Consumer complaint received 2016-01-29
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company (VA)

On XXXX/XXXX/2015 I received a letter that my mortgage was transferred from XXXX XXXX to Freedom Mortgage. At that time however, I had already sent the payment ( to XXXX ) on XXXX via USPS mail. On XXXX, I noticed that the check had not been processed yet. On XXXX, I called XXXX Mortgage, and they mentioned that they had not received the payment yet and the representative recommended me to ask my bank for a " replacement check ''. On XXXX, I received a letter from XXXX Mortgage confirming that the payment had not been received yet. On XXXX, I went to my bank and the manager suggested me to put a " stop payment '' on the original check and issue another one to XXXX. On XXXX, I called Freedom and a representative said the payment had been received. On XXXX, I received a letter from Freedom ( dated XXXX ), stating that a fee of {$30.00} would be assessed to my account due to insufficient funds ( " NSF '' ). On XXXX, I logged in to my bank account online, and verified that there was a " stop payment '' transaction for the same value of the original check, but also a successful transaction for the replacement check. On the same day, I called Freedom inquiring about the {$30.00} fee. The representative verified that they had received all due payments and my account had no balance. Nonetheless, their computer system showed a " NSF '' ( Insufficient Funds ) transaction. I told him that the " NSF '' was in reality a " Stop Payment '' transaction and explained the whole situation. We conference called a representative from my bank. She could identify the " Stop Payment '' transaction online, but was not able to find any " NSF '' transaction on my account. Unfortunately she could n't find an electronic copy of the " Stop Payment '' document, because it had been done in person, in a branch. At that point, I sent a copy of my original " Stop Payment '' document, signed by the branch manager, to the Freedom Mortgage representative. To my surprise, he said that the explanation I gave and the document I sent were not conclusive, and what really mattered was the " NSF '' captured by his system on a transaction with my bank. I asked him to show me documentation from his system proving that my bank actually issued an " NSF '' transaction instead of a " Stop Payment '' XXXX. He said it was not possible, and mentioned that his system would not display " NSF '' if it were not coming from my bank. Not coming to a consensus on the issue, he finally agreed that if I could prove from my bank that during the period that the " NSF '' transaction occurred, my bank account had more than enough funds to cover for the transaction, then he would wave the {$30.00} fee. 
On XXXX, I went back to the bank branch and explained the situation to them. They performed an in-depth analysis of my account and confirmed that my balance was never below the amount to cover ( by a large margin ) the value of my mortgage. They also confirmed that there was no way to possibly justify an NSF transaction, and that their records showed that the transaction was returned because of a " Stop Payment '' order. They printed and signed all documents supporting the case and I sent this documentation to Freedom Mortgage, as they had requested. 
Few days later, I received a letter from Freedom Mortgage acknowledging the receipt of my email and the documentation. They said they would analyze it. 
About a week ago, I received the invoice for my next mortgage payment from Freedom. To my surprise, they disregarded my explanations & documentation, and included the {$30.00} " NSF '' fee. 
Please help, as I did everything I could, to not only ( a ) avoid a fraud ( by requesting a " Stop Payment '' on the original check ), but also ( 2 ) issuing a replacement check and ( 3 ) providing sound documentation. 
I am attaching the letter I sent to Freedom Mortgage and the documentation from the bank.