Consumer complaint received 2016-07-04
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
On XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, We contacted Wells Fargo Home Mortgage to request that they pay our hazard insurance in the amount of {$3100.00} and set repayment up into an escrow account. As they previously did the prior year, with no problem. When we received confirmation that this had been done, unbeknownst to us, Wells Fargo had also included {$420.00} into the escrow account for flood insurance for XX/XX/XXXX along with other fees. This was not my intention at all. We contacted Wells Fargo and were told that its their policy, if they put the hazard insurance into escrow they also had to include the flood insurance. That maybe their policy, but we should have been advised of that fact before they included the flood insurance in the escrow acct. If we had been told that when we first requested the hazard insurance be placed into escrow, we would not have bothered with their escrow account at all. We were not given the opportunity to make an educated decision regarding their new policy. We would have just made monthly payments to the insurance company and not be burdened with a large increase in our mortgage payment which has gone from {$1700.00} to {$2100.00}. We are retired seniors struggling just to make the payment of {$1700.00}, now they have placed an unnecessary hardship on us by increasing our monthly payment to {$2100.00} per month. This all occurred because they did not advise us of their new escrow policy before hand. The person investigating the situation admitted that they made a mistake, but unfortunately they could not change the outcome, because we do n't have a credit score of at least XXXX, which was not a problem when they set up the escrow account in the amount of {$4000.00}. The only option they offered is for us to pay them over {$4000.00} in full. Which is insane, all they had to do was give us all the facts regarding their escrow procedures and we would have made a different decision. They did not do that, and now they will not reverse their decision even though they made an error. XXXX XXXX told us that it is a federal law that if they escrow the hazard insurance, they must also escrow the flood insurance. That 's fine, but we should have been made aware of this information before hand, and not after the fact. This is potentially a catastrophe for us, and a total win for Wells Fargo, all they said was they are sorry. We either need to pay them over {$4000.00} in full, which includes the flood insurance that is not due until XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, or we need to raise our credit score before they can close out the escrow account. We are not asking them to close the escrow account, we DO NOT want the flood insurance in escrow. They should not have the authority to just put what they want into escrow without our consent, before hand. We were advised of this information by XXXX XXXX on XXXX/XXXX/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 non-monetary relief