Consumer complaint received 2021-05-19
Company: LoanCare, LLC
State: NE
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I have a mortgage loan with Loancare. I was financially impacted by the COVID pandemic and for that reason, Loancare approved a forbearance plan between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. The forbearance plan allowed me not to make the monthly payments for four months - XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX, without any late fees being assessed. However, these four payments would need to be made after the forbearance plan expired. 
While Loancare was processing the forbearance, they waived two late fees of {$21.00} each assessed for the XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX payments. 
In mid XX/XX/XXXX, I notified Loancare through their website that I was ready to get out of the forbearance plan. Between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I made the four payments for the months of XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX online through the Loancare website. However, when the time came to make the payment for the month of XX/XX/XXXX, the website didn't allow me to make it, so on XX/XX/XXXX, I called Loancare and made the XXXX payment by phone. The representative who helped me said the problem with the website may have been caused by the forbearance, but the forbearance was being removed from my account, so going forward I should be able to make the payments online as usual. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I had to go out of the country to attend a funeral. Before leaving, I tried to make the XX/XX/XXXX payment online, but the website still didn't allow me. On XX/XX/XXXX, while I was out of the country, I received an email from Loancare advising my mortgage loan had been removed from forbearance. So, I tried to make the XXXX payment through their website. However, I couldn't access their website at all. I was able to pay all my other bills online from another country - even my electricity bill - but I couldn't even access the Loancare website! 
On XX/XX/XXXX, just after returning to the U.S., I proceeded to make the XX/XX/XXXX payment online, but at first had problems accessing the Loancare website. The website kept telling me a security code was sent to my phone, but I didn't receive any code. That happened about four times, so I called Loancare. However, after being on hold for more than 30 minutes, someone hung up on me. 
I called Loancare again and while I was on hold, I made a few more attempts to access their website. I finally received a security code on my phone, which allowed me to login to the Loancare website and schedule the XX/XX/XXXX payment. However, a late charge of {$21.00} had been assessed for the XXXX payment. 
Meanwhile, I was still on hold with Loancare and finally a representative responded. I explained the situation and requested the late charge of {$21.00} assessed for the XXXX payment to be removed, since I was unable to access the Loancare website while I was out of the U.S., and I couldn't call Loancare while being in another country. The representative confirmed their website can't be accessed while being in another country. However, he denied my request. He said two late charges had already been removed in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX and he wouldn't be able to waive any more. I told him those late charges were removed due to the forbearance, but that didn't make any difference. The representative still denied my request to remove the late charge for XX/XX/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 explanation