Consumer complaint received 2022-08-23
Company: BANK OF THE WEST
State: AZ
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
I am asking for your help with my Bank of the West HELOC, which I've only used twice and which has been a cluster both times. 

Here is the current issue. I had no previous balance/amount due. On XXXX a check I wrote posted on my HELOC account for {$8100.00} ( advance ). I made a billpay payment from another bank for {$8100.00} to pay it almost immediately, it was posted XX/XX/XXXX. Today I open my statement that says I have a past due amount of {$91.00}, plus {$11.00} in current interest ( billing statement is from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ), for a total due of {$100.00} by XX/XX/XXXX. 

This seemed high to me, so I logged into the account. Note, there is no transaction history available. There are no statements available. Nothing ( I took screen prints - it seems crazy that there is no way to see transaction history or history ). Online, it said I was 22 days past due ( today is XX/XX/XXXX, so I assume the previous due date was XXXX but I did not get this statement ) and that I owed a balance of {$100.00}. 

1. ) How can it say on my statement I owe {$100.00} by XXXX ( and if received after a late of {$0.00} will be charged ), but online it says I owe {$100.00}? How does {$5.00} get randomly added before the due date stated on the statement? 
2. ) Where does the {$91.00} " past due '' amount come from? I can assume the previous statement period ended XX/XX/XXXX. So that means I have interest due from XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX on {$8100.00} at 7.54 %. That's about {$8.00} in interest, nothing near {$91.00}. 
3. ) Today I have gone through the Bank of the West phone tree. This has to be the worst bank service in the west, or maybe in the whole country, or maybe in the whole world. I have spent XXXX hours this morning in phone trees. I get transferred around. And I get hung up on. I find it funny I have to repeat my information to each agent I am transferred to and one of the things they ask is " and do I have your permission to call you back if we get disconnected '' - but yet we get disconnected and no one calls me back. Of course this is intentional. No one can explain why I show {$91.00} past due so it's easiest to hang up. 

I have paid the {$100.00} via my billpay because I do not want to be reported late on my credit report. But I should have an overage once this gets settled, and I want that refunded to me. 

I mentioned at the beginning this I had one previous draw and one previous issue. It is very similar. I took a {$10000.00} advance and paid it off almost immediately. I wasn't sure what the interest would be, so I paid extra ( not much, it was like {$100.00} ) and figured either the extra would sit on the account as a credit or would be refunded. Problem is, I never got either. There was no credit on the account and there was no refund. I spent days in the phone tree - again being transferred around and hung up on. I tried their chat/email - and just got messages back to call them. My last message was a threat to file a complaint with you at that time and then magically I got a refund. 

This time I'm not going to waste so much time. While typing this I have attempted to contact them again, but have been on hold for 20 minutes so far waiting for a supervisor. My guess this phone call will, too, be disconnected. 

I am asking for your assistance to get my account corrected with Bank of the West. And I strongly recommend you look into their loan servicing practices. I am very familiar with loans and loan servicing. The accuracy on this is terrible. Do they just skim a little from their customers and hope that they won't notice, or hope they will give up while waiting in their " customer service '' queues only to be hung up on?

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