Consumer complaint received 2022-04-07
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION (VT)

Mortgage was sold as of XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX Mortgage to Fifth-Third Bank ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). Mortgage payments were to be auto paid and set up for direct payment on the first of each month. In XXXX I paid for 2 months advance payment because I was told that Auto billpayer could take over 60 days to be set up. In XXXX the mortgage amount was deducted ( though I had advance paid it ) and I called and asked for this to be carried forward to XX/XX/XXXX payment. In XXXX, I received a notification that my mortgage amount would be increased to cover an arrearage in the escrow, which increased my mortgage payment by almost XXXX XXXX additional a month. I asked for them to explain how the arrearage happened in the escrow since it was sold to them just a short time ago -- and my previous mortgage holder had not mentioned any shortage. They had a hard time telling me where this additional XXXX XXXX a year was increased from -- -until I asked for all my old documents to be compared to the new documents and they realized my property tax was the increase. I asked for a new amortization because I had been paying additional amounts towards principle to close the loan even faster than the 15 year term. 

Fifth third assured me in XXXX that my Auto-bill would be increased to cover the additional payment from XXXX  $ to XXXX $ a month to cover the increase in the mortgage and escrow account. In XXXX, I saw the auto draft for XXXX XXXX and received a letter from them stating that the amount was short and therefore was not applied to my mortgage and a " nasty gram '' about how my mortgage would be delinquent and how this was a " serious matter ''. I called their customer service and lodged a complaint that this should have been handled in XXXX when I spoke to customer service about the need to increase the mortgage payment to cover the arrearage. And when I was assured by the service representative that my auto bill amount would be increased to cover this change and the new payment amount would be XXXX. To resolve the payment issue I paid Fifth Third the additional XXXX so that they would agree to apply the amount toward my mortgage and not show a " late fee '' on my credit score. 

It is now XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX my bank account was debited XXXX XXXX once again from Fifth Third bank ( which they assured me now twice would be changed to be XXXX ) Today on XX/XX/XXXX they auto billed again this time for the amount of XXXX -- so they once again double charged me in the same month for the same mortgage payment. I once again called customer service and they once again assured me that moving forward I would only have one debit coming out for the amount on XXXX. However, they have now put this account into an arrearage -- -- and they refused to contact the bank and inform them that this was their fault -- -and to wave the overdraft fee. They said I would need to call my bank -- but honestly -- -I am going to tell my bank that another bank made an error -- -and they are supposed to just take my word?? 

So now Fifth third has cost me actual money due to their neglectful and nasty business practices. I feel that they are purposefully creating a situation where my mortgage is going to be defaulted because they can not be trusted to follow through on their own service promises. They have owned my mortgage for only 5 months -- and every month have put me into a situation where I am scrambling to ensure that this payment is appropriately credited and applied. I should not have to chase my mortgage company into doing the right thing for a customer. Again -- the reason I have this set up through auto bill is to ENSURE that payments are always in full and on time. 

I would like fifth-third to be investigated to see how many other homeowners are experiencing these terrible practices.