Consumer complaint received 2018-01-21
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: IL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
1 ) In XX/XX/XXXX my first mortgage loan with XXXX XXXX was transferred to Fifth Third bank who purchased the loan. Per instructions from Fifth Third automatic payments that had been issued from XXXX XXXX were re-directed to Fifth Third. 
2 ) The first payment ( XX/XX/XXXX ) was returned to XXXX because Fifth Third said the amount of the payment did not match their records for the loan that they had acquired. I later re-submitted this payment directly by check. 
3 ) The reason the payment did not match Fifth Thirds records is because I had been in a dispute with XXXX XXXX about the amount of escrow payment they required per what I believed was an erroneous calculation of the escrow deposit. I adjusted the payment to what I believed was the correct amount. 
4 ) XXXX XXXX had informed me in writing that they had adjusted the escrow amount, but later revealed that they had not in fact adjusted the escrow prior to the transfer to Fifth Third and that I should seek this adjustment from Fifth third. Fifth third informed me that this would take 60-90 days. 
5 ) Unbeknownst to me, Fifth Third has a policy of not crediting mortgage payments that do not match their records on file. Instead they place payments in an account called unapplied payments and in one month actually returned a payment by check that was less than the amount in their documents. I also manually re-submitted this payment. 
6 ) I was unable to get Fifth Third to review the situation regarding the XXXX XXXX payments, but on XX/XX/XXXXFifth third sent me a revised escrow analysis showing that I needed to pay {$830.00} to have sufficient funds in the escrow for future taxes and showing my new payment to commence XX/XX/XXXX. Please See EXHIBIT A 7 ) I paid the additional escrow amount and revised my automatic payments to the new amount ( {$2800.00} ), which payments commenced XX/XX/XXXX. 
8 ) Prior to XX/XX/XXXX I made timely ( except for the returned payment ) regular electronic and manual payments to Fifth Third in amounts never less that {$2600.00}, or approximately {$700.00} more than the principal and interest ( which is {$1900.00} ) 9 ) Nonetheless Fifth Third declared me to be in default on the loan commencing almost immediately upon their acquisition of the loan from XXXX XXXX, because the miscalculated XXXX XXXX payments on file from the loan acquisition were {$3400.00}. 
10 ) Despite numerous phone calls with Fifth Third collection personnel and letters to Fifth third I was not able to obtain an accounting that explained the escrow but also the status of my payments to Fifth Third, most of which were held in an unapplied funds account and were accruing and showing as much as over {$13000.00} being past due despite regular monthly payments. Unapplied account payments do not show up as payments resulting in highly distorted mortgage loan statements to borrowers, even though Fifth Third has the funds in its possesion.

11 ) Being frustrated by Fifth Third 's unresponsiveness, on XX/XX/XXXX I filed a complaint with CFPB which was promptly responded to by Fifth Third.

12 ) At about the same time, XXXX XXXX responded with apologies for their error and waived a late fee they had assessed and reversed a negative credit report they had sent to XXXX. 
13 ) In responding to the CFPB complaint Fifth Third processed all the payments in the unapplied funds account, waived its late fees and as a result I began to receive relatively normal Monthly mortgage loan statements. Please see EXHIBIT B 14 )  NONETHELESS, Fifth Third did not respond to the issue of the difference in the payments made prior to the new Fifth Third payment beginning XX/XX/XXXX and the payments required in the XXXX XXXX documents. In other words, they did not address the underlying problem. Their monthly statements still insisted that I had a past due balance. Furthermore, they threatened negative credit reporting if that additional payment was not made by XX/XX/XXXX. Please see EXHIBIT C redlined sentences 15 ) Referring back to EXHIBIT B the XX/XX/XXXX Mortgage Loan Statement shows an escrow balance of {$5000.00}. The XX/XX/XXXX regular mortgage payment which postdates this statement added another {$840.00} to the escrow and the XXXX payment will add another {$840.00} bringing the total escrow balance as of XX/XX/XXXX to {$6700.00} The next tax payment due on XX/XX/XXXX will be {$5600.00} Please see EXHIBIT D If the taxes are paid on XX/XX/XXXX from the escrow, the remaining escrow funds will be approximately {$1100.00}. The regular XXXX payment will add another {$840.00} to to the remaining escrow funds for a total of {$1900.00} in escrow as of XX/XX/XXXX payment. 
16 ) Please see EXHIBIT E. This is page 2 of the escrow analysis provided by Fifth Third on XX/XX/XXXX. Please note that by their own language and reference to Federal law it clearly states that two months of escrow payments is the required cushion for escrow accounts and that my escrow should never fall below {$1600.00}. Clearly, there are sufficient funds in the escrow account to meet that requirement even after the XXXX real estate tax payment. {$1900.00} is greater than {$1600.00} 17 ) Nonetheless, Fifth Third continues to insist that I should pay an additional amount of {$2800.00} which would result in an escrow balance of {$4800.00} as of XX/XX/XXXX if I were to pay that amount. In other words, they will not address the escrow error, they simply will not deviate from complying with the records they purchased from XXXX XXXX. 
18 ) Despite my pleas to Fifth Third to rectify this situation, even citing that they would be in violation of Federal Law and their own policy with respect to the escrow, they did not respond to my requests after responding to the CFPB complaint. Apparently they concluded that they had rectified the situation by merely processing payments into a comprehensible mortgage loan statement. Please see EXHIBIT F as an example of my attempts to get them to address the situation.

19 ) Instead Fifth Third made good on their threat to report me as delinquent to credit reporting agencies, resulting in a reduction of my credit rating by 95-98 points. Please see EXHIBIT G 20 ) Summary of existing law : The Fair Credit Reporting Act provides protection against the misuse and misreporting of credit information. When creditors, collectors, or credit reporting agencies violate the provisions of the FCRA, it can cause a lower credit score, denial of credit, higher interest rates on loans and credit extensions, and more.

Your creditor must not supply information to a CRA that it knows ( or should know ) is inaccurate. That includes : reporting a debt as charged off when you settled it or paid it in full misstating the balance due reporting late payments when you paid timely Definition of Willful A willful violation does n't just mean that you have to prove that the CRA or other entity actually knew that it violated your rights. Rather, it is enough to prove that it was acting recklessly -- that is, the CRA or other entity knew or should have known that it was running afoul of the FCRA.

Damages for a Willful Violation If you can show that the credit reporting agency ( CRA ), information furnisher, or entity using the information willfully violated its obligations under the FCRA, then you may be entitled to recover up to all of the following damages : Basic Damages ( pick one ) : actual ( provable ) damages ( no limit ), or statutory damages damages between {$100.00} and {$1000.00} ( to get these you do n't have to prove that the violation harmed you ).

21 ) By repeatedly and deliberately ignoring my requests to rectify this situation and using derogatory credit reporting to bully me into overfunding the escrow account, Fifth Third has wilfully violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief