Consumer complaint received 2021-07-27
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
We are currently in the middle of an escrow that is expected to close on XX/XX/XXXX. We just won the bid to proceed with purchasing our dream house during this crazy real estate market, but that dream has been crushed. Today we received a call from our lender ( XXXX XXXX  ) saying that they can not fund our loan due to negative remarks that were brought against us from Fifth Third Bank ( the first-ever offense in our lifetime of being a homeowner since XXXX ). It took a toll on our credit scores. My wife and I used to have over XXXX credit scores, and due to their mistakes, our records dropped XXXX points. We have request Fifth Third Bank to fix the issues, but they don't have solutions to helps us to close escrow for our Dream home. 

The issue is they marked us for late payment for XXXX. We were not aware that the autopayment was never initiated by Fifth Third Bank to apply for XXXX. We were marked late because they never received our physical authorization letter for autopayment ( How are we supposed to know that ). We sent the authorization paper from the provided prepaid envelope by Fifth Third Bank, back via USPS. Being such a large bank, we were surprised that Fifth Third Bank does not have the capabilities to set up auto payment online ( Never happen with other lenders except Fifth Third Bank ). We have never been informed that our first letter nor our second letters for automatic payment authorization has never been processed, and up to this day XX/XX/XXXX, Fifth Third Bank says our account is still showing pending for the autopayment. Never happen with other institutions before. We have never been notified that the autopayment has never been set up or initiated. The by-product of these autopayment mishaps, we have to take a beating for XXXX towards our credit scores. My wife 's credit score even shows that she was reported 3 times, which cost her scores hit the most from XXXX to XXXX. Our lender ( XXXX XXXX ) is asking Fifth Third Bank to remove the negative remark for a one-time courtesy and also provide an official letter that they are willing to work with us to resolve the issues so we can proceed with our escrow to get our dream house. 

Yet, Fifth Third Bank did not have any remorse or sympathy to assist us or willing to work with our lender. How are we supposed to close escrow by XX/XX/XXXX? by just waiting for them to decide? All of this can be avoided if they give us a call or give us some sort of notification for confirming the autopayment has never been processed. What other bank institutions in XXXX still requesting paper authorization to be mailed back? And we ask how we are supposed to know if Fifth Third Bank received and process the auto payment? Such a ridiculous process. 

We are requesting an assistant from the CFPB team to investigate into why Fifth Third Bank do not process our automatic payment, which causes us a late payment, and why they did not notify us by phone, e-mail, or mail? Without notifying us by calling us, e-mail, or mail? We are requesting for Fifth Third Bank to correct our credit scores to their original state for both my wife and me. Thank you very much for reviewing this complaint.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation