Consumer complaint received 2023-07-10
Company: REGIONS FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: LA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
XXXX. On XX/XX/ : My wife and I received a " Welcome Letter '' from Regions Bank. Included was " Loan Estimate '' of origination costs. The Origination Costs included 0.125 % of loan amount, which was {$130.00} + Loan Administration Fee of {$890.00} = a total of {$1200.00}. ( The Total Closing Costs for us were listed as {$8200.00}. ) XXXX. On XXXX XXXX XXXX : We received a " Closing Disclosure Form, '' with the words at the top of the page stating : " This form is a statement of final loan terms and closing costs. '' On this document, the Origination Costs went up to 1.75 % of loan amount, which was {$4400.00} + Loan Administration Fee of {$890.00} = {$5300.00} ( The Total Closing Costs for us were listed as {$14000.00}. ) We called XXXX XXXX, our Loan XXXX at XXXX Regions Bank, to ask about this increase, and she said these numbers would be adjusted at the closing. She also explained why some of the Total Closing Costs were our responsibility and explained that some Closing Costs were the seller 's responsibility and would be added later. However, she made no mention of the Origination Costs. And we did not know enough about the loan process to ask specifically about Origination Costs. 
XXXX. On XX/XX/ ( two days before the closing date ), we again received a " Closing Disclosure Form, '' with the words at the top of the page stating : " This form is a statement of final loan terms and closing costs. '' On this document, the Origination Costs went up to 2.25 % of loan amount, which was {$6000.00} + Loan Administration Fee of {$890.00} = {$6900.00} ( The Total Closing Costs to us were listed as {$15000.00}. ) We again called the loan XXXX XXXX XXXX to ask if this were not a mistake, since were led to believe an adjustment would be made. We did not receive a clear answer about the XXXX and then XXXX increases in origination costs. If this were not just a quickly correctable mistake, we asked that Regions Bank : " Please hold the {$6900.00} in a local account until I can speak to someone at Regions Bank who would be authorized to grant us post-settlement relief. '' " We ask you and the executives at Regions Bank to try to see things from our perspective. If you had sent us the XX/XX/XXXX Closing Disclosure on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX as we had requested, instead of on XX/XX/XXXX, there might have been time to have an informed negotiation about reasonable origination costs. But now it is too late for that, so our only option is to request that you and the appropriate executives at Regions Bank be open to discussing with me some appropriate form of 'post-settlement relief. ' '' XXXX XXXX then called us after receiving this email. She said that after checking she found out that the increase in Origination fees from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX was because the mortgage was on a second home. This made no sense to us as our first home had been paid off for XXXX years! She had never disclosed that there would be a penalty for a mortgage on a second home. She said meekly, " I thought I had told you. '' But neither my wife nor I had any knowledge of her telling us any part of this. 

On XXXX XXXX XXXX the XXXX branch of Regions Bank helped us file an on-line complaint with Regions Bank XXXX A person called us that afternoon from the XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX Regions Bank to say she would be following up on our complaint. On XX/XX/, I called for an update from the representative of the " Escalations Research '' department and she told us : XXXX ) That the increase to 1.75 % of the total loan origination fee ( XXXX XXXX XXXX  ) was because we were purchasing a second home. [ OUR RESPONSE : We were never informed of this in a timely fashion to pursue other loan options. Additionally, we have no other mortgage obligations + a good credit history + an adequate income. To us, given our financial history we were more than able to meet the obligations of a second home to be able to see our grandchildren regularly and to have a hurricane refuge in place, since our first home is in XXXX XXXX, LA. ] XXXX ) That the 2.25 % of the total loan origination fee ( XX/XX/ ) was because we " asked '' to pay less of a downpayment, resulting in our requesting a loan that was over 70 % of the value of the property. [ OUR RESPONSE : This is a complete distortion. In fact, we all along wanted to pay around $ XXXX downpayment, but Regions Bank kept putting unnecessary barriers in own way, forcing us to take out a bigger loan in order to close on the house by the deadline of XXXX XXXX Here is our experience of that manipulation which unnecessarily increased Regions profits. Between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, Regions kept requesting additional documents to further show we had the ability to pay a down payment of approximately $ XXXX. I offered to send copies of our current bank accounts which showed resources over $ XXXX. They refused this offer asking for XXXX full bank statements ( which in fact would not include money from the sale of our previous second house and from my personal XXXX ). So, because we had a good deal on the sale price of the new house in XXXX, XXXX XXXX we felt extreme pressure not to lose this house. We believe we were manipulated by Regions Bank at the last minute. This manipulation is what resulted in our lower downpayment and their higher profits. 

We were promised a letter or email by XX/XX/, that would have put in writing Regions ' positions on our complaint. But, as of todayXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX we have yet to receive a letter.

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