Consumer complaint received 2019-07-08
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (MD)

I have had a mortgage account with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage for a little over 10 years now. I have never missed or been late on a payment. In fact I have paid to additional principal several times to pay the mortgage off faster. I have done this in accordance with the payment slip that is provided to me every month with the next months billing statement ( see attached MortComplP1 ). As of lately, started earlier this year and continuing still, when I've made additional principal payments, the mortgage company doesn't always apply the monies to principal but instead puts it in a non-applied hold ( see attached MortComplP1 ). The mortgage company takes it upon themselves to pay my mortgage up through the next month as if I paid two months mortgage and not just the current months due with additional principal also. Then I get a billing statement that indicates I'm not due next month, but the month after. This has happen a couple times and I did not realize it because of how busy I am, ( i.e., I get bills in the mail, I write them out entrusting that the company will apply the monies as I note on the check and payment slip, see attached MortComplP1 ). But one day, I got a statement that indicated I had paid up an extra month and I then questioned myself, " Did I Really Pay Up Ahead Like That? Umm, No I Did Not! '' So I call customer service and they say I did but I disagreed. So after verbal dissertation, they would reverse the unintended extra month mortgage payment ( that they had made as : principal, interest, escrow to the extra month ) which changed/lowered the intended additional principal payment. I have had a mortgage account with this company for a little over 10 years now. I have never missed or been late on a payment. In fact I have paid to additional principal several times to pay the mortgage off faster. I have done this in accordance with the payment slip that is provided to me every month with the next months billing statement ( see attached MortComplP1 ).  As of lately, started earlier this year and continuing still, when I've made additional principal payments, the mortgage company doesn't always apply the monies to principal but instead puts it in a non-applied hold ( see attached MortComplP1 ) takes it upon themselves to pay my mortgage up through the next month as if I paid two months mortgage and not just the current months due. Then I get a billing statement that indicates I'm not due next month, but the month after. This has happen a couple times and I did not realize it because of how busy I am, i.e., I get bills in the mail, I write them out entrusting that the company will apply the monies as I note on the check ( see attached MortComplP1 ). But one day, I got a statement that indicated I had paid up an extra month and I then questioned myself, " Did I Really Pay Up Ahead Like That? Umm, No I Did Not! '' So I call customer service and they say I did but I disagreed. So after verbal dissertation, they would reverse the unintended extra month mortgage payment ( that they made made as : principal, interest, escrow ) and change to the intended additional principal payment. I want this trickery to end and my payments applied to my account as I indicate. Also you'll notice, the payment receipts they give ( MortComplP1 ) don't give an itemized breakdown of how the payment was applied. It it just a slip of paper that shows the total amount of the payment received. I want this to end as well as it gives the company the ability to claim Plausible Deniability to say, " Oh, our teller made a mistake in applying the payment. We will council the teller so it doesn't happen in the future. '' It doesn't happen at the branch level, someone at headquarters ( HQ ) level who monitors accounts is changing it after the branch receives the payment. Normally, I pay my mortgage at the XXXX, XXXX XXXX branch but curiosity caused me to start making payments at other branches to investigate. Recently, I've made payments as far removed as XXXX, Delaware and XXXX, Maryland. After making the payments, I check on it by calling the customer service number where I identify with my account and, yes, get the same result. Its being changed at the mortgage company 's headquarters, not the branch tellers. Tellers are worker bees who just receive and process transactions. Someone is XXXX  with me at HQ. Also, back in XX/XX/2015, ( refer to attached MortComplP2 ), I made a regular monthly mortgage payment on time but shortly afterward received a notice in that I was late on payment and was being charged a late fee. What had happened was when I made the payment at the branch, the teller applied it to the wrong account number : or at least that is what I was told me ( i.e., compare the last four digits of the account payment receipt slips in attachments MortComplP1 and MortComplP2 ). I got this reversed but it took some persistence. It seems if I make additional principal payments, that raises eyebrows which results in subversive/retaliatorial actions.. Also you'll notice in the attachments, the payment receipts they provide don't give an itemized breakdown of how the payment was applied. It it just a slip of paper that shows the total amount of the payment received. I want this to end as well as it gives the company the ability to claim Plausible Deniability to say, " Oh, our teller made a mistake in applying the payment. We will council the teller so it doesn't happen in the future. '' This doesn't happen at the branch level, someone at headquarters ( HQ ) level who monitors accounts is changing it after the branch receives the payment. Normally, I pay my mortgage at the XXXX, XXXX XXXX branch but curiosity caused me to start making payments at other branches to investigate. Recently, I've made payments as far removed as XXXX, Delaware and XXXX, Maryland. After making the payments, I check on it by calling the customer service number where I identify with my account and, yes, get the same result. Its being changed at the mortgage company 's headquarters, not the branch tellers. Tellers are worker bees who just receive and process transactions. Someone is XXXX  with me at HQ. Also, back in XX/XX/2015, ( refer to attached MortComplP2 ), I made a regular monthly mortgage payment on time but shortly afterward received a notice that I was late on payment and was being charged a late fee. What had happened was when I made the payment at the branch, the teller applied it to the wrong account number : or at least that is what I was told ( i.e., compare the last four digits of the account payment receipt slips in attachments MortComplP1 and MortComplP2 ). I got this reversed but it took some persistence. It seems if I make additional principal payments, that raises eyebrows which results in subversive/retaliatorial actions.