Consumer complaint received 2020-07-15
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage — 
Company: Home Point Financial Corporation (UT)

On Monday XX/XX/XXXX, I called the mortgage company and explained that my new position had different pay dates and I would not have the funds to pay on the XXXX and asked what I could do. I was living paycheck to paycheck due to Covid pay reduction in my previous role. I have also had numerous expensive and mandatory repairs in my house in the last six months. 

They at first said that there was nothing that they could do. I had recently setup autopay because I didn't want late fees if I forgot to make a payment on payday which was the last day I could pay without it being late. 

Then on my own, I found the Covid forbearance and asked if I could do that. She never suggested it even when I told her I didn't know what to do and was trying to be proactive and that after the next month everything would be ok. I also explained that I didn't want to pay late or have a late fee. 

She said I could do this and asked how many months. I went with the fewest, which was two. She said I could make the payment back as soon as I had the funds or on a payment plan or at the end of my loan. I planned to pay it back this month or next. The agent who helped me promised me that I didn't have to cancel my autopay, that she had already taken care and put it on hold for XXXX and XXXX and it would automatically resume in XXXX. I asked her if she was sure as it was only a few days away. 

Then today, Wednesday the XXXX sure enough, they took the funds out. This then caused other debits to bounce and charger overdraft fees as well as putting me in a negative balance with NO money for food etc. for the next two days until I am paid. 
I spent an hour on the phone on Monday, then another two hours on the phone today, only to have to prove that the funds were removed and then to be told it would take 2-3 days before the funds would be refunded. This was an escalation and the 3rd person I spoke to who was supposed to be a supervisor/escalation person. I explained that the whole reason I had made the calls on Monday was to avoid this. She said there was nothing she could do. 

So, their agents are not trained with correct information ( and this is not the first time that I have been provided with incorrect information ). 
Additionally, I have asked in the past for my payment date to be moved to the XXXX as so many paydays were falling on weekends this year. As I get caught up with a new position this will not be such an issue but it has been an issue for me with this company and I have had late fees because of it. Which I never have with any other loan. 

Unfortunately, this loan was bought out by Homepoint from the original vendor and was not my choice of vendors. 

In addition to this, I received a letter from them telling me that they showed that my insurance policy was expiring and that if I didn't prove that I had coverage that they would provide me insurance at a higher cost. I had to sit on the phone 2x for over 20 minutes to reach an agent to prove I had coverage. I have had the same insurance company/agent and coverage since 1984. It's on auto-renew and auto-withdrawal and has been the same for the entire life of my loan ( 10 years in total, but not all with this mortgage company ). In those ten years, I have never had this happen. 

All in all they have cost me over four hours of my time this week to NOT get a resolution as well as bounced charge fees and impacting local small businesses where I used my card for food prior to knowing they had taken the mortgage out today. So, I also spent time calling the businesses and my credit union regarding the insufficient funds process. 

Also, their phone tree makes you put all of your info in and then the agent helping makes you repeat it all each time before helping, This is redundant and a waste of time. They are also not trustworthy and have not trained their agents. 
I canceled my forbearance and am now also canceling my autopay. 

Also, the website has caused me all sorts of issues in the past including making me reset my password, not letting me setup autopay until 10 days after the previous payment had processed etc. etc. 

The ONLY thing positive I can say is that they have waived a few late payments over the past year due to the way the mortgage dates hit along with paydates and financial issues.