Consumer complaint received 2023-02-24
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (AZ)

We were approved for a refinance mortgage with XXXX  on XX/XX/2022 and closed on XX/XX/2022. The goal of the XXXX refi mortgage, at a loan closing cost of {$10000.00}, was for the purpose of " repaying ourselves '' over $ XXXX cash we had invested in the property. The closing cash to us was to be used to fund improvements to a second mortgaged property in XXXX DE. The XXXX First Payment Letter ( due XX/XX/2022 ) with account number and XXXX and XXXX payment coupons were included at close with remittal to XXXX. We scheduled Automatic Recurring Payments in our Wells Fargo Bill Pay linked to our joint checking account to begin XX/XX/XXXX and continue monthly. On XX/XX/XXXX we were notified that Wells Fargo had acquired the loan and informed of a new payment mailing address and account number. We created a new mortgage account area at WF Online so we could access loan balances, interest rate, payment amount, escrow, download tax documents and other important information. This added the mortgage to our already existing WF Umbrella Account as a line item. The scheduled " Recurring Bill Pay '' set up on XX/XX/XXXX with a first payment due XX/XX/XXXX now needed to be updated with a different " Payee '' and account number. This step required cancelling the XXXX  recurring Bill Pay payment set up on XX/XX/2022 and creating a new scheduled recurring withdrawal from our automatic Bill Pay account on XX/XX/XXXX- before the first payment went out on the XXXX. On XX/XX/2022 after a series of extended travel for personal reasons ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) we reviewed XXXX  months of mortgage statements in an attempt to reconcile our finances. We noticed recurring withdrawls from our checking account from two different WF line items. We contacted Customer Service and learned on XX/XX/2022 that ACH payments had been scheduled on XX/XX/XXXX, when at the time we understood we were scheduling automatic recurring WF Bill Pay and creating a WFHM account area mainly to access mortgage documents. Until XX/XX/2022 we intended and understood that " Automatic Payments '' meant scheduling recurring payments via our already existing WF Bill Pay service. Eight duplicate payments were withdrawn without our knowledge or awareness by WFHM via ACH in addition to the 8 payments on the scheduled recurring Bill Pay for the XXXX of each month. Eight additional payments were applied by WFHM - without our intent or instructions - to our mortgage principal - without any instructions in the memo line to do so - and without notifying us monthly this was happening. Every month we receive an email from WF Bill Pay confirming the amount of funds withdrawn and confirming the Payee. Had WFHM done this, the 8 miss-applied payments to principal would have been caught immediately. When we reached out to WFHM Customer Service on XX/XX/2022 they partially resolved the situation by returning two payments to our joint checking account and applying two payments to our XXXX and XX/XX/2022 payments going forward. We accepted that as an initial first step and indicated that we were not 100 % satisfied, and asked for " next steps. '' We contacted our WF Regional VP and WFHM Case Specialists in writing and reverse the application of these 4 payments to principal. The request was denied. The WF Regional VP advocated on our behalf. The WFHM " welcome letter '' dated XXXX " Important Message '' clause states " our records indicate your payments are scheduled to withdraw automatically. '' This paragraph is unclear and doesn't specifically call out the ACH process. WF Recurring Bill Pay is a scheduled automatic withdraw - so this statement only signaled to us that if we were to pay off the loan we needed to contact WF to obtain an exact payoff amount and not rely on statements for loan balances. We would never have ever knowingly agreed to monthly ACH withdrawals from our checking account. Until XX/XX/2022 we were unaware that this was occurring. We never intended or included instructions to apply payments to principal. The original Loan Note states : When I make a prepayment, I will tell the Note Holder in writing that I am doing so. I may not designate a payment as Prepayment if I have not made all the monthly payments due under the note. '' We have indicated in writing on XX/XX/2022 that we want to have these 4 payments applied as prepayments - not applied as principal. We are continuing to ask that 4 payments be applied as prepayments to the next 4 monthly payments or returned to our checking account and the mortgage balance be recalculated and reamoritorized.