Consumer complaint received 2019-04-05
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: AZ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
We have had problems with CitiMortgage ever since we completed a modification of our HELOC in XX/XX/XXXX. We completed our trial payment period ( XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX ) successfully and started making scheduled payments in XX/XX/XXXX. Since then, Citi has been attempting to collect additional amounts above and beyond the contractually agreed scheduled payments. When asked to explain the reason for the additional amounts, representatives of Citi have been unable or unwilling to provide any sort of explanation, other than that if we paid what was being demanded the calls and letters would stop. Our Loan Support Specialist, XXXX XXXX XXXX was helpful at first, but has since become non-responsive. 

After being preliminarily approved for a loan modification in XX/XX/XXXX, we began making trial payments in XXXX. We paid {$210.00} in XXXX, XXXX and XXXX as requested by Citi. We were notified in mid-XXXX that our modification would be accepted and that a notary would come to our house to sign modification documents, which were signed on XX/XX/2018. At this time we were not provided with any sort of payment instructions, but were told that we would be receiving a copy of what we signed shortly. We did not receive these copies until late XXXX of 2018. The copy that we received showed that the documents had been accepted and agreed by XXXX XXXX, Document Control Officer with Citibank NA on XX/XX/2018. 

Because we had not received these copies, or any payment direction from Citi, we made a good faith payment in the amount of {$210.00} on XX/XX/2018. By the time our XXXX payment was due we had received our document copies and adjusted our payment amount to {$210.00} ; we have made these payments every month, on time, ever since. 

It was around this time that we became aware that Citi was attempting to collect an amount of {$310.00}, above and beyond the payments contractually agreed upon in our loan modification agreement. After several conversations with various front-line call center reps who could not answer my questions, I was eventually directed to our loan support specialist, XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX looked into the matter, and when we spoke, she explained that the system was showing late charges on our account, due to the fact that we had short-paid our XXXX payment by {$2.00}. XXXX could not explain why the late charges were so hefty, but offered to waive our late charges because we had made a good faith payment of {$210.00} against an amount due of {$210.00}. After our conversation we also sent an additional payment of {$2.00} to reconcile the short-pay. 

Unfortunately, that did not settle the matter. As of this writing Citi is attempting to collect {$330.00}, and is threatening to report our account as delinquent to the credit bureaus, when we have been making payments on time in the agreed upon amounts every month since XXXX of 2018. Despite repeated promises to look into the matter, and to have someone contact me in order to provide a detailed explanation of these charges, no one in the company has followed through on their promise. Calls to Citis corporate office were also unhelpful ; I was simply directed to call the same toll-free number that I had already been calling, which to this point has been fruitless.

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