Consumer complaint received 2021-04-30
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (TX)

2 issues Payment deferral and handling of my payments. 

My mortgage is with Citizens One. XXXX of XXXX, I applied for a payment deferral. XXXX doesn't offer that to start, the borrower has to go through a forbearance first and then the borrower is reviewed for possible loss mitigation options, payment deferral being one of them. I agree to a 3 month forbearance. At the end of XXXX I call and request to be reviewed for a payment deferral. I am approved and sent an approval letter on XX/XX/XXXX. I called after receiving that letter XXXX I don't have that date written down ), I was told it takes 30 to 45 days to process in their system from approval date, as they are back logged. I call XX/XX/XXXX, I was told my approval still has not been updated in the system. I was also told that it would take 30 to 45 days from XX/XX/XXXX to process it. I called on XX/XX/XXXX to make a payment. After I made the payment I checked on the status of my deferral. I was told it was still in process. This has been over 2 months since my approval letter. Other lenders process the same day or with in a week XXXX XXXX note, I work for a XXXX XXXX company and we don't have this issue ). 

Another issue is the handling of my monthly payments. When I entered the forbearance plan, I needed to defer 3 monthly payments. I missed XXXX, XXXX and XXXX payments. My first payment after was on XX/XX/XXXX, {$2200.00}. I made other payments, in the same amount on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. So I have made 3 payments, {$2200.00} each, for a total of {$6700.00}. While my deferral is being processed, Citizens keeps me in a forbearance plan. While in the forbearance plan, my payments are not applied to my loan, but put into a suspense account ( which is fine ). On XX/XX/XXXX, I called to make my payment. I don't how or why I asked them, but I asked for the total in my suspense. I was told the total is {$6200.00}. This is less than the 3 payments I have made, a difference of {$470.00}. I asked them to look through the payment history for any transaction that showed an amount of {$470.00}. The rep told me that she didn't see anything in that amount. She claims that amount will re-APPEAR in my suspense account when the system has processed my deferral. ( I work for a XXXX XXXX company, this is not how it works. My company runs the same platform they do, XXXX XXXX XXXX. Funds don't just disappear, they are accounted for in a payment history ). I didn't argue with her, I told her thank you and we ended the call. I also requested a copy of my payment history to verify this. 

To add onto this, there was an issue with my escrow shortage. I paid the shortage and extra, in the amount of {$1700.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. It was mistakenly applied to my principal instead. I found this out on XX/XX/XXXX after I saw that my app showed a principal application. The rep stated she could fix it and it would take a few days to correct. I call on XX/XX/XXXX, to verify the funds have been applied to my escrow. The rep told me nothing has been done and the call on the XXXX, nothing was done. The rep told me she would fix it. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called and I was told that the funds of {$1700.00} have been applied to my escrow. I received a letter dated, XX/XX/XXXX, that Citizens received my escrow shortage payment. ( So I thought I was done ). I called XX/XX/XXXX because something didn't feel right. I was told that the escrow payment of {$1700.00} was never applied to my escrow and was still applied to my principal. The rep said they would fix it and it would take a few days. I called on XX/XX/XXXX. The rep stated the amount of {$1700.00} was corrected and applied to escrow on XX/XX/XXXX. Back to my payments. I am concerned that funds were taken from suspense to cover an escrow shortage when my actual escrow shortage funds were misapplied to principal. 

( When the rep stated the funds were being applied to escrow, someone missed a dollar, the amount of {$1700.00} is not a typo. This what the moved. It is just a dollar, but it is concerning on how they might possibly handling my other payments and that {$470.00} is missing from suspense. )