Consumer complaint received 2017-01-21
Company: STATE FARM BANK, FSB
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Settlement process and costs

Complaint:
My wife and I have lived in our house for over 8 years and have never once had a late or missed mortgage payment. We wanted to refinance to a 15 year loan as offered to us by our State Farm insurance agent, and since we earn FAR more money now than we did when we first bought the house this change would not in any way be a problem for us financially. 
The refinance process began XX/XX/XXXX, and we were given a tentative closing date of XX/XX/XXXX. Due to the birth of our son, it took us about 3 weeks ( XX/XX/XXXX ) to submit all required paperwork - which was admittedly our fault. However, we heard absolutely nothing from anyone until XX/XX/XXXX ( nearly a month after we were supposed to close and two months after sending everything in ) and were told they needed more documents, which we submitted the next day. Why did it take so long to realize they needed more information? Throughout the two month time period, we sent numerous requests for verification that they had everything needed - all of which went unanswered. 
Then, over a month later XX/XX/XXXX, they realized my wife had gotten a new job and needed another employment verification - despite the fact that she had only been at the new job for about a week. Her new employer got them what they needed immediately and we were told this was the last piece of information required. 
However, somehow we still did not close until XX/XX/XXXX. Throughout this time period, our rate lock had expired several times and numerous extensions had to be applied. Only one 30 day extension was " covered '' by State Farm Bank even though none of the delays in processing were our fault. 
Closing disclosures began coming frequently throughout XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX and showed our closing costs were consistently rising because of points accruing due to the expired rate lock. We tried to reach our account manager ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX # XXXX ) four times over ten days ( twice via phone, twice via email ) to figure out why we were being given these points. We finally received a call back, but only after calling another associate, and were eventually told that the only way to remove the points was to unlock our rate - knowing very well that rates had gone up over a full percentage point during this time. We asked several times to speak to a manager and XXXX told us we did n't need to talk to a manager because he already had and there was nothing that could be done about the points. We made a series of other phone calls to finally reach a manager, and were told in a nicer tone that the " good news '' is that the rate was still locked and even though we had to pay the points, the interest rate we were getting was still lower than current rates - so we should still be happy about that. 
We feel that because interest rates had risen so much, State Farm did not care if we followed through with the refinance and purposely dragged out the process so they could add on the points. They knew we were tied up and would never get the same interest rate again, so we essentially had no choice but to move forward. 
The customer service provided by State Farm Bank was truly one of the worst we 've ever experienced and made us feel extremely unvalued and unappreciated. Furthermore, their delaying the process combined with their lack of communication over this 6 month time period which resulted in us paying more money than originally promised is both unprofessional and unethical.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief