Consumer complaint received 2018-02-26
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Fay Servicing, LLC (CA)

I am respectfully requesting removal and elimination of a XX/XX/XXXX late fee of {$100.00} charged to my account as the payment being sent in a manner resulting in late credit was result of misinformation communicated by phone directly from a Fay Servicing rep in XX/XX/XXXX. 

My mortgage was bought by Fay Servicing and transferred from XXXX XXXX XXXX. Myself and many consumers had industry standard and best practices expectations that payment processing would be the same as with major banks providing mortgages such as XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX etc. 

I had had a number of conversations with Fay reps by phone about the expectation of continuing to make my mortgage payments via XXXX XXXX billpay and having payments process and credited in 24-48 hours as had been the case with XXXX XXXX XXXX. This was and is the expectation of other customers, using other banks, whose mortgages were transferred to Fay Servicing as well. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I noticed that my payment to them via XXXX XXXX had taken way longer than 24-48 hours to process. It had taking 7 - 10 days. I contacted XXXX XXXX and was informed that XXXX XXXX had directed XXXX NOT to send payments electronically ( which process much quicker eliminate possibility of lost paper checks and is more secure ). According to XXXX XXXX they had been directed by Fay Servicing, has had the other major bank, to ONLY send payments as PAPER checks by way of old fashion mail. I contacted Fay Servicing Customer Service again by phone to get an understanding of payment processing and reconfirm I would be able to pay electronically via XXXX XXXX XXXX billpay. The person at Fay Servicing that I spoke with said " What we are seeing with accounts like yours transferring to us is that the first 1-2 payments come in a paper checks and then from that point forward payments transition to electronic payments. '' It was based on this conversation that I initiated my XX/XX/XXXX payment via XXXX XXXX billpay with the expectation that the payment would process in 24-48 hours. This turned out to not be the case. Since my employer pays once monthly I initiated my XX/XX/XXXX payment on XX/XX/XXXX with the expectation the payment would process electronically in 24-48 within the Fay Servicing grace period and without a late charge. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a phone call from XXXX XXXX XXXX of Fay Servicing introducing herself as my point of contact. I asked for confirmation that my XX/XX/XXXX payment had been received. She said it had not. I recounted my prior experience and detailed conversation I had had with the prior Fay rep and expectation that the XX/XX/XXXX payment would process electronically in 24-48 hours. I relayed details of my conversation with XXXX XXXX. I also relayed that I had double checked initiation and processing of my payment via my XXXX XXXX website where I could see the payment initiated XX/XX/XXXX and money out of my account XX/XX/XXXX which I took to mean my payment had processed in a timely manner. 

XXXX XXXX told me the other rep had been incorrect and that Fay would NEVER be accepting and processing bank billpay payments electronically. In other words customers who wished to use their banks ' billpay systems to protect themselves and their financial information would only be able to use bill pay to make payment via paper checks and old fashion mail. 

By the time I had this conversation with XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX my XX/XX/XXXX payment via XXXX XXXX billpay was processing. It was in the conversation with XXXX XXXX I determined the XX/XX/XXXX payment would be credited late because I had assumed as the other Fay rep had told me this XX/XX/XXXX payment would process electronically in 24-48 hours. 

Fay rather than allowing customers to use, and accepting, the readily available electronic billpay system all customers have available and all major banks providing mortgages ( like XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, etc ) which process more quickly, eliminating problems of loss and fraud -- Fay pushes customers to provide sensitive financial information including bank name, routing numbers and account numbers to be collected on the Fay site as the only option to NOT mailing a paper check. With increased vulnerability, financial data theft, and hacks the last thing in customers ' best interest is disseminating and exposing personal and financial information to billers. Allowing mortgage holders to use established bill pay systems through their banks is a standard normal expectation and best practice. 

And even if I had, which I do not, provided personal banking financial information on the Fay site in order to pay via their site I could not because of the {$100.00} late charge and only preset inflexible fixed payment amounts pre-input by Fay Servicing as payment options. As a result customers like myself that want to pay a customized specific amount can not dose on the Fay site and can only do so by calling in to speak with a live human at Fay Servicing FYI via my online research there have been a number of other customers raising issues and concerns regarding late charge experiences with Fay Servicing. I am more than happy to provide examples upon request.