Consumer complaint received 2016-03-09
Company: GATEWAY FIRST BANK
State: OK
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
Just over two years ago our homeowner 's insurance premium was set to increase to almost double what we were paying due to wide spread weather in our area. We received the proposal of rate increase in the mail and began immediately searching for a new insurance company. We found a new insurance company and added them on to the escrow through our mortgage company. The mortgage company used our escrow account to pay the premium to the previous insurance company with the excessively high rate. We cancelled our policy with the old insurance company and the mortgage company told us that we should receive a check from them since they had already paid our policy in full for the year. We received a check in the mail, deposited it into our account, and then transferred funds online to our mortgage company via their website. We checked the box that stipulates that the current deposit, the amount dispersed to the prior insurance company, should be reallocated to refund our escrow account. The mortgage company applied some of the funds to the escrow account, some of the funds to our loan principle and some of the funds are still somewhere in their computer. At this time, we were told, that they were switching over to a new computer system that was supposed to be more '' beneficial to their customers. '' The new computer system immediately began generating monthly statements indicating that we were behind a months payment on our mortgage account and that our escrow account was underfunded. We brought the oversight to their attention and they promised that they would review our account to correct these inaccuracies. A couple of months passed with no returned calls, corrections or adjustments. We then called to indicate our concern and were met with associates that were pleasant but unable to ascertain why our escrow account was still short. Our account was pushed up to the supervisory level in both the accounting department and the escrow department for review. We were promised numerous times that after review we should expect a phone call from the mortgage company with a solution. We never received a phone call nor was there a solution presented. These events occurred over a timeline of a year and a half. The next year our taxes and insurance premium decreased by nearly {$500.00} but the amount was never reflected on our mortgage statement as a decrease in our monthly payment. We again called and asked why our monthly payment had not decreased to reflect this change. We were told, again, that an escrow supervisor was reviewing our account and we would have to wait for her to call us. We called to speak to her, because she did not call us, to see if any progress was made. She stated the she had figured out the problem. She said that our monthly payment was not decreased due to the 60 month agreement we made with the mortgage company to rectify our escrow account shortfall. I was dumbfounded in that neither my wife nor I had ever, or would ever, agree to anything close to this far fetched plan. The escrow supervisor was now totally confused, she again stated that she would look into this some more and report back to us. No word since, that was two weeks ago. I am afraid that this issue will continue to compound itself if left unchecked. We have called numerous times over the past two years to genuinely come to a solution with our mortgage companies associates, but there does not appear to be any end insight.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation