Consumer complaint received 2018-04-27
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
I have noticed that the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is finally investigating illegal practices that Wells Fargo has been implementing on their customers but I have not seen any investigation into a practice that I and hundreds ( probably thousands ) of customers have also been subject to. 

Ive complained to the CFPB before about this practice that Wells Fargo has been doing for years and have not had any investigation into this practice. All that was done in the past was to send my complaint to Wells Fargo and then come back a tell me that Wells Fargo looked over my complaint and feel they have done nothing wrong. This was the extent of their investigation.

Around 20 years ago, I went to Wells Fargo for second loan on my house to clear up some outstanding debt. At this time, Wells Fargo had not yet named their program. But, I told them I needed {$25.00} thousand to  pay off credit cards and a couple of home improvements. When I went back to the bank I was told I had a home equity loan of {$100000.00}. I did not think anything of it at the time but I told my friend what had happened and her comment was : If that happened to me, Id go out and spend it! Well, I paid off that loan a year or two later. 

Ten years ago, I went to Wells Fargo again to apply for a home equity loan of {$30000.00}. I dont know if it is because I have a lot of equity in my house, but when I went back to sign the papers after my approval, I was informed that I had been given one of their Smartfit Home Equity Line of Credit loans. And, instead of the amount I had asked for, this line of credit would be for {$170000.00} and I would only have to pay the monthly interest for the first ten years of the note. I feel there are thousands of us out there that Wells Fargo had pulled the same type of bait and switch program on. And, due to the recession, being laid off from my job I ended up spending the entire {$170000.00}. Im not proud of this happening, but I think Wells Fargo knew from past experience with other customers, that if you give a customer more than they want, chances are, they will end up spending it. Ill bet there are thousands of customers like myself that have gotten into financial trouble due to this practice by Wells Fargo. I also think they named this type of loan Smartfit to make customers feels this is a good idea to sign this type of note! Another thing they did with me was to offer a .25 % reduction on the interest if I would agree to have the payments on this note automatically deducted from my checking account! When it is automatically deducted, you lose track of how much your actual interest only monthly payment is! So, for the past ten years, I ( and many more customers Im sure ) have been making a payment to Wells Fargo ( {$650.00} a month in my case ) on a loan that I will never be able to pay off! Now the 10 year life of the loan has expired and my monthly payment has gone up to {$1000.00}, putting me in a financial bind.

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