Consumer complaint received 2021-06-29
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: TRUIST FINANCIAL CORPORATION (TX)

Due to COVID-19 and employer closing/job insecurity, I entered into forbearance with SunTrust bank in XX/XX/XXXX. I needed the assistance for 4 months before being back on full salary. They were unable to offer 4 months for forbearance. They offered in 3 months increments, so I elected to be in forbearance through XX/XX/XXXX. I requested at the XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX to end the forbearance, and was sent the incorrect contract. It took them from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX to get me the correct contract, which I signed on XX/XX/XXXX. It stated that 12 months of mortgage payments ( XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX XXXX, including principle, interest, and escrow would be added to the end of the loan. My payments would start XX/XX/XXXX. 
I made my XX/XX/XXXX payment, yet SunTrust misapplied the payment. I then made my XX/XX/XXXX payment that was misapplied again. I did not know this until they called me in early XXXX to state that I was late to pay. I explained that I made the payments and showed the dates that they left my bank account and when credited to my mortgage account. I was later informed that my escrow statement increased retroactively to include XXXX and XXXX, so I made a payment of the difference. I then paid XX/XX/XXXX with the increased amount. I was informed again there there was a rate increase, so in XXXX I made another payment of the difference for XXXX, XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. When I learned of these accounting errors, I demanded an investigation by SunTrust accounting to apply the payments like they were contractually obligated to apply. I was told that investigations take 7 to 10 days. At this point, the investigation has taken 2 months. I can see a lot of movement of money on my online account, and it shows that my account is current, yet they have not ended my account from forbearance. 
Due to the mess over the last year with SunTrust, I've inquired about refinancing this loan to get away from SunTrust. Since my loan is federally backed and my understanding of the stimulus laws in XXXX, I was able to be out of forbearance after my agreement is signed and I've made at least one mortgage payment. I initialed my refi, and even after 3 monthly payments at the amount that they told me to pay and dozens of emails and phone calls that I've made to verify that I am doing and paying the correct things, they are still classifying my account as in forbearance, which does not allow me to refi and pay this loan off. When we call, they state that my account is in good standing, but can't explain why the loan is still considered in forbearance. I have documented dozens of calls with SunTrust trying to get out of forbearance and have documented dozens of emails and calls trying to get them to correct their accounting errors. I am worried that not only will I not quality for a new mortgage loan because of their issues, I also worry that without a forensic accounting investigation of my loan, there will be thousands of dollars unaccounted for that I will have paid or be expected to pay throughout the loan. 

I attached document of contacts with SunTrust ( excluding emails to them ). I also included mortgage statements for XXXX ( includes additional XXXX and XXXX after they made changes ), also copy of the Deferral Contract signed on XX/XX/XXXX to get out of forbearance and start paying on XX/XX/XXXX. 

In the contract, the monthly payment amount says that it may vary, so I called before the XXXX payment to verify the amount. They said to pay from the current escrow statement. I did. In XXXX, they sent a new escrow statement that increased the payments effective XXXX XXXX ( retroactively ) after XXXX and XXXX payments were already made.