Consumer complaint received 2016-10-26
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Other mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
Dear XXXX I purchased a home XXXX XXXX, XXXX with a {$84000.00}, 30 year fixed rate mortgage from XXXX Mortgage. XXXX subsequently sold my mortgage to XXXX, who in turn sold it in XXXX to Citizens Bank. 
Citizens began reporting the mortgage as a home equity loan in XXXX - not a fixed rate mortgage. 
Four years ago I developed a XXXX illness XXXX. Additionally, I have a XXXX, which has kept me from continuing my career in XXXX field. I am currently on appeal for XXXX and can not make more than $ XXXX while waiting for benefit approval. This has caused me serious financial harm. 
I asked Citizens to lower my interest rate from 6.74 % to help me keep my payments on time. I was told they would do a loan modification if I missed a couple of payments. It would essentially induce them to modify the original mortgage. With limited funds, it was easy to agree to do that. Then they told me not to make any payments over the summer, while they worked out a loan modification agreement. They suggested it would not impact my credit scores and they would simply add the missed payments to the modified loan. When I received their proposal though, they said they were modifying a home equity loan to an ARM. My original mortgage was a fixed rate loan, not a home equity loan. 
I have no recollection of refinancing the original XXXX fixed rate mortgage with Citizens. When I asked them for documentation of the home equity loan, they sent me a promissory note dated XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, for XXXX payments of {$700.00}, at an interest rate of 6.74 %. Not a fluctuating rate dependent on market conditions, but XXXX payments of {$700.00}, at a rate of 6.74 %. 
I asked them for a settlement statement : if they actually did refinance my loan, there would have been XXXX. They told me the promissory note WAS a settlement statement! Further, the promissory note originally showed payoffs of {$9900.00} to XXXX Bank, and {$82000.00} to XXXX. Those figures were crossed out, and the XXXX balance was penned in as {$9200.00} ; the XXXX balance was penned in as {$83000.00}. There are no initials beside those figures suggesting that I or my ex-husband agreed to the changes. Our signatures do appear ( undated ) XXXX pages later on that document, but neither of us remembers refinancing the original mortgage. 
The only XXXX loan I ever had was a home equity loan for {$10000.00} taken out in XXXX XXXX. I assume the XXXX payoff was to XXXX. 
But again, I have no recollection of ever having refinanced my original mortgage. 
Furthermore, XXXX has continued to bill me, and I have continued to make payments on the XXXX home equity loan until present. If there was a refinance, suggested by Citizens ' promissory note, what happened to the funds that supposedly paid off the XXXX loan?? 
Now my credit report shows I am 90 days late on my mortgage, and owe {$5300.00} in " new money. '' My credit report also shows that I am {$3500.00} past due. 
Citizens has been unable to answer my questions. They ca n't tell me how the fixed rate loan they bought from XXXX became a home equity loan. They ca n't document that. They ca n't explain what happened to the XXXX payoff. They can provide a promissory note showing a fixed rate loan paying off XXXX other loans, but they ca n't tell me why there are no initials beside the changes, and no dates beside the signatures of my ex-husband and me. 
XXXX seems anxious to hustle me into a step-rate ARM from what they claim is a home equity loan. In my current circumstances I ca n't afford an attorney. I am humbly asking for your assistance in getting to the bottom of this financial morass. 
Sincerely appreciative of any assistance you can provide!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation