Consumer complaint received 2019-07-01
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Onity Group Inc. (NJ)

Approximately four months ago, my mortgage began being processed and handled by a company called PHH Mortgage Services, and I immediately began having trouble with with their payment services. 

I've had a mortgage for over eighteen years and I pay dozens of bills monthly, both by telephone and on the lenders websites. Although some are more user friendly than others, all are doable within five minutes or less. 

That is not the case with PHH Mortgage Services. 

After spending several hours attempting to make my first payment to them on their website, I was unsuccessful and forced to call them. No matter when I called, hold times were always in excess of 30 minutes, and many calls were even placed on hold indefinitely. 

If you were lucky enough to ever reach a human, there was a fee for paying with their assistance, yet there was no other " simple '' method for paying. 

I searched online and I immediately found that I was not alone. Several dozen PHH customers are all over XXXX, XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX reviews, with the same complaints as mine ; difficult or impossible to reach a customer service agent, gratuitous hold times, malfunctioning payment systems, inability to submit payments, excessive fees for making payments, and then excessive late fees, negative credit remarks, and penalties when the payments are not made on time. 

I continued to struggle making my monthly payments, because their phone system was so antiquated and poorly organized. Making additional payments to my principal was near impossible, and the average call length was 15 minutes to pay. 

Then, for the month of XXXX, 2019, PHH took my mortgage payment out of my account twice. This overdrew my checking account by XXXX XXXX dollars, and it caused me to incur overdraft fees, as well as then being unable to pay the rest of my creditors on time. 

It took numerous phone calls to my other creditors and financial institution to correct this issue, and it was fifteen days before PHH returned my money. 

Finally, on XX/XX/2019, I attempted to pay my XXXX mortgage payment, using the automated phone system as I had always done before. 

The automated phone system refused to accept my payment, and repeated attempts yielded the same results. After well over an hour, I called and sat on hold for another hour, before reaching a PHH customer service agent. 

The agent tried several times to process my payment, and they were not able to do it either. They then told me that my financial institution was to blame, so I called my financial institution. 

My bank told me that no one had made any attempts at submitting payments requests to my account, and that I had well more than sufficient funds to handle any request. 

I then called PHH back, but I sat on hold for hours, and I never was able to reach an agent. Having 4.5 hours invested in attempting to make a simple monthly mortgage payment, I gave up and decided to try again on Sunday. 

On Sunday, XX/XX/2019, I called in around XXXX Eastern time, and all PHH phone numbers, had a pre-recorded message which announced that their phone systems were down due to unforeseen technical difficulties. I continued trying again throughout the day and they recording was the same. 

I then attempted to pay online, and that system refused my payments as well. 

Now having almost 6 hours invested in trying to pay my mortgage, I called in Monday XX/XX/XXXX and I got the same message that the system was down. 

I waited a few hours and then called back, the system was then working, but a message informs you that hold times are much longer than usual, and that you will not be able to reach a customer service agent in under 30 minutes. 

Since I'm now at work, I can not sit on hold for several hours again, as I did all weekend long. My mortgage payment is due today, and I believe that PHH has already assessed fees to my account. 

I simply wish to pay my mortgage now, and in the future, with reasonable ease. 

I also believe that PHH has intentionally set their system up this way, so that customers are forced to incur late fees, and that as a result, customers will simply choose one of PHH 's other payment methods, which as they inform you in their recordings " are profitable to them because of their arrangements with the companies whom handle those payments ''. 

I have recorded my calls with them, as well as the " system down '' messages. I've also downloaded the excessive internet reviews and complaints against PHH, from their other customers, whom are experiencing the identical issues with them that I am.