Consumer complaint received 2021-09-27
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION (NY)

I have a mortgage with Fifth Third Bank, NA ( the " Bank '' ). In or about XXXX I notified the Bank that my mailing address and telephone number were changing and that hte Bank should send all future correspondence should be at my new address and phone number. The Bank sent me written confirmation that all future communications from the Bank regarding my mortgage would be sent to the new address ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX NY ) and telephone number ( XXXX ). See Exhibit " A ''. 

Thereafter, in or about XX/XX/XXXX, the Bank increased my monthly payment by about {$40.00} based upon their annual escrow analysis. However, the Bank inexplicably sent the annual escrow statement with the required notification of the monthly payment increase to my old, inactive address that I had advised them not to use ( XXXX XXXX XXXX ) and that they confirmed in writing that they would not use. As a result, I never received the annual escrow statement and was never notified about the increased payment until after they had deemed my usual payment insufficient and late. 

When I inquired into why this occurred, the Bank advised me that they made efforts to contact me by telephone when my payment was insufficient to satisfy the new higher payment amount. However, when I inquired further, the Bank admitted that the phone number they had used to attempt to contact me was the old disconnected phone number, despite my having provided them with a new phone number to use, which they confirmed in writing. In fact, the Bank did have my correct phone number on file, but it had had listed it on my account as " Phone Number 2 '' and never attempted to call it. Instead, the Bank called the disconnected number on multiple occasions even though each call was met with an automated " this number has been disconnected. '' After it had not received a payment in the exact amount of the new monthly payment for 30 days, the Bank reported my account as having a " late payment '' to the credit reporting bureaus, and charged me late fees. Only then did the Bank send a notification to me via email informing me of the issue, but by then it had already been reported to the credit reporting agencies as late. 

As a result of the Bank 's errors, my credit report now indicates that I had one late payment. This is the first and only late payment I have ever had on my credit history, to include the 11 years I have ceaselessly made timely mortgage payments to the Bank. 

I have spoken with numerous supervisors at the Bank. They confirmed that the Bank sent the annual escrow statement and notice of the increase in my monthly payment to the wrong mailing address. They also confirmed that the Bank had only attempted to call me by dialing a number I had previously notified them was no longer in use, despite the Bank having my correct phone number and email address on file. Despite the Bank admitting to these errors, it refused to have the late payment removed and/or to notify the credit reporting bureaus to do so. My credit score thus declined over 40 points as a result, seriously compromising my efforts to purchase a first home for my family.

Under New York State regulation, 3 NYCRR 419.4 and RESPA, the Bank was required to provide me with an annual mortgage escrow statement and failed to do so, proximately causing the allegedly late payment. The Bank was also required to honor my request ( which they confirmed in writing ) that it contact me at the address and phone number I duly provided. It's failure to do so, and subsequently charging me late fees, constitutes the precise sort of fraudulent and unfair practice that this agency exists to redress.