Consumer complaint received 2020-07-22
Company: Social Finance, Inc.
State: NE
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
We took out a loan with SoFi to refinance our home loan. We were looking to go to a 15 year loan and get a lower interest rate. The entire process was very difficult. They made promises they then did not honor including advertising and telling us there would not be a origination fee but when it was time to close there was, they just called it an administration fee. They also had to check our credit twice do to them making an error and having my husbands name as one thing during their process but with our prior lender it was spelled a different way causing two checks with our credit report. 
Throughout the entire loan process there were constant errors in the paperwork and details of the loan. They asked multiple times during the process for proof of flood insurance from our current lender. We sent them our flood documentation including the elevation test and the LOMA that was approved. In 2015 we had been removed from the flood zone by FEMA and no longer required flood insurance. I unfortunately did not save every email interaction with them, however I did find one email from XX/XX/XXXX prior to closing on the loan where we once again informed them we were not in the flood zone. We ended up closing on the loan in XXXX, they had everything they needed and confirmed we did not need flood insurance. 

In XXXX I contacted SoFi after closing on our loan to see how to go about getting the XXXX  % interest rate deduction on me and my husbands personal loans ( we had received a post card that if we refinanced with them we would also get a reduction on our personal loans we had with them, we were also advised this early on in the refinance process over the phone ). I was told the person on the phone did not know anything about this. They ended up advising me to get the interest rate reduction I needed to go online and apply for a new loan and use the option/reason to get a lower interest rate. I did this as advised ( causing another credit check against my credit ) and was denied. At the time my credit score was XXXX but they said my score was too low to approve the loan I was requesting because they advised me to request it. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I sent a complaint to their 'CEO ' which I am fairly sure is not really handled by their CEO. After multiple interactions and finally asking them to pull up the original phone call where we were advised we would get the interest rate reduction, I received an email they could not give us the reduction but they would give us {$50.00} ( the said the reduction would have resulted in {$28.00} savings over the life of the loan ). None of my other concerns were addresses and it was dropped. 

In XXXX we began receiving multiple messages stating we needed flood insurance again. My husband and I spoke with multiple people every week. We continued to be advised we just had to send in our LOMA. We would send it in and they would come back and ask again. They could not ever find our account. We ended up sending it to the person who handled the above complaint hoping she could help on XX/XX/XXXX. We never heard a response. The confusion has something to do with SoFi and the company who services their loans not having the same account number. We sent the flood documentation an estimate of 6 times from XXXX through XXXX ( they would call every couple of weeks, we would send it every couple of weeks ). We then began receiving letters stating they would force us into flood insurance and purchase it for us. At this point I had contacted FEMA asking for help who also advised the LOMA is what we should need to send them. We were not getting any help from anyone to understand what we needed to do. 

XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed the CEO again, I received a generic email from someone saying someone from the mortgage team would get back to me. I never heard anything back. On XX/XX/XXXX I emailed the 'CEO ' again letting them know I would be contacting CFPB because I did not know what else to do. I again received a generic response stating they would be forwarding it to the mortgage team and someone would get back to me. It is now the XXXX and I still have not heard back from anyone. 

We did however receive an email on XX/XX/XXXX notifying us that they had purchased flood insurance using our escrow for {$1700.00}. We have not been advised yet how they will pay our other stuff since our escrow will now not have money in it. I assume we will be getting a bill or something soon. We are begging for help. We thought we were doing everything correctly. We continued to do what we were asked to do which was to send in our LOMA. They would not help us understand what was needed to prevent this and then spent our escrow without our permission. 

We do not know if we need to contact a lawyer or what to do next. We did go back to FEMA and are requesting a new LOMA even though we have been advised LOMA 's do not expire. We are in the waiting process for that. 

At this point we would like to refinance our loan with a different company but can not afford to pay another {$4000.00} closing costs with a different company. We feel we should have been advised prior to closing that we were going to be required to get flood insurance if we refinanced with them or at least had someone help us to understand what they needed before they just spent our escrow. We feel we took this loan out based on false information from SoFi. I do have some emails that I have kept during this process. Please let me know if there is anything else we need to try to resolve this issue. Thank you for your support.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation