Consumer complaint received 2017-02-02
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TN
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
I have been though the process of a few mortgages in my life ... I have a general idea of how things go. The experience we went though with 5/3 Bank this past XXXX XXXX was horrendous. I ca n't begin to tell you all the issues and disappointment we encountered. But what I want to focus on is something that I do n't think is ethical. It pertains around the PMI disclosure of this particular loan and how I was basically put up against a wall to either proceed with a closing with this high PMI or lose our condo. 

This past XXXX XXXX my wife and I decided to buy a second condo. Our plans were to move into this condo and rent out the one we were currently living in at the time. We went over our finances and budgeted around {$2000.00} per month for an extra mortgage. 

I contacted 5/3 Bank since that 's where our current mortgage was, as well as checking, savings, investment account and a prior car loan. We were connected with XXXX XXXX to help us with our mortgage. I was very specific and detailed with XXXX about the property we knew we wanted to buy, the funds we had for a down payment as well as what we needed the mortgage to be each month. 


I was told by XXXX that based on the amount I had for a down payment there would likely be PMI involved, but he was not sure of the amount at the time. When I asked him around how much he said " not bad. '' I never had to have PMI on any of my previous mortgages. I figured that if condo insurance was any indicative estimate of what personal mortgage insurance could be ( since our condo insurance was fairly inexpensive ) ... maybe the PMI would be around {$100.00} or so a month. 

I NEVER signed or saw anything about the PMI. It was not even brought up again at all. My wife or I never received anything that showed wha the PMI would be until 72 hours before the closing. 

Our closing was delayed twice. Both issues were due to the appraisal on 5/3 's part.The sellers were very frustrated because the sale of this home was tied to the purchase of another. They threatened to go with another buyer. Our actual closing was finally set for XXXX XXXX, XXXX. 

On the night of XXXX XXXX XXXX had us meet him at the 5/3 Building in downtown XXXX to sign some amended paperwork for the new closing. 

My wife and I are reviewing the documents and see our monty payment is {$2500.00} including {$440.00} of PMI. We were so taken back. Over {$500.00} dollars of what we budgeted for a month and completely not what we were expecting. We told XXXX we had a {$2000.00} budget and that 's all we could do. We were now in a position - our closing was already delayed. Sellers are frustrated and already made threats ... If we decided to raise an issue about the PMI we 'd definitely delay our closing again and risk losing the condo. XXXX told us not to worry we could do an equity line or pay the funds down to remove the PMI. 

We signed. Proceeded. An equity line was not going to happen. We just did n't have the credit to do it and there was no option we could figure out with the multiple 5/3 people we spoke with how we can eliminate this ridiculously high monthly PMI fee we did n't plan for. {$5300.00} a year go PMI was a hard pill to swallow. 

Months passed and after much though we wound up moving a lot of our rainy day funds around to eliminate the PMI. It was just officially removed this past XXXX XXXX. 

What I am specially asking for is - I want all the PMI I had to pay back. I want 5/3 to eat those funds. I am pretty sure i should have signed something more than 72 hours before the closing showing me what that PMI was going to be - and that never happened. I would love to see some documentation from that showing otherwise. They put me in a bad position where i pretty much had to suck it up and pay for their mistake or lose the condo. 

The total I paid 5/3 for PMI was {$2500.00}. I want it all back.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation