Consumer complaint received 2018-10-22
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (GA)

To Whom It May Concern : I am writing to file a formal complaint against Wells Fargo for their failure to remove my PMI which hovers around {$300.00} per month. This is a baseless fee, designed to increase the banks already massive mortgage profits. 

Each month, I am tasked with paying this additional fee, with no way to remove it besides refinancing into a new loan at a higher interest rate, paying them an additional {$10000.00} in new loan fees, or paying them {$20000.00} in fees directly. 

Per their guidelines, I have already met the 3 requirements to have the PMI removed early : 1 ) Had PMI on your loan for at least 5 years from the date your loan closed. ( It has been over 6 years already. ) 2 ) Reach a ratio of 78 % loan-to-value ratio based on the original value of your property. My current  mortgage balance is $ XXXX which is below the $ XXXX number required to meet the 78 % loan to value ratio. ( My property was appraised at $ XXXX at the time of the loan closing, so I am currently well below the 78 % requirement ) 3 ) Have not had any late payments that were more than 30 days past due in the last 12 months. ( That is correct ) On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Wells Fargo to request the PMI be removed as I had met the requirements above. 

During the phone call, I was given the runaround and gross misinformation about my loan. At one point, the representative I spoke to told me my loan to value ratio was currently 98 %. When I told her that clearly was incorrect, she informed me that her system was telling her that. 

Eventually, almost 30 minutes after beginning our conversation, the representative told me that she could see the appraisal in the system at XXXX, but that there was a paperwork issue where my investor had valued the property at $ XXXX, and that was the number Wells Fargo was using for their decision. ( Investor? I have been paying Wells Fargo directly for the entire existence of my loan. ) I stated to the representative that this was clearly a paperwork error, as the appraisal on record ( in their very system! ) was $ XXXX, not $ XXXX. $ XXXX was the mortgaged amount, not the original value of the property. 

I was then told that I had two options - to refinance out of my current loan into one at a higher interest rate and pay a loan fee ( appx $ 10K ) OR I could pay almost $ 20K towards my premium and that would then reach their magical ratio to have the PMI removed. Otherwise, the PMI is set to stay on my account until XXXX, costing me approximately {$14000.00} in additional fees. 

I inquired as to why, when this is clearly a data entry and/or paperwork error, it can not simply be corrected in Wells Fargo 's system. Especially when Wells Fargo already has all of the documentation and it would simply be them correcting an error. The answer there is simple - Wells Fargo has no desire to be accountable, and want to collect as many miscellaneous fees as they possibly can. 

I can not begin to state how frustrating it is to see Wells Fargo, already a stain on the entire country, continue to be allowed to operate in such an unethical manner. This is not the first issue Ive had with this mortgage and Wells Fargo trying to underhandedly charge additional fees. And clearly, based on their public record, this is their standard operating behavior.