Consumer complaint received 2017-04-26
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
1st Issue : Truth In Lending I received an Escrow Review Statement fro m Wells Fargo ( WF ),   advising me that my escrow would be short {$870.00}. The attached Escrow Review Statements reflect my new payment would be {$1200.00} and my new payments would start on  XXXX   XXXX .     On  XXXX   XXXX ,   XXXX  , I contacte d Wells Fargo to ad vise them that my increased escrow payments started on  XXXX   XXXX ,   XXXX   and not on  XXXX   XXXX  as their letter indicated. I 'm on a  XXXX  program where my payments are automatically drafted every two weeks to reduce my principal faster and hopefully payoff my loan earlier. WF, explained that although their letter states my new payments would start on  XXXX   XXXX , because I 'm on their Preferred Payment Plan Option ( PPP ), my new payments were effective on  XXXX   XXXX  and not on  XXXX   XXXX  as their letter indicates. WF explained that I am paying ahead so my payments that are being debited in  XXXX  are really  XXXX  payments. This is not clearly stated in their letter and WF does not apply this logic with the entire payment  ( a dditional principle ). I 'll explain this later.     The above, is the first Issue I would like examined.     The  Escrow Review Statement is m  isleading making it harder for consumers to effectively plan their fin ances based on information provided in WF letters to consumers. Their letter was misleading and because it was misleading, I as a consumer had less funds in my checking account for  XXXX .     2nd Issue : Unfair Payment Processing I contacted  XXXX  in  XXXX  and prior to  XXXX  to increase my payments to include additional funds towards my escrow, like I do for my principal.  XXXX  advised me that I could not do that. It would have to be a separate process that is managed monthly by the consumer.     Although I was advised that my PPP option could not include additional escrow payments, their online payment process allows customers to pay additional funds towards principal, escrow, late fees and other fees. However, I was advised that because I was on the PPP option, I would have to provide a separate payment to apply funds towards my escrow. I felt that WF practices are unfair, unless there is some regulatory restriction that governs PPP options, why are we being treated differently? I hope they have their recorded calls for  XXXX  and prior, I know that the CFPB has recently reinforced recorded calls at points of contact.     3rd Issue : Unfair Application of Principal P ayments ( Reg Z Pa yment posting ) My online account summary will reflect that although I make an additional principle payment every two weeks, my principal payments are not applied to the account when they are received. The additional Principle payments are not applied until the monthly payment is applied. For example. WF withdrew funds for my  XXXX  payment on  X/XX/17    and  X/XX/17   . WF did not apply the principal payment until  XXXX / XXXX /  XXXX  . Had I made separate principal payments, they would have applied those funds the day they were received (  X/XX/17    and  XX/XX/17    ) by the financial institution. Lastly, I understand that WF will keep my payments as " unapplied funds '' until they are in receipt of the full payment. However, I think it is an unfair practices that they keep principle payments in the same status and do not apply those additional principle payment with the effective dates they were received. I will defer to the CFPB to determine if this is some kind of regulatory infringement of payment processing. Please note that although the screen reflects " unapplied funds '' when printed, unapplied funds mysteriously disappears. I provided examples in this complaint.     In closing, I experienced a hardship ( several years ago ) and WF advised me that if I had told them about my hardship, they could have provided me assistance with payments and waived late fees. I was asked to write a letter to see if I could get assistance with having fees in excess of {$4600.00} waived as they would have been, if I had just notified them. I want to say that WF reimbursed {$100.00} and now I only owe {$4500.00} in fees.      I want to say that the people or employees working at WF are good hard working people. The issue is they work for a CEO, or CFOs and Executive Presidents  who only see the money at the bottom line. Executives on enhance processes to reduce FTE, move FTE offshore and they find every reason to collect fees and make it hard for their employees manage the customer experience. I hope some good comes out of this complaint if not, I will make all attempts until I get a response from CFPB Director  XXXX   XXXX .     Thank you,  XXXX   XXXX

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