Consumer complaint received 2020-03-23
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
This is my spouse and I third attempt to have M & T Bank cooperate with us. The two prior complaint numbers are : XXXX and XXXX Both complaints have been closed with no satisfactory resolution. 
Quick summation of the 1st two complaints : We requested M & T Bank to complete a simple " hardship/goodwill '' update to the payment history of mortgage account they have listed on our credit report. Basically we requested to have the late payment for XXXX of 2019 removed from our credit report. Doing so will allow my veteran spouse and I to close on our next home sooner in stead of later. In M & T Bank 's official response to the 1st two complaints they simply stated that reviewed their records and that the information is correctly reflected on our credits reports. Since M & T Bank neglected to address and respond directly to what we actually requested, we feel that it is necessary to try again. 

We will like for M & T Bank to directly state why they refuse to grant us our request ( is there a law or act preventing them from granting our request ). 

Prior to them supplying their official response to this 3rd complaint ; we are asking them to consider the following : - Please consider all of the information reported in the 1st two complaints. It was in those complaints we described with great detail the hardship we reference in all three complaints. 
- In their official response to complaint # XXXX, they openly admitted and apologized for delaying the release of some of the $ 200,000+ escrow funds that our insurance company gave them to complete the repairs to our home. This admitted to " mistake '' delayed us in placing our house on the market to be sold by at least three months. 
- Per M & T Bank 's official response to complaint # XXXX, they purchased this VA mortgage from XXXX while we were in the middle of catch up payment plan with XXXX. According to M & T Bank, the day they took control of our account, we were already 60 days behind on our mortgage. But the other part that failed to mention was that it took my spouse and I more than a month to reach the correct person at M & T Bank to properly discuss our situation and establish a new payment plan that would allow us to save our mortgage from going into foreclosure. I guess one can assume that M & T Bank purchase our mortgage expecting to eventually turn a profit. Surely they must of been under the impression that this mortgage was going to default into foreclosure. We believe that this is a correct assumption since they acquired the account while it was in default ; plus it took them several months to grant us online access to our new account with them ; thus preventing us from having readily available access to pay our mortgage during our hardship. They mentioned that if their customers ' accounts are not current, they lock their online access to the account. That makes absolutely no sense, unless your goal and purpose is to cause your customer to default bad enough for foreclosure. 
So please answer this question directly too, what is the purpose of locking your customers online account access if their account is not current. We are struggling to understand this company policy. Personally, we believe that it is a terrible policy ; maybe someone can shed some light on to this for us. Because, not only is it your company 's policy to inconveniently lock online access to your customers ' accounts, your company also has the audacity to charge extra fees to make payments over the phone with your reps. 
-Finally consider the fact that my spouse is a veteran of two services, that this a VA mortgage we are discussing and that your are preventing/delaying us from securing and new VA mortgage, and the fact that had M & T Bank not made it next to impossible pay our mortgage once you'll acquired it- we possibly could of caught our mortgage up well before XX/XX/2019. By the time we managed to talk to correct person at M & T Bank ( especially with no online access to our account ) my spouse and I ended up having to pay >150 % of monthly mortgage payment for several months.

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