Consumer complaint received 2017-06-24
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (PA)

Although our mortgage is paid through our bank 's auto bill payer and our payment has never been late, for the last 7 months Freedom Mortgage has been misapplying our payment, charging us late fees, and reporting us as delinquent to credit agencies. As I will detail below, we have tried to resolve these issues through numerous phone calls and letters. No one has been able to solve our problem, our payments are not being tracked appropriately, and the customer service department seems unable to effectively communicate with their billing department. Furthermore, the records they provide us give inconsistent information about how they are applying our funds. <P/>Our problems began when our mortgage payment, due by XX/XX/XXXX, was increased by {$29.00} and we were not aware. When we made our XX/XX/XXXX payment on XX/XX/XXXX in the old amount, no one notified us of the shortfall. Freedom mortgage claims they called to notify me of the shortfall, but I have no record of a call or a voicemail. Our XX/XX/XXXX payment was applied to the principal, interest, and escrow, appropriately, even though there was a shortfall. In XX/XX/XXXX, we were still not aware of the increase, so our payment was again short. Freedom mortgage took {$99.00} in a late fee from our payment ( even though we had paid 99 % of our XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX mortgage payments on time ). Freedom mortgage took the remainder of our XX/XX/XXXX payment and paid it to the principal of our loan, which made their records look like we never made a XX/XX/XXXX payment. I still received no notification of the error from Freedom Mortgage. In XX/XX/XXXX, the shortfall happened again, but I became aware of the issue when I opened a mortgage statement and saw that what they stated we owed was more than double what it should be. <P/>I called Freedom Mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to a manager named XXXX ( # XXXX ). I told her I was going to correct our payment amount and send {$88.00} for the {$29.00} we were short for XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. She assured me those funds would be applied correctly and the late fees would be  reimbursed, so that our account would show current. On XX/XX/XXXX {$88.00} was paid to Freedom Mortgage to bring our account current and from XX/XX/XXXX to the present time our payment has been in the correct amount. What XXXX told me would happen, did not happen. The late fees were not reimbursed and the {$88.00} was placed in unapplied funds. I called Freedom Mortgage again on XX/XX/XXXX. Our XX/XX/XXXX payment and the {$88.00} was not applied correctly until XX/XX/XXXX. At this point, the late fees were still not reimbursed. At some point in XX/XX/XXXX ( which we did not discover until XX/XX/XXXX ), Freedom Mortgage reported us as delinquent to the credit agencies. <P/>Because the late fees had not yet been reimbursed ( as promised in XX/XX/XXXX ), when we sent our XX/XX/XXXX payment, they deducted {$190.00} in late fees, making our mortgage payment short again. They then took the {$2600.00} of our payment that remained and applied it to the principal of the loan, making it seem like we did not make our XX/XX/XXXX payment. On XX/XX/XXXX I sent a written complaint about the misapplied funds and received a phone call from a supervisor named XXXX at Freedom Mortgage, that " everything had been fixed. '' I was told we would receive a written answer to our complaint, but we did not receive a written answer until my husband called Freedom Mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX and they emailed him a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX. The letter states that Freedom Mortgage reimbursed us for the late fees, sent a letter to the credit agencies saying the delinquent notice was in error, and fixed our problem. This letter is factually incorrect in that they had not fixed our problem. They did not thoroughly review our account because at the time of writing their letter, our records showed that in XX/XX/XXXX, Freedom Mortgage took our XX/XX/XXXX payment, deducted late fees that we were supposed to have been reimbursed for in XX/XX/XXXX and applied the balance to the principal, leaving our account showing that we did not make a payment in XX/XX/XXXX! How is it possible that in reviewing our account in XX/XX/XXXX, they did not see this error from XX/XX/XXXX? <P/>Please note that our XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX payments have been applied correctly, but our XX/XX/XXXX statement incorrectly states that in XX/XX/XXXX we owe a {$99.00} late fee and that we are a payment behind. Also concerning, is that Freedom Mortgage most likely erroneously sent another delinquency letter to the credit agencies regarding our account. <P/>We spoke to XXXX again on XX/XX/XXXX and she was completely unaware of the misapplied XX/XX/XXXXpayment stating that her records showed we were current, but had n't made our XX/XX/XXXX payment yet? We made our XX/XX/XXXX payment on XX/XX/XXXX. After hours of examining two different inconsistent payment records from Freedom Mortgage, on XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered the misapplied XX/XX/XXXX payment. My husband and I are applauded at Freedom Mortgage 's policies and their ability to not only understand, but to track how they are applying customers ' payments. In our case, I believe it has reached gross negligence levels and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau should be very concerned for other mortgage holders dealing with this company. Please help us solve this problem and hold Freedom Mortgage accountable for their negligence.