Consumer complaint received 2022-01-20
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: U.S. BANCORP (TX)

We were approved for a COVID forbearance program with US Bank on XX/XX/XXXX to suspend our mortgage payments due to a financial hardship caused by the global pandemic. Our forbearance program ended on XX/XX/XXXX and my wife and I called many times during the weeks leading up to the program coming to an end to inform the bank that our financial hardship had been resolved and we desired to restart making monthly mortgage payments. We were told many times by US Bank representatives and relationship managers that it was a simple process to come off of forbearance and all we had to do was call to notify the bank verbally that our hardship was resolved and were ready to resume making our monthly payments towards our mortgage loan. That has certainly not been the case for us. 
We have been diligently trying to resume making our previous monthly mortgage payments to come out of forbearance. We made our first payment via the US Bank online portal on XX/XX/XXXX and another on XX/XX/XXXX. After numerous calls to various representatives at US Bank we were told multiple times not to make any additional payments as our loan was under review with the loss mitigation department and a decision needed to be made on a repayment plan and the two payments we made in XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX have been sitting in an escrow account during the banks internal underwriting process and have not been applied to our mortgage loan balance. 
We have spent over 3 months submitting various forms of personal and financial documentation ( credit checks, tax returns, pay stubs, etc. ), which has been more invasive and complicated to navigate than an audit by the IRS in order for US Bank to determine how our forbearance balance would be applied to our mortgage and what repayment plan options would be made available to us. We were told verbally on several occasions by US Bank relationship managers that our repayment options at the end of the banks underwriting process would include the following for us to decide to accept : 1. the past due forbearance balance would be applied evenly to the remaining monthly payments. 
2. the loan term would be extended to cover the forbearance balance. 
Instead, we received a letter yesterday ( XX/XX/XXXX ) from US Bank with the only option for a repayment plan agreeing to repay past due amounts on the mortgage by making additional monthly payments along with the regular monthly mortgage payments. The bank is now demanding that all accrued forbearance payments over the past 18 or so months ( $ XXXX ) must be paid back in full over the next 14 months, which results in a monthly payment 2.5x more than our original mortgage monthly payment amount from {$4600.00} to {$11000.00}. We can not afford this absurd repayment option to almost triple our mortgage payment, which is in complete conflict with US Banks claim on its website that our top priority is to keep you in your home with affordable monthly payments. 
The banks only options are for us to accept this ridiculous repayment plan or file an appeal by XX/XX/XXXX or they will proceed with foreclosing on our home. The bank has given us 2 days ( until XX/XX/XXXX ) to agree to this repayment plan and send in the first payment of {$11000.00} by XX/XX/XXXX or to reject the repayment plan, which would result in the bank starting foreclosure proceedings. We also just found out today XX/XX/XXXX that US Bank reported my wife and I to credit agencies that we were delinquent on our mortgage payments, which will negatively impact our credit and affect our ability to borrow or refinance our mortgage etc. US bank told us it would not report us to credit agencies until a decision was made on our repayment plan and we have had time to accept or reject their offer, which by the bank 's own letter is tomorrow XX/XX/XXXX. I believe the bank 's reporting to credit agencies during our forbearance program and before a decision on a repayment plan has been agreed to is in violation of the CARES Act. The process to come off of forbearance has been a complete nightmare and my wife and I believe that we were misled by US Bank about the entire forbearance process, which seems predatory to us and should warrant an investigation by your agency into the banks deceptive mortgage practices and scams.