have it on auto pay. 
About a year ago, they changed the due date, making it later in the month. My payments were therefore coming in too early. Instead of calling me or emailing me, they continued to send statements. The payments were always almost late. When I noticed this, I called and they said my payments were almost always late. I asked how that could be, since nothing had changed on my end. When they explained that the due date had changed, it seemed to me like I would have been even more on time. During this call, I figured out though ( and then had to explain to the representative ) that when due date change had taken place, the next payment was not attributed to my next bill, but was considered a double payment on the previous one, therefore, every payment thereafter had been deemed late. We decided that I would just continue to pay as usual but change the date of the checks so they would arrive in the small window between the bills and the new due dates, knowing that I had paid down once an additional month 's worth toward principle. That would have been fine, but also, without letting me know, they had also changed the address where the checks should be sent. So, again, they were all coming in late. 


Now the current issues : Then they allowed 3 months of no payments for coronavirus relief. When that was over, they claimed I didn't resume payments ontime ( which is probably true ) and again, I was considered late on my payments. They weren't calling me or emailing me to let me know any of this - I had to carefully read through my confusing statemtents to figure it out. So I called, paid up to date ( which for some reason was not a multiple of regular monthly payments ). I was back on track. 

Nope, not so fast. It turns out, a few statements later ( again, no phone calls, no emails ) I see something unusual again. I call to find out from the person who takes my call that I have been behind for a few months yet again, this time because the person whom I'd spoken to the previous time hadn't told me the correct amount that I needed to catch up. The new correct amount, by the way, also was not a multiple of the usual payment. So I paid again. 

A month later ( current ) I opened my current statements only to get a note saying that I had 5 days to pay because they had not received my check. I would need to pay by bank ACH it said. My check had been sent weeks prior. It had reverted back to the original ( now wrong ) address, so it had not arrived in the new place. Also note, however, that the urgent letter was postmarked XX/XX/XXXX, 6 days after it was allegedly written, and there was no way it would have gotten to me before the urgently requested " please remit your payment no later than XX/XX/2021 to my attention at the following address ( by overnight courrier ) without delay '' date. Additionally, the statement was confusing with all the different additions and subtractions from my last conversation with the practice management loan officer. When I call to ask about it, I can only get through to their XXXX Wells Fargo 's ) answering service. She says she has to forward my message and someone will return my call in a couple days. 

It just seems that they set me up to make it impossible to simply pay my loan without late fees and extra interest. They have come up with every excuse in the book as to why suddenly I'm late on my payments eventhough the mistake is theirs. Currently I have several months of late fees, and ( I think? ) extra interest costs. I have been told that by them that they are not allowed to converse with me about these matters by email. I am unable to easily reach them by phone. It is frustrating. 

They pulled something XX/XX/XXXXlike this when I first took out the loan. They had made a mistake that was costing me extra money in interest. When I figured it out and called them about it, they admitted it but acted like it was my problem, and would not give back the extra money that they had erroneously been charging me. Finally, after many complaints, they gave back the extra interest they had been charging me. I do not trust Wells Fargo XXXX XXXX.

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 monetary relief