Consumer complaint received 2020-09-18
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION (NM)

XXXX XX/XX/2020 I pay my mortgage through USAA ( serviced by Nation Star or " XXXX XXXX '' ) the same, exact way I always have in the past. At XXXX XXXX ( Mountain time for all times hereafter ) I receive an email stating that " Your payment has been received '' ( see attachments ). There is even a confirmation number, which I assume means that they have confirmed my payment. 

XXXX XX/XX/2020 I receive a second email stating that " We've received your payment '' ( see attachments ). This is normal, I always receive emails stating that the payment has been received. 

XXXX XX/XX/2020 at XXXX XXXX  I receive a phone call from XXXX and they inform me that I am late on my mortgage payment and ask if I would like to resolve it. Assuming its a scam, I hang up and immediately check my bank account to see if my payment was applied. I see that the money was never taken out of my account. I then go call the phone number attached to the emails stating that they received my payment. A woman ( didn't get her name, sorry ) states that they've never received the payment and that I owe {$47.00} in late fees and {$25.00} for a non-sufficient fund ( NSF ) charge. I tell her that I need those charges reversed because the mortgage company confirmed on their end TWICE that they received my payment. She refuses. After some arguing, she says she will submit a waiver to waive the late fee, but that there is nothing she can do about the NSF charge because that was levied against the account by XXXX XXXX XXXX. I end the phone call. 

XXXX XX/XX/2020 at XXXX XXXX I call XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and ask about the {$25.00} fee. They claim that they did not and would not levy a fee against another bank ( USAA/XXXX  XXXX ) only that they would levy it against ME on my XXXX account if there was a charge that I lacked funds for. I confirmed with the teller that I did indeed have the required funds for the charge made, but due to some system error the charge never went through, and I was never informed about it because something about the account didn't exist. The teller reaffirmed that the {$25.00} charge had to be through XXXX XXXX or USAA and not through them. 

XXXX XX/XX/2020 XXXX XXXX I call back XXXX XXXX and get a new person, XXXX XXXX, to assist me once again. She confirms for me that the {$25.00} was indeed levied against me by the mortgage company ( or USAA, I'm not really sure ) and not from XXXX XXXX. I asked her why NO ONE told me that my account was late. No email, no mail, no phone call, until ONE DAY AFTER the account is late. The phone call came CONVENIENTLY on the XXXX, when the account was late on the XXXX. They could have informed me DAYS before this happened that my account was in danger of being late and being charged a fee. Also, despite this, I have TWO emails telling me that my account has been paid. A normal consumer, after being told TWICE that your account has been paid, would assume its paid. I also tell her that its not my fault that they didn't receive funds due to either them or USAA not knowing how to properly draw money out of my account WHICH I HAVE USED  SUCCESSFULLY IN THE PAST in order to pay my bills. I used this account exactly how I've always used it. They tried to put the blame on me but it is NOT my fault. She at least apologized to me ( which I take as assuming fault in the situation ) and said she will make sure the late fee waiver request goes through but that there is nothing she can do about the {$25.00} NSF fee. I ask to speak with her  supervisor and she says that her supervisor, XXXX XXXX, was about to go to a meeting with USAA ( how convenient, right? ) and was unable to speak with me. I told her that I would be bringing this up with the CFPB and will not drop it. XXXX let me know that there was no longer anything she could do for me but I was welcome to speak with their Executive Resolution Manager. 

I get transferred to the Executive Resolution Manager, only  identified as XXXX XXXX, and explain to her what is going on. She tells me that she thinks the late fee will be waived, but as of yet it has not ( I know it has only been hours but I don't trust these institutions ). She continues to tell me that because the information was " incorrect '' for the bank account that its not their fault and they wont be dropping the NSF fee. I object, and tell her it is their fault because I have used this as payment IN THE PAST with 0 issue. I ask her why her institution would send me two whole emails stating  that my account has been paid when it hasn't. She says that those emails don't actually mean the account is paid. I tell her that is shady and deceptive. This is just a way to milk {$25.00} out of people. She says I should have been informed that the payment was never received, and I told her i was, conveniently the day after it became a late fee. She said that they were probably busy or didn't have time to let me know the exact day that funds were never actually paid. I don't find her response amicable and continue to press that this is their fault and they are being shady by not telling me that funds were never received. She said she can try and get USAA to drop the NSF fee, but she doesn't think it will because its my fault ( of course ). 

To wrap it up, XXXX XXXX LIES every time they send out emails saying payment is received. Then they purposely don't inform the consumer that a payment is late until the day after so they can collect on exorbitant fees and make even more money.