Consumer complaint received 2021-01-18
Company: Mr. Cooper Group Inc.
State: WA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
This letter explains the facts of how the service associated with Mr Cooper Home Loans ( owned by Nationstar Mortgage XXXX ) payment processing department and of the handling of our XX/XX/2018 mortgage payment, was not transparent or fair. As a result, Mr Cooper reported a thirty day ( 30-day ) late to the 3 credit bureaus for our XX/XX/2018 mortgage payment. This was reported on mine and my wifes credit reports. We did in fact make our XX/XX/2018 mortgage payment early. This should demonstrate our good faith to make timely, regular payments. Since then, we have made adjustments including switching to normal paper statements and opting out of Mr Coopers frequent and aggressive advertising, to avoid any such issues and mishaps in the future. 

We were extremely upset because we have a business which relies on us having and maintaining excellent credit, which we have had our entire lives. We also have never been late on any kind of payment and pride ourselves on paying on time. Both of our middle credit scores normally are over 800 and have since been tarnished by the reporting of Mr Cooper. 

These are the facts of the case : - Notification through indirect channels was sent to us regarding an increase in their loan payments, from {$2200.00} to {$2400.00}. 
- We missed these notifications due to the indirect nature of the communication regarding the mortgage payment increase and the incessant marketing information that is constantly sent by Mr Cooper due to their predatory lending practices. 
- We did in fact pay the XX/XX/2018 loan payment to Mr Cooper, 2 days prior to the payment due date in the previous payment due amount of {$2200.00}. 
- Since the loan payment was below the required payment amount, it was not applied to the payment due balance and was instead applied to the principal balance on the loan. 
- We failed to notice the discrepancy on their account by not checking that status of their account or seeing the secure message alerts on their online account. 
- Mr. Cooper failed to notify us of the issue by not directly emailing, calling, or mailing them through US Post. 
- We noticed the issue 40 days after the issue started and quickly rectified it, paying the overdue balance and penalty fees. 
- Mr. Cooper issued a 30-day Late alert on our credit. 

The facts above illustrate that steps were missed and an inadequate process was in place that could have helped avoid this issue. Now were left with a situation where two responsible customers of Mr Cooper now have a 30-Day late on their credit reports after having made their loan payment early, and in good-faith. Our credit history leading up to this transaction was at an impeccable 800+ credit rating level. We rely on our outstanding credit to run their personal and business ventures. Those scores are now tarnished due to a situation that could have been avoided. 

At the heart of this matter is a failure to communicate by Mr Cooper. I refer above to the indirect nature of the communication failures from Mr. Cooper. What Im referring to here are the secure messages sent to Mr Coopers customers that lack an informative subject. For example, a subject that reads, You have a new document in your Mr. Cooper account gives no indication that there is an issue. This coupled with the overly aggressive marketing emails that Mr. Cooper sends, hides the important nature of some of the communications. For example, I received 21 marketing emails from Mr. Cooper in XXXX and XX/XX/2018, not including the ones I deleted. Only 2 of those emails were of actual servicing importance to tell me that I had a statement ready. As its apparent, it can be very difficult to discern the important emails from Mr. Cooper. In addition, no attempt was made to directly communicate with us, through direct US post, email, or phone calls, that their payment was changing or there was an issue with their underpayment.

At issue here are the predatory lending practices of Mr Cooper and how they interfered with important loan servicing information that resulted in a 30-day late on mine and my wifes credit report. When my loan was first purchased by Mr Cooper, they immediately began an email and snail mail campaign, urging me to refinance into a loan, originated by them, to worse terms than my current loan. I was inundated by marketing information from them daily. Its the most aggressive lending campaign Ive ever seen from a lender. Mr Cooper is also a company with a history of malfeasance with their loan origination and servicing practices. I urge the CFPB to read through the complaints about them on XXXX. 

https : XXXX XXXX and my wifes ask is for Mr Cooper to remove the 30-day lates that they recklessly submitted on our credit reports to all credit reporting bureaus.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation