Consumer complaint received 2019-09-06
Company: AmeriHome Mortgage Company, LLC
State: SC
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
My wife and I refinanced our home with XXXX XXXX in XXXX, 2019. We immediately got the paperwork completed with them to start Budget Drafting ( bi-weekly ) payments to start in XXXX. I was proactive to get this done, ASAP, so we could use the bi-weekly payment plan to pay down our loan sooner and save years of interest. 

In XXXX, before the drafts started, XXXX. XXXX sold the loan to Amerihome Mortgage Company. I immediately contacted XXXX. XXXX and was told that they had passed along the Budget Drafting document and all other documents to Amerihome. I then called Amerihome to be sure they had received all the documents from XXXX. XXXX including the signed and agreed upon Budget Drafting document so we could start that month. 

Budget Drafting did not start in XXXX. So, I called Amerihome again and they told me they didnt receive the document and wed need to fill out Amerihomes version of the document. We did that and faxed it back to them within a couple days. I continued to follow up with Amerihome who could not find it for a long time. Finally, they sent us a document stating theyd received it and we were setup for Budget Drafting ( see attached 061819 Budget Draft Approval Letter.pdf ). 

So, XXXX and XXXX came around and no drafts came out. Again, after many conversations, next ( new first draft date ) was to come out Friday XX/XX/XXXX. Again, it did not. So, I called Amerihome on Monday XX/XX/XXXX and again on the XXXX to find out why. Since those customer support workers couldnt help resolve the issue, I went online on the Amerihome site and paid a full payment directly via the same bank savings account information Id setup there from the beginning ( see attached 071719 Amerihome Full Payment.png ). 

I contacted them again to find out why Budget Drafting hadnt started. They said the reason was that even though we were totally current on the loan, that their company policy was that we had to pay an extra month in advance before Budget Drafting could begin. So, 2 days later on XX/XX/XXXX, I went online and paid an extra full {$1400.00} payment ( see attached 071919 Loan Detail ( shows Balance - before 2nd pymt ) .pdf and 071919 Loan Payment for XX/XX/XXXX get ahead so Budget Drafting starts in XXXX ( for XXXX ) .pdf ). 

After that payment was posted, I went online to find that the {$1400.00} payment had not been applied 100 % to principle, even though paid in advance, and shouldve been. Instead, it was treated as a normal monthly payment ( which this was not ) where they only put the normal {$330.00} towards principle, but then kept the Escrow payments and Mortgage Insurance ( PMI ) payment totaling {$340.00} plus the {$730.00} in interest for themselves. In any type of Federally regulated Mortgage this should be illegal all by itself and prosecutable on criminal, as well as, civil charges but even worse, as ours is an FHA Mortgage, I believe they are now liable for criminal charges from the Federal government on top of that. 

I called thru Amerihomes many layers of blockage to talk to a manager which I have now done many times since this excruciating process can take hours and days of continued effort to get thru to any person that can really help. One such manager I finally got thru to was XXXX ( I believe her last name is XXXX, ID : XXXX ) in Customer Service. She seemed so nice and so sincere. I told her about the problem of my extra up-front full payment not going 100 % towards principle, but instead being disseminated as small principle, then regular Escrow, PMI and interest. She looked at it and agreed that was what had been done in this case, but said that was Amerihomes company policy and theres nothing she could do about it. She did agree with me ( on recorded conversation, as Amerihome states all conversations are being recorded ) that that action was not right and disagreed w/that company policy. She gave me her location in the US, her department, her ID number ( no extension though ), and told me that I could call and ask for her directly and shed be more than happy to follow-up and help me anytime. That NEVER happened again. No matter how many times I called at later times, again thru the many layers of blockage, to reach XXXX, she would not be around, could not take my calls and would never return any calls. 

Next iteration in this saga was that the next ( new first date for ) Budget Drafting was to come out Friday XX/XX/XXXX. Of course, it did not, again. I called on the XXXX and then again on Monday the XXXX and was told the reason it didnt come out on XXXX was because they had mistakenly put in the draft for {$0.00}. I was told they guaranteed theyd fix that immediately so the next draft on the XXXX would go fine. But was told that I needed to make the 9th draft amount over the phone so not to mess up going forward ( thats funny NOT ). So, I gave her permission to go ahead and draft {$700.00} ( I was rounding up ). She did that without me giving her my savings account information, since she said she already had it from my previous online payments and in the Budget Drafting info that she could see in our account. 

After waiting two more business days and not seeing it show up as a draft at my bank online, I tried to follow up with XXXX to get stonewalled. I finally got thru to XXXX, at xXXXX, who works for XXXX. XXXX said she would make sure the draft was posted and told me that she would personally follow up with me on the XXXX ( next draft date ) to be sure it was completed. 

Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX it showed up as a draft in our savings account ( see attached XXXX Records for 8030 Savings Account for Mortgage Drafts.png ). 

So, Friday XX/XX/XXXX comes and NO draft, again. Im not shocked at this point in Amerihomes ineptness and lack of capability to accomplish normal, simple business tasks. I called XXXX, because she did NOT call me, but could only leave a voicemail for her. She did not return that call. So, on Monday the XXXX I called again, but XXXX wasnt available, so lady ( in same department ) told me that she could see that the payment had been posted on their side as of that day, so we agreed to give it a couple more days to show up on our bank. 

So, on Wednesday the XXXX it had not shown up so I called back for XXXX. Even though Id jumped thru all the hoops and had given my loan #, the person told me that XXXX said she could not talk to me unless I gave my loan # and all info again so I did. So, after jumping thru many hoops giving all my info again and again and again, as I was passed from one inept worker to another, then magically XXXX nor XXXX were no longer available even though she was there to give the previous instructions to her customer support worker. XXXX nor XXXX would ever be available again. 

On Friday, XX/XX/XXXX we received the attached letter XXXX   Letter _ Notice.pdf stating that A payment made on your loan has not been honored by your bank. So, I went online and saw that they tried to draft against the wrong savings account actually a childs savings account ( see NSF fee in attached XXXX Shows Amerihome tried to debt the wrong Savings Account, but still had more than enough to cover the {$700.00} pymt.png ) showing the attempt by Amerihome. Even though that was the wrong account, please note that there was more than enough funds available to cover the approximate {$700.00} payment, so no excuse about insufficient funds there. Then look again at the XXXX Records for 8030 Savings Account for Mortgage Drafts.png showing that the proper savings account ( they have on record ) had more than sufficient funds in it on the XXXX also so, no excuse there either. 

Then on Tuesday, XX/XX/XXXX we received the attached letter 082819 2 Page Letter.pdf from Amerihome now stating that our bank has told them the reason they could not draft was because the exact same savings account uses numerous times previously with Amerihome is now, all of a sudden, a Non-transaction account. Therefore, they terminated Budget Drafting stating Your account has been removed from our Payment Drafting Program, and the drafting information has been deleted from our system. Back to square one before XXXX XXXX. 

So, now weve been cheated out of our extra payment not being applied 100 % towards principle, as it shouldve been. Bottom line Amerihome has done three things : ( 1 ) caused great aggravation and undue stress to both my wife and myself over the last 5 months ; ( 2 ) wasted over 100 hours of my time over 5 months ; and ( 3 ) stolen our money. 

I looked at XXXX  online to find that Amerihome has XXXX Complaints currently. When I get done it will be XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation