Consumer complaint received 2016-06-01
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: Stearns Ventures, LLC (WI)

I had a mortgage with Stearns Lending / XXXX. The principle borrowed was {$260000.00} and the interest rate was 4.125 %. The mortgage was effective beginning XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and XXXX 's interest was prepaid. Thus, interest to be paid within the mortgage payments began accruing XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. The amortization schedule provided by the lender shows that aproximately {$890.00} per month would be due in interest, as a component of a mortgage payment composed of interest, principle, and escrow, totaling {$1800.00} per month. The mortgage was refinanced on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX and the lender received the payoff check on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, which was in response to a " payoff quote '' from the lender that was valid through XXXX/XXXX/XXXX. 

Under these conditions, it seems that using rough calculations, the lender was due aprox. {$890.00} of interest for XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, plus 9 days in XXXX. This amounts to 6.3 months. {$890.00} x 6.3 = {$5600.00}. Using other online mortgage interest calculators, ( i.e. using 190 days as the loan period ), total interest would have come to {$5600.00}. Using either of these methods of calculating the total interest the lender had the authority to collect shows it was somewhere around {$5600.00}. However, the lender collected a total of $ {$6200.00} in interest. This appears to be a final calculation on their part because I have already received a refund check from the lender for the excess escrow balance. 

I believe that this error happened at least partially due to shoddy accounting on part of the lender. ( The lender mistakenly paid my taxes and insurance twice and had to correct this as well ). I received a call from the lender on aprox. XXXX/XXXX/XXXX indicating that the account was past due 30 days, when in fact, I had pre-paid the mortgage and the lender had been holding payments in a side account and was not applying them to the account as expected. The lender 's agent told me at that time that I was correct and that I could request that the account be looked at by a specialist for reapplication of the funds processed. The agent confirmed that the lender would not pursue negative credit bureau reporting and that no late fees would be charged. I alerted the agent that a re-fi was in process, to close on XXXX/XXXX/XXXX, and I requested that the lender continue with re-evaluating the account ( and sub account applications ) for accuracy. 

Despite the agent 's commitment to no negative reporting and no late fees ( because he agreed that I had prepaid the account and that the lender had just misapplied the funds due to computer program sweep procedures ), the lender has told me that they did in fact report to the credit bureau and that there was a {$30.00} late fee assessed. I also continued to receive collection calls despite being paid ahead and pending re-fi. 

I have spoken with the lender at least 6 times since XXXX/XXXX/XXXX pursuing obtaining a re-assessment of the account to verify accuracy, all via phone. Each time, they promised just a " 2-3 days '' to process. Mid-month, when no information had been received, I called again and the lender admitted that they disregarded my request because the loan was paid off. I re-requested the information. After no info received, on aprox. XXXX/XXXX/XXXX I submitted an online request for the interest calculations, explaining that I believed I had been overcharged interest. Their XXXX/XXXX/XXXX response was to email me a generic account listing, showing the amount charged, but no calculations as to how that amount was determined. So far, the lender has refused to provide documentation demonstrating how they calculated the interest they collected and I believe I was overcharged. I believe I am due a refund of aprox. {$630.00}. 

*Note that the re-fi ended up with the same lender, so there is now XXXX closed account and XXXX active new account.