Consumer complaint received 2020-07-17
Company: BOK FINANCIAL CORP
State: OK
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
In XXXX of 2019, Bank of Oklahoma noted that my escrow account was falling behind due to increased taxes and insurance costs, so they asked me to fill out a new payment form to match the payment amount to the owed amount. I went to the bank, filled out a form agreeing to pay the new amount, and asked the bank representative at the BOK location in XXXX on XXXX XXXX if I would need to cancel my previous payment. Her response was, " No, this payment will automatically replace the old payment ''. I left the bank believing everything was done. Bank of Oklahoma charged both mortgage payments for the next 8 months, resulting in running our account out of funds, which caused payments to not go through, which resulted in overdraft fees and late fees. The allegedly sent letters which we did not receive or open ( they look the same as the statements that we had gotten for the past 9 years I have had a mortgage with them ), but there was no phone call, email, text alert that we had missed a payment until they called threatening foreclosure. As soon as I was notified of the late payment, I immediately made payment in full, but Bank of Oklahoma said it was too late and it had been reported to the credit bureaus. I recognize that there is shared responsibility in this situation and had we monitored our account this could have been avoided, during this time a family member was in XXXX  after a XXXX XXXX had complications to remove a XXXX, our son had signs of XXXX according to our pediatrician, there was a death in my family, we found out we were XXXX, and we were in the middle of building a facility for the first time in the business we run that is our livelihood. If we missed a letter, it wasnt because we were ignoring it, it was because we were trying to survive a season of chaos. Customers deserve more than a letter, there needs to be verifiable contact. The process and protocol not involving more direct communication to notify us of such a life-changing thing as a late payment is unacceptable. We were trying to refinance our house, a single late payment knocked my credit score down over 100 points and no bank would consider working with us because we were told a late payment was a black mark. At the time, we had 100x the required amount to pay the mortgage in our business account at that time and all we  needed to do was transfer and cover the portion, but BOK did not contact us. In the end we were overcharged {$5800.00} for 8 months of double payments, a mistake that has yet to be remedied. I went back to the bank and they told me to call a number, I went to another location that had a banker that we were trying to do the refinance with at the BOK XXXX XXXX XXXX & XXXX XXXX ), she said it was out of her hands, I talked with the branch manager and he said " we sent you letters '', I called the corporate number for the mortgage department and explained in detail and they did nothing.

There are 2 inexcusable mistakes on the part of Bank of Oklahoma ; first, the lack of direct communication and establishing contact prior to trying to foreclose and reporting to credit bureaus, second is the fact that I was told I did not have to cancel my previous payment and it was charged any way. This situation never would have happened if only 1 mortgage charge was drawn from the account as the bank representative confirmed would happen originally.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation