Consumer complaint received 2017-08-12
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CT
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
The issue is as follows : Wells Fargo arbitrarily increased my escrow amount by {$220.00} per month starting in XX/XX/XXXX. There was no reason or justification for the increase monthly amount. My escrow balance stood at {$16000.00} as per my XX/XX/XXXX statement. When I applied for my mortgage with Wells Fargo I was told in order to obtain the rate quoted I need to set up a Wells Fargo Checking account to which I agreed. I bank with XXXX and set up an automatic transfer each month to my Wells Fargo ( WF ) checking account and Wells Fargo set up an automatic transfer from my WF checking account to my WF Mortgage account. This has been in effect since the mortgage started in XX/XX/XXXX. I made repeated calls to WF asking why my escrow was increasing and not once received any justification. I know my insurance has gone down by {$100.00} per annum and my taxes remain unchanged. In XX/XX/XXXX WF stopped the automatic transfer from my WF checking account to my WF mortgage account. There was no communication and no justification to stop the transfer. My automatic payments from XXXX to my WF checking account continued. The funds in my WF checking account continued to accrue. At this time WF advised I was in default of my mortgage. I protested and advised they created the problem so they should fix. Numerous telephone calls ensued and no one from WF was ever empowered to fix the problem. They maintained throughout that my monthly payment had increased. No funds were transferred from my WF Checking account to my WF mortgage account after XX/XX/XXXX. WF paid my insurance in XX/XX/XXXX and paid my City taxes in XX/XX/XXXX. After which the balance of my escrow was a positive balance of {$520.00} despite no further funds having been received since XX/XX/XXXX. In mid XXXX on a sunday afternoon, my wife and I were served foreclosure notices. At this time I called Wells Fargo up and agreed to pay the necessary funds to make my mortgage account current. WF acknowledged that there were sufficient funds in my escrow to pay the ins and taxes and there was no reason for the increased monthly escrow. In order to make my mortgage current I have to wire the funds from my WF checking account to another WF account. WF was unable to transfer the funds sitting in my account. As a result of the situation brought on by WF I have incurred a bad credit rating and late charges/foreclosure fees which are not justified. I believe WF have at best been negligent in the handling of my mortgage account and perhaps fraudulent in their attempt to extract additional funds from me without any justification that enables them to sit on my excess funds without paying me any interest etc. The bully tactics of pushing me into foreclosure and the negative ramifications are something I am unable to fight as a consumer. WF was never able to address my concerns and have never made themselves available to address the situation.

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 monetary relief