Consumer complaint received 2016-01-26
Company: CITIBANK, N.A.
State: NY
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan modification,collection,foreclosure

Complaint:
I had 19 years left on a 30 year mortgage with Citibank and, in XXXX, I missed a number of payments due to being out of work. I worked with a loan specialist at Citibank and informed him that I had gone back to work and would now make up for past payments. During a 5 week period in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX I made 3 mortgage payments, which only left me 2 mortgage payments behind, but Citibank sent all 3 payments back to me and began foreclosure. Citibank did not lower my interest rate ( even though I asked them 3 times to lower me to the then current 3.5 % rate and change my term to 15 years, which would have raised my monthly payment less than {$15.00} but would have shortened my term by 4 years. They refused to extend those terms to me. Instead, they re-instituted my mortgage at the same interest rate along with my original loan principal balance for a 40 year period. So now, I am paying off the same exact balance as my original loan amount ( {$70000.00} ) over a 40 year term at the same rate ( 7 % ). I owed them my payment for 19 more years and somehow they added an extra 21 years to the term of my mortgage. They did not lower my interest rate nor did they forgive any of the principal balance. In other words, instead of making my mortgage easier to pay, they made it more difficult to pay by adding an extra 21 years to the term of my loan. As it was, I was going to pay {$160000.00} to repay the original mortgage I agreed to, and I have no issue with that, however, Citibank added an extra 21 years to my mortgage which will require me to pay an additional {$110000.00} for my mortgage - and that, I did not agree to. So, all told, I now will have to pay {$280000.00} for a 30 year mortgage at 7 %. And this is on top of the fact that I was working with a mortgage specialist and, as of XX/XX/XXXX, had they accepted my 3 mortgage payments, I would have only been 2 mortgage payments behind which I would have gotten caught up with by XX/XX/XXXX. Had Citibank accepted my payments, I would now have just 15 years left on my mortgage at {$780.00} per month but instead, I now have 37 years left at {$780.00} per month. After they " modified '' my loan terms, they sold my loan to XXXX. My belief is that Citibank probably did this with XXXX borrowers, and falsely pumped up the value of the loans and then sold them to another financial institution. If that 's what is allowed in the world of high finance then it is what it is, however, I owed 19 years on my mortgage at 7 % and now I owe 37 years at 7 % - with the same exact principal balance I had on the original mortgage I assumed when I purchased the house. Something seems very wrong here and I am asking for your assistance in rectifying this matter. I have all my paperwork right back to the closing documents. I figured it would be easier for you to tell me what it is you need from me rather than me just sending you all kinds of paperwork that you may not need. I thank you sincerely for your help in this regard.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation