Consumer complaint received 2023-04-22
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (CA)

There was an increase in homeowner 's insurance in XX/XX/XXXX from {$1800.00} to {$3600.00} ( plus {$1700.00} ). I contacted Freedom Mortgage customer service in XX/XX/XXXX to discuss how to fund my escrow account to make up for the increase in insurance payments. I was told making extra payments to my escrow account would prevent an increase in mortgage payments. Between XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX, I made extra payments to my escrow  account in the total amount of {$1600.00} ( shy {$150.00} for full repayment of the increase in homeowners insurance ). In XXXX, I contacted Customer service to inquire how this would affect my upcoming payments and received conflicting information and was told there was no way to estimate anything because the Escrow analysis was not done. I asked multiple times for an explanation about how the analysis was done and how my increased payment would be applied. I provided the new homeowners insurance amount as well as the probable tax payments, but never received understandable information. I spoke with 2 or 3 individuals, including a manager. Escrow  analysis in XXXX showed a shortage of {$1200.00} and an automatic increase in my escrow payments to cover the new insurance and slight increase in taxes. By my calculations, the new increase in payments is $ XXXX leading to {$470.00} XXXX {$620.00} as the new escrow payment ( not {$620.00} as shown in the Escrow analysis ). I spoke with several representatives betweenXXXX and XX/XX/XXXX including a supervisor ( # XXXX ). No one could explain 1 ) how the extra {$1600.00} in escrow payments were included in the escrow analysis 2 ) why there was a shortage ( despite the increased escrow payments ) - I was told this was a cushion that was arbitrarily calculated but was not given an explanation about what triggered this increase ( I was told it was not the negative balance resulting from the XXXX increased payment in homeowner 's insurance ) and 3 ) The mortgage company did not provide an option of paying the difference in increased insurance and taxes ( a difference of {$1700.00} ) as one lump sum into my escrow account to avoid the increase in mortgage payments. 4 ) My new escrow monthly calculations based on the increased insurance/taxes differ from the company 's. I was told that once the analysis was done, there was no way to change the escrow payments. Basically, even the supervisor ( # XXXX ) could not answer these questions. The call on XX/XX/XXXX was recorded in which I made clear the issues that were of grave concern to me. Thank you for investigating. This company has poorly trained customer service reps who give inaccurate and wrong information. It is very difficult to ever get anyone to respond to any complaints ( I have had several over the years with no responses whatsoever given ). Even the CEO fails to respond to letters personally mailed to him to try and address issues. Hence, I submitting this complaint to try to get clear and accurate answers and have any mistakes rectified not to mention an apology for the dismal service provided. Thank you!