Consumer complaint received 2022-05-22
Product: Mortgage — Other type of mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: REGIONS FINANCIAL CORPORATION (TX)

A brief summary is provided here with details to follow below. 
- After Regions yearly analysis, my escrow account was noted to be short approximately $ XXXX, which caused a $ XXXX increase in my mortgage payment for the year. I did not receive notification of this until I was called in XX/XX/XXXX. 
- When I spoke to a representative in XXXX and told them that I would have trouble making that payment, she told me that I was eligible for a hardship package. 
- This same representative said that during the hardship process I should not make any payment, and that there would not be any reporting to the credit agencies during this process. 
- Regions reported a delinquency on my credit. 
- On several occasions, I had to call Regions for follow up due to their poor communication with me during this awful time. There were several promises to call me back that were not kept. 
- After many reviews, it was determined that Regions incorrectly calculated the escrow account, and my shortage was eventually decreased to a more manageable payment. 
- I requested that the delinquency be removed considering Regions mistake AND the misinformation I received from their representative. 
- Regions did not remove the delinquency, and there is no indication that they reviewed the call. The delinquency on my credit report is causing significant damage to my livelihood and quality of life. 

Detailed Account : On XX/XX/XXXX, a representative from Regions Bank called to inform me that my mortgage had not been paid for the month of XX/XX/XXXX. This was surprising to me as I have set up automatic monthly payments. I advised that I would pay the payment over the phone. At that time, I was told that it would be approximately $ XXXX more than I was previously paying due to changes in escrow. I advised that it was difficult to make that payment as I had not been informed of the increase, and because the increase was astronomical. 

At that point, I was transferred to XXXX XXXX in the loan servicing department. She advised that I may be eligible for a hardship. She asked a series of questions, and said that I was eligible. I informed her that I did not know anything about this process and asked some questions, specifically about what to do regarding my payment while going through the hardship process. She told me that it was a long process, and that I would receive a packet in the mail with instructions on next steps. I asked several times whether I needed to make a payment in the meantime. She instructed that I should NOT make a payment and that NO CREDIT REPORTING for late payments would happen until the hardship process was completed. When asked, she clarified that the hardship process started as soon as she sent the hardship packet out ( the same day of this call ), and that the only thing I needed to do at this point was wait for the packet to complete. The estimated ship time was 7-10 business days. She also noted that there were due dates I would need to pay attention to in the packet. She also offered to send the new escrow statement. We ended this call. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received another call from Regions Bank about my XXXX payment. I spoke with XXXX XXXX in loan servicing. At that time, I informed him that I had not yet received the hardship packet, and he said that he saw that one had been sent to me. He said that he would send another to make sure I got one. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received notification that Regions Bank had reported a delinquency to the credit bureaus. I still had not received the hardship packet. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received the hardship packet and started discussing it with my attorney and financial advisor. I also sent them my closing paperwork and escrow statements so that they could review and determine why there was such a drastic change in payment amount. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Regions Bank to pay my XXXX and XXXX payments, as well as pay off my shortage balance. I paid the XXXX and XXXX payments over the phone, then asked to speak with someone about the shortage amount. I was transferred to customer service, and I spoke with an agent named XXXX extensively about my loan. During that call, she was confused about the shortage balance that I needed to pay. When I pointed out that the numbers were not matching, she then noted various reasons for the confusion. She said that the bank had paid an increased amount to my homeowners insurance, and that I was being charged for the increase. When I inquired about why they overpaid the insurance company, she was not sure and said that she would send to the insurance department to review. She also noted that Regions estimated MUD taxes in my escrow balance, but had not yet paid those taxes. She said that she would send this to the tax department for review since her research showed that I probably should not be paying MUD taxes. I also requested that the phone call on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX be reviewed and requested that the bank remedy my credit report since I was given incorrect information about credit reporting in that call. She said that she would call me back by the end of the week to give updates. I did not pay the shortage amount at that time due to the inconsistencies. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Regions Bank to follow up on the prior call ( XX/XX/XXXX ) since XXXX had not called me back. I was transferred to customer service and spoke with XXXX XXXX since XXXX was not available at the time. XXXX reviewed the notes on my account and found the following : - A dispute had been initiated in their credit department regarding the delinquency reporting to the credit agencies. Nothing back yet. Takes 30 days. The dispute had been initiated on XX/XX/XXXX. When I asked whether the call had been reviewed, she said that the call had not been reviewed, but it has been noted that I wanted the recording and delinquency reporting reviewed. 
- Regarding Insurance : They had spoken to XXXX at my insurance company and the premium had been increased, so they needed to recoup the amount they overpaid. 
- Regarding the MUD taxes : She said the task was open but not completed. She then said that she no longer saw the MUD taxes on my escrow statement, and that they were probably removed. I asked for clarity from tax department to be sure, and an updated escrow statement. She offered to transfer me to XXXX who has been working on this issue for more clarity, but then said that she was unavailable. She then said XXXX had a note to call me back by the XXXX. I told her there was supposed to be a call back by today. Stressed to her that I wanted to get this resolved before my next payment was due by XX/XX/XXXX. She said that, per notes : MUD taxes removed. XXXX will contact me. They are working on an updated escrow. XXXX will send an email to XXXX asking her to call me this week. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an automated notification via email of new documents ready to review in my Regions account. I had received a new escrow statement showing a new, lower, monthly payment amount after the new analysis showed that I was, in fact, being assessed incorrectly to need money in my escrow account for MUD taxes. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Regions Bank again since I still had not received any call back from them regarding this issue. At that time, the representative attempted to transfer me to XXXX, but she was not available. I spoke with XXXX in customer service instead. She said credit report is still being reviewed. No updates were available since the credit team needed to do an in depth review. She said the last update in the notes was on the XXXX, and that someone was working on it, but the notes did not give any specific information. I asked to be transferred to speak to someone in that department, and she said there was no one is available to speak with me because that department did not have phone lines. She then said that I would get a letter in mail with results. At this time, I paid the shortage on the corrected escrow statement. These numbers were consistent with the numbers outlined by my financial advisor. XXXX took the payment and said that she would send a new billing statement showing the updated payment amount without the shortage on it. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter in the mail from Regions Bank dated XX/XX/XXXX indicating that they would not remove the delinquency reporting because the payment was late. There was no indicating that they reviewed the recording of the call on XX/XX/XXXX in which a Regions loan officer, XXXX, told me NOT to make the payment since a hardship packet had been started. 

I am writing this complaint to request that you have Regions review my file again. Until their analysis mistake, my account has never been late. I have made all of my payments on time. Had it not been for the misinformation received from a Regions representative, I would have made the XXXX payment to avoid a late payment. Prior to this, I have not had any late payment issues on my credit, which allowed me to qualify for this loan. In fact, I have made XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX payments, and even paid off the shortage to get my escrow account to the required amount. Due to this entire mishap, and Regions unwillingness to fix their mistake, my credit score has dropped significantly, and it is affecting many things that I am needing to do. It has also caused a significant amount of stress and anguish. 

It is completely unacceptable to be in this position due to their mistake. I am requesting that this be reviewed not just for me, but for other clients who may be experiencing the same issue due to their incorrect escrow analysis.