Consumer complaint received 2021-08-17
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION (SC)

I have a mortgage account through SunTrust / Truist. I have never missed a payment. I owe a lot less than my home is worth, so I have been attempting to have the PMI removed from my payments. I have been attempting this for several months, starting back in XX/XX/XXXX. I have attempted to contact them online a number of times over the past months. When online didn't work, I called them. The lady on the phone told me exactly what to do - that they need the request in writing. She instructed me to either fax it in, or to log in to my online account and send it as a secure message - either method would work. So, while on the phone, I did just that - logged in and sent a secure message. It was ignored - that was XX/XX/XXXX, still no response. After a month, I decided to go in person. I went in and was instructed that nobody at Suntrust ever pays any attention to secure messages, and no, they had no idea that I had asked about that request. They then said they couldn't even help me submit the request. I would have to go home, write a hand written letter, and then fax it. To which number? The bank person could not even tell me a fax number to send it to. He said that there are so many he wouldn't know. So, I went home. I hand wrote a letter. I then returned to the branch and asked the teller to figure out the fax number and fax it directly from themselves to themselves so there would be no further delay or issue. That was on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I still have received no responses - from any of the many attempts I have made. This is unethical and frustrating. We have been following exactly what they've told us to do at every step but those steps don't get us anywhere, and then other employees of the bank tell us those steps were incorrect and don't get you anywhere. 

We experienced the same thing last year when covid hit and they sent us a bunch of spam snail mail about how they worked with people to defer mortgage payments up to three months. Yes - they used the word defer. Not forbearance. When we tried and tried to get help, they refused to respond. No matter what we tried, nobody anywhere could tell us who to call or how to contact anyone. No response to secure messages, couldn't get through after hours on hold, nothing. 

Similarly, and shockingly, in XX/XX/XXXX, we had to file to keep our 4 % tax residential rate. Instead of giving us the correct rate, SunTrust went ahead and charged us for that 6 % tax rate to create a bigger escrow, even though we clearly didn't need it and we had contacted them by phone and in person to make sure they knew about it ahead of time. They ignored all of that and went ahead and charged us an extra {$500.00} a month on our mortgage payment - with no way to pay any less than the full amount, there is no field for manually typing in how much to pay, it's either the full amount or zero - for the excess tax we did NOT owe - and we only got them to fix it in XXXX! They charged us an extra {$500.00} for months - thank god we can afford that. What happens to people who can't? There's still a fee sitting on there that I refuse to pay from this - me trying to figure out why I was being so ridiculously overcharged and again getting no responses - they need to make this right. When there is a big problem, this bank does not respond. This time we are filing a complaint because this is not an accident.