Consumer complaint received 2016-03-21
Company: SUNTRUST BANKS, INC.
State: FL
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
SunTrust Mortgage miscalculated my escrow account and as a result they were showing I had a {$13000.00} shortage in my escrow account. Because of this error they calculated my monthly mortgage payments including escrows to be {$3800.00} instead of the roughly {$1800.00} monthly payments I had been making. ( More than double my previous monthly payment ) After my husband reviewed the escrow analysis, he discovered SunTrust Mortgage had paid the wrong amount for taxes to the XXXX County taxing authority. This error in payment by SunTrust created the shortage in my escrow account. After discussing this with a representative from the Mortgage Company, they acknowledge this error on their part, and I was told they would get a refund from the county for the over payment in taxes and recalculate my mortgage payment to the correct amount.. We asked the representative of the Mortgage should be just make the previous payment or wait until we received a revised statement. The bank representative advised us to wait until a revised statement was issued and then make the payment shown of the new statement. We were further advised that the bank 's records would be notated and no collection efforts would be made because it was the bank 's error and without a revised statement there would be no way for us to know what payment we should make. Needless to say it took the mortgage company two months to straighten this mess out, and in the meantime collections calls and notices were being received indicated we behind on our loan, and the monthly payments were still been shown as {$3800.00} per month. At this time we again contacted the mortgage company and the individual who represented himself as a Supervisor in the Customer Service department reviewed our account and verified that the bank indeed had made the tax payment in error but they had not recalculated our escrow account and changed or monthly payments to their correct amount. At this time he advised us that we would get back to us within 24 hours to let us know when the the correct statement would be sent to us. This was on a Friday, and the following Monday we did receive a call from this individual advising that the revised escrow analysis had been completed and we should be receiving it in a few days. 
Latter on that same day we continued to received collection calls and notices. We called back to the bank and ask them to discontinue these harassing calls, especially in light of the fact SunTrust is the one who caused this error. I was then told they could not stop the collections efforts. On Thursday of this same week, we received the revised statement showing our true monthly payment to be {$1800.00} instead of the {$3800.00} the bank had previously indicated was our payment amount. Two business days after receiving a corrected statement, all correct monthly payment were made to SunTrust. On that same day we received a notice from SunTrust that our mortgage was in default. Upon contacting the bank yet again, we were advised that derogatory information had been submitted to a credit report agency showing that we were delinquent on our mortgage loan. 
Corrective Actions required : SunTrust should immediately correct any derogatory information submitted in regards to my mortgage loan. Secondly senior management of SunTrust should provide a written apology to myself for the lack of competence the company has displayed in regards to this matter. Thirdly, steps should immediately be taken at SunTurst Mortgage to ensure that when SunTrust makes errors regards a customer 's monthly mortgage payment, all collection efforts should cease until such time as SunTrust corrects the problem.

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 non-monetary relief