Consumer complaint received 2015-05-04
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: Seterus, Inc. (VA)

My Home mortgage is on a Bill Pay with my bank. The payment is due by the XXXX of every month and I have scheduled it for XXXX of every month to avoid any weekend, holiday type delays. Any way during the month of XXXX my payment was auto-scheduled and processed on XXXX of XXXX. I was out on business and when I returned on XXXX XXXX I noticed there were missed calls on my home phone from " XXXX '' on XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. I called this number back and found out that this number belonged to my Mortgage Company. Once I verified my security information the first word I heard from the representative was " Sir, how would you like to pay {$130.00}? ". My immediate response was where did this come from? I was calling back to find out why the I had these missed calls ( note no message was left on my answering system by Seterus ) was calling me for which I had no idea. The representative " XXXX '' upon asking first said maybe because my payment was received after XXXX and was charged late fee. I told her that let me look on the bill payment, upon which I clarified to XXXX that my payment was scheduled for XXXX of the month ahead of the due date of XXXX so it can not be correct. XXXX then went on hold and then came back stating that my Escrow analysis had established that instead of my monthly payment of {$1800.00} I was to make a revised payment of {$1900.00}. Hene the shortfall of {$64.00} combined with LATE FEE of {$72.00} was overdue now. I tried to convince XXXX that this was not a delibrate mistake or intended delay, there was no information on my end that my payment had changed and XXXX did not leave any messages when they called. So I pleaded that given my pristine payment record at a minimum I should not be charged the LATE FEE. Especially given that no payment from ESCROW was due until XXXX timeframe and it did not make sense to levy a penalty of {$72.00} on a shortfall lesser than that and which was not even due to either the Real-Estate Property Tax payment OR my Home insurance. XXXX said she can not do anything. I insisted to talk to her supervisor. When XXXX 's Supervisor " XXXX XXXX '' came on line I told her this honest oversight should be considered for waiving the LATE FEE. XXXX held on to my first statement and re-phrased Oh! so you agree it was an oversight. I knew then and there she was trying to justify Seterus 's late fee by mounting on me that I was to be fully responsible for this oversight. And then between XXXX and XXXX they furthered the topic with threats for credit reporting if the overdue amount was not paid. Since I enjoy a credit score in XXXX range I did not want to argue with them and caved in to make the whole payment via direct debit from my checking account on the spot. I think it is fare if you levy LATE FEE and PENALTIES for something that has caused financial damage or has the potential to do so - but in my case it was plain simple that Seterus came back with a response of " Oh I got you ''. Very mischevious tactics for such meagre amounts from customers who have been on the dot with payments from last umpteen years.