Consumer complaint received 2023-12-10
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Sub-issue: Payment process

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2023, I was notified that my home mortgage was sold by XXXX XXXX XXXX to a new company, NewRez. Both XXXX and NewRez sent me emails and mail that said I wouldn't have to do anything, my payments ( which I had authorized to be deducted bi-monthly ) would continue to be automatically processed on the XXXX and XXXX of the month. NewRez said " We are looking forward to being your new mortgage servicer. As a reminder, your loan will officially transfer to us on XX/XX/XXXX, and the auto draft payment arrangements you made with XXXX will transfer to us automatically. Good news, theres no action you need to take. '' XX/XX/XXXX was the last payment that was automatically made to XXXX. NewRez began automatically deducting the same amount bimonthly beginning on XX/XX/XXXX. They then deducted the same amount on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. 

However, I got an email on XX/XX/XXXX from NewRez saying they had not received my payment for XXXX. I called and told them I had authorized XXXX, that NewRez had represented that that authorization carried over to them, and they had in fact charged me on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX already. For some reason, they waited until XX/XX/XXXX to automatically charge the second half of the XXXX payment, but that was not my fault as I had no control over their automatic debit process. 

They admitted they made a mistake and I expressed concern that it would have a negative impact on my credit score. They claimed it would not because I was within a 60 day window of the transfer of my loan. I said, OK, but also it should not reflect on my credit because it was their error and I was in fact all paid up. They said they were having problems with their bimonthly payment processing, so I asked them to switch me over to a standard once a month payment plan. I expressed concern again that ( a ) they were not handling the automatic deduction properly and then accusing me of paying late and ( b ) they did not seem to be applying my payments to my account. They promised they had figured it out and I would not have any more issues. 

Despite that, and despite me changing over to monthly payments because I didn't trust their ability to handle bimonthly payments appropriately, they charged me another bimonthly amount on XX/XX/XXXX ( after I had switched over ) AND they also charged me a full month payment on XX/XX/XXXX. So by XX/XX/XXXX, they had already charged me XXXX the amount I owed for XXXX. 

Reviewing my statement, I saw that they had charged me {$5900.00} since the loan switched over in early XXXX, while I had only owed {$3900.00}, so I was overpaid by {$1900.00}, but perversely their records showed I was in arrears and my principal had not been reduced because they had not applied the payments to my account. 

Also on the statement they sent me, I saw that I was charged for a " skip trace '' to XXXX, which suggests they did actually ding my credit rating.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation