Consumer complaint received 2023-02-11
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: OLD NATIONAL BANCORP (IN)

Old National Bank purchased my mortgage when it purchased XXXX XXXX XXXX  several years ago. I use a bill pay service in my online banking with XXXX XXXX XXXX  to pay my mortgage each month. Each month, my mortgage payment is due on the first. The bill pay system is set to pay a few days to about a week ahead of the due date. This has worked flawlessly since I set it up several years ago as an automatic payment. In XX/XX/2023, I received the mortgage statement due XX/XX/2023. It included late fees on top of double the payment amount that should be due. I tried calling my lender upon noticing the mistake, but their office was closed ( XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/2023 ). My XXXX  work/travel schedule spanned ONB 's open hours, and they do not have XXXX  hours. XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, I called my bank ( XXXX XXXX  ), and the associate confirmed that my mortgage payment was sent in late XXXX ( on or about XX/XX/XXXX ) and received by Old National Bank, appearing as a scanned cancelled check as of XX/XX/XXXX. The mortgage payment due XX/XX/2023 had been cleared by the recipient before XX/XX/XXXX, which is within the grace period. On the same day, XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from a mortgage collection service within Old National Bank. I called that number, and the associate was able to inform me that my XX/XX/XXXX payment had been applied to my mortgage, but the date was beyond the grace period. She was unable to resolve the error. XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, I called Old National Bank mortgage department at XXXX XXXX. The associate explained that my late fees had been reversed prior to our conversation, and my payment had been applied ; however, the date my payment was applied to my mortgage was approximately 2 weeks later than the date that the bill pay vendor 's check had been scanned by the recipient and was visible to XXXX XXXX XXXX. The associate with Old National Bank speculated that the error was a " fluke '' and there was no necessary action on my part to prevent a repeat occurrence. She further speculated that when my check was received by Old National Bank, the account details were entered incorrectly, and a later audit caught the error, explaining why the payment had been applied late and why the late fee was reversed prior to my call. She assured me that my credit score would not be negatively impacted. Today XX/XX/XXXX, I received an envelope from a Old National Bank. I expected to find a letter of explanation and apology. To my surprise, I discovered a letter explaining that they do not know how to apply my check to any mortgage account in their system. Furthermore, they included the check from the bill pay vendor which is Pay to the Order of Old National Bank. I am in the process of shopping for another home, so any surprises affecting my credit score will cause us to pay points at closing ( costing thousands of dollars ) or bump us to a higher interest rate ( costing several thousands over the life of the loan ). Although this has not yet happened, if Old National Bank can arbitrarily decide that they don't know how to apply my check to my mortgage, then this is a risk out of my control.