Consumer complaint received 2021-01-29
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC. (FL)

On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I received an Escrow Account Disclosure Statement from Citizens One Home Loans advising that my escrow account was short for XXXX. I was provided with two options. 

The first option was to do nothing, and my mortgage payment effective XX/XX/XXXX would be {$3500.00}. The second option was to pay the entire escrow shortage of {$2500.00} in full and my mortgage payment effective XX/XX/XXXX would be {$3300.00}. I chose to pay the entire escrow shortage of {$2500.00} in full, by check, on or about XX/XX/XXXX. I mailed the payment to Citizens One using the envelope and payment coupon provided. The funds from this {$2500.00} payment cleared my checking account on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I paid a mortgage payment of {$3300.00} ( correct mortgage payment of {$3300.00} rounded up ) to Citizens One for my mortgage payment that was to become effective on XX/XX/XXXX. 

However, Citizens One failed to properly update my account to show that I paid the escrow shortage in full and reflect the updated mortgage payment of {$3300.00} to become effective XX/XX/XXXX. Instead, Citizens One billed me {$3500.00} for my XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment the amount that was to take effect only if I did not pay the escrow shortage in full. 

To make matters worse, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received a mortgage statement from Citizens One stating that I owed {$6900.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. Shockingly, Citizens One did not credit my account with the timely paid XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment of {$3300.00} ( correct mortgage of {$3300.00} rounded up ). In fact, the statement indicated that my XX/XX/XXXX payment of {$3500.00} ( incorrect amount ) was overdue! 

The same day, XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citizens One at the phone number on the statement and spoke with a gentleman, whose name I unfortunately did not obtain, who told me that the system showed that I paid the escrow shortage in full. However, he said that Citizens Ones computer system did not post the escrow shortage payment correctly or update my XX/XX/XXXX payment to {$3300.00} as it should have. He stated that he would correct my account and to disregard the incorrect XX/XX/XXXX mortgage statement. Remarkably, he said that he receives calls like mine every year and he did not understand why Citizens One had not made updates to their system to correct the issues. He suggested that every year, instead of using the payment coupon Citizens One sends to pay my escrow shortage payment by check, to call in and make the payment over the phone so that it would be properly applied to my account. 

Frustratingly, the issues with my account were not resolved because I received a call from Citizens One attempting to collect {$210.00} from me for the difference between the ( incorrect mortgage amount ) of {$3500.00} that I was billed and the ( correct ) mortgage payment of {$3300.00}. I explained that this was incorrect, that I did not owe this amount and that I spoke with a gentleman a few days earlier who was working to correct my account. 

Then to add insult to injury, by XX/XX/XXXX, the issue had still not been corrected as I received another mortgage statement from Citizens One. This time there was a balance due of {$7000.00} for XX/XX/XXXX. Despite having properly paid my escrow shortage and my correct XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payment ( {$3300.00} rounded up to {$3300.00} ), Citizens One added a {$100.00} late fee! 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Citizens One again to explain the situation and ask them again to correct my account. I was advised that a supervisor would need to look at the account and call me back later that day. This did not happen. Incredibly on this same day, someone from Citizens One called me to collect {$310.00}, the difference between the ( incorrect ) mortgage amount of {$3500.00} that I was billed and the ( correct ) mortgage amount of {$3300.00} and the late fee of {$100.00}. 

The next day, on XX/XX/XXXX, I spent over 2 hours on the phone with various departments at Citizens One trying to explain the situation that I had paid my escrow shortage in full and my XX/XX/XXXX payment should have been adjusted to {$3300.00} and that I had also timely paid that. Over and over again, I was told incorrectly that my XX/XX/XXXX payment was {$3500.00} and I had to pay the {$210.00} difference between the ( incorrect ) mortgage amount of {$3500.00} that I was billed and the ( correct ) mortgage amount of {$3300.00}, and the late fee of {$100.00} to bring my account up to date. Only after asking to speak to a supervisor did I finally speak to XXXX who understood what happened. XXXX advised me that she would make a request for my account to be corrected and would call me back once this was done. This did not happen. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I called Citizens One for the last time to give them an opportunity to correct the situation before lodging this complaint. I spoke with XXXX and was assured that the issue was being worked on and my account would be corrected immediately. Incredibly, later this very same day, someone from Citizens One called my husband to collect {$310.00}, the {$210.00} difference between the ( incorrect ) mortgage amount of {$3500.00} that I was billed and the ( correct ) mortgage amount of {$3300.00}, and the late fee of {$100.00}. 

As of the writing of this complaint, the issues with my account have still not been rectified. I have made all mortgage payments to Citizens One on time and for the correct amount, and I paid my entire escrow shortage for XXXX in full. On the other hand, Citizens One has failed to properly update my account with payments I have made, failed to update my mortgage payment for XX/XX/XXXX to the correct amount of {$3300.00}, improperly assessed my account a late fee and made harassing calls to collect money I did not owe.