Consumer complaint received 2015-06-26
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (PA)

In XXXX of 2007, my wife and I received a pre-approved mortgage loan of {$430000.00} from Wachovia Bank for a home we were buying. Our offer was accepted and the written agreement we received from the bank was for 90 % financing. On XXXX XXXX, 2007, the day before our closing, after we had already sold our existing home, the Originator at Wachovia called to tell me that bank would not be honoring the agreement and would only be doing an 80 % mortgage. They understood that we had an agreement in writing and had the right to sue them for breech, but would no longer be doing any 90 % financing deals. The Originator felt bad about the corporate decision and the fact that we had sold our existing house and were closing on the new house the next day. He offered to make up the difference by giving us an unsecured business line of credit. When I told him I no longer had any current or active businesses, he suggested that we either use a business I formerly owned ( even if it was closed ) or " simply make one up. '' I accept responsibility for not consulting my attorney on what he was proposing, but was so angry that Wachovia had done this at the last minute. I panicked thinking about where we would live or what we would do with all of our possessions that were now packed in boxes and sitting in a moving van and agreed to the {$50000.00} line of credit. 

To make a long story short, when Wells Fargo acquired Wachovia, it took over my mortgage and the business line of credit. I was able to refinance the mortgage and move it to another bank, but was " stuck '' with this bogus loan to a business that did n't exist. Despite all that, I put the loan on auto-pay, sent {$500.00} to Wells Fargo each month covering the {$350.00} in interest and the rest going towards the principal. It was sent on time, without exception, every month for the past 8 years. 
XXXX months ago, I decided that I should think about paying off this line with all the speculation that higher interest rates were coming. I had estimated that the loan principal was probably down to {$29000.00} +/- given the {$150.00} I had been putting to the principal from the origination of the loan. When I opened the statement I received in XXXX, I was shocked to see that the balance on the loan was {$43000.00}! I assumed there was a mistake and went to a local Wells Fargo branch to get the error corrected. 

After looking over the account, the branch manager informed me that the loan had " experienced '' XXXX interest increases and that I was currently being charged 10 % on this loan that was originally 5 %. For nearly 8 years, having never missed or been late with a payment, having made payments on the principal, as well as the interest, and having a spotless credit report, I am apparently being punished for Wachovia 's bad loans and Wells Fargo 's purchase of them. They have increased my rate without any cause and claim now that there is nothing they can do about it. 
I have paid Wells thousands of dollars in additional interest on a loan that I was saddled with in the most unscrupulous manner and now have to pay 10 % when I should ( and could ) be paying around 4.5 %. How is it fair for this bank to arbitrarily, and without cause, raise the interest on a loan, simply because they want to clean all their Wachovia loans off their books? 

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.