Consumer complaint received 2020-04-24
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: TX
Product: Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
Sub-product: Credit reporting
Issue: Incorrect information on your report
Sub-issue: Account information incorrect

Complaint:
I had a home mortgage with JG Wentworth home lending department. At the end of XX/XX/XXXX, we were notified by JG Wentworth that they sold their home lending to Freedom Mortgage. Freedom Mortgage began submitting immediately sending us delinquency notices, and late payment charges on payments that we had made to JG Wentworth. After discussing the issue with Freedom Mortgage 's customer service department they agreed that there was some miscommunication and that the loan would have a 60 day grace period during the transition from JG Wentworth. During this period, there would be no negative reporting and late fees as the account was being setup. 

JG Wentworth notified us that our regular mortgage payment for XXXX was to go to JG Wentworth because the effective date of the transition was XX/XX/XXXX. After calling and discussing with JG Wentworth, said that that payment should in fact go to Freedom, but agreed that there should be a 60 day grace period while the transition was happening. 

Per discussions with Freedom Mortgage and JG Wentworth, we  made our XXXX and XXXX Mortgage payments at the beginning of XXXX as instructed, and within the 60-day grace period from XX/XX/XXXX. The following statement received from Freedom Mortgage contained a {$75.00} late fee. We then called Freedom Mortgage concerning this late fee and were told that it was because we paid our XXXX payment late. After several phone calls, and producing letters and documentation, Freedom Mortgage agreed to waive the late fee because it was inside the 60-day grace period. We did not know that they had negatively reported a late payment on my wife and I 's credit report for this time and had not cleared this out. 

Fast forward to the beginning of XX/XX/XXXX, we recieved a phone call from Freedom Mortgage stated that we could lower our payments through a VA IRRL. After going through the paperwork with the loan specialist, he pulled our credit and stated that he could not approve the lower interest as our credit scores did not meet their lending guidelines. Confused about this issue, we asked for a copy of our reports to discover what was going on. This is when we learned that Freedom Mortgage had negatively reported a late payment for XX/XX/XXXX to all credit bureaus. 

After another phone call to their customer service department, we were instructed to send them a message through their secure online platform to dispute the claim. When we went on to the platform we learned that our message was limited to 120 characters. This was not sufficient to say much more than we dispute the late payment. The platform did not allow for uploading of any documents or back-up to support this statement. We again called back the next day to discuss this issue. After some strong language, and a heated discussion, we were told that we needed to send them a Qualified Written Request to start the dispute process. We then composed a letter, and faxed it as well as mailed a hard copy of the letter to them as instructed. 

We continued to call them daily concerning this issue, and the acknowledged receipt of the letter a few days later. They told us at that time that our account was transferred in XX/XX/XXXX, not late XXXX and that the 60-day grace period ended in mid-XXXX and the XXXX payment was late and reported accurately. Further, we were told that that the letter had no back-up or supporting documentation for proof of our statements that the loan was transferred in late XXXX. We were told that the review had not been formally completed though and that if we had supporting documentation to add that we needed to get that in before the review period concluded. 

As a result, we compiled another formal letter with supporting documentation requested. We faxed this letter as well as mailed it, and waited several more days waiting for Freedom Mortgage to acknowledge receipt. During this time we received notification that the review of our dispute has concluded and Freedom found that our account was in order and our payment was late and all reporting was accurate. No changes would be made. 

Furious with this response we called back daily until they acknowledged receipt of our follow-up letter. Once they did acknowledge receipt the customer service agent stated that they agreed that the time line of events we had presented was accurate and there should have been no negative reporting. She said that she could start another dispute but that would take 30 days to close. She then stated that the process we were following was not the correct process to dispute these issues and we needed to go to the credit bureaus and file disputes with them about the negative reporting in order to get this cleared up. I asked her to confirm that she wanted my wife and I to go to each of the three bureaus and formally dispute the late payment with each of them for a total of 6 disputes about this issue before they would clear it up. She said that was the only way the process would actually clear the it off our credit reports. 

Once again, even more angry at this time, we logged in to each of the bureaus to do as instructed. We were notified that that process would take between 30 to 45 days to clear up depending on the bureau. We completed the disputes, and called Freedom Customer service afterwards to notify them what we had done and asked if they would produce a simple email or some other form of written acknowledgement of the error that they had agreed was made in order to document the issue and allow the VA IRRL process to move forward to lock-in the current low interest rates before the market rates increased. They refused to do so, and stated that they would only produce a written response once the review period of the current dispute was concluded, about 4 weeks from now. 

Now we are in limbo, unable to move forward with a refinance to current rates through the VA IRRL process because of false negative reporting that Freedom Mortgage has acknowledged previously when they waived the late fee, and now again verbally after submitting multiple letters formally to them with back-up and supporting documentation again. We are told that this process would take until the end of XXXX at which point the market rate for refinance mortgage loans will likely be higher than the current rates.

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