Consumer complaint received 2018-02-01
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: SANTANDER BANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (MA)

XX/XX/XXXX Santander Bank, who holds our mortgage and we have an escrow account with stated they are refusing to give us even nominal interest on our escrow account. We started looking closer and saw a disbursement for our taxes of {$960.00} which was for 4th quarter and legitimate. Soon after new got a notice from them that they were raising our escrow by almost $ 100.oo per month starting in XX/XX/XXXX We called and questioned, since this was wrong. They have been taking approx $ 350/mo for taxes and insurance previous. They overpaid last year on our HO policy, and they have not been taking into consideration our abatements, which went up this year by {$300.00}. We stated that at best, they would only need to increase by {$25.00} or so. They stated that they wanted a ( quote ) {$750.00} XXXX XXXX! I told them that XXXX XXXX   is disgusting, and that I would not give them any additional $ since the refused to give me interest on the $ 4K plus they use of my money yearly. Looking closer, I now found that they took an additional {$580.00} from my escrow taxes for, what they claim, is for ( quote ) Unpaid XX/XX/XXXXtaxes that were due. Since I did not owe anyXX/XX/XXXX taxes, I called my town to find out that they never received this payment from the bank, nor was it tendered to my account. they also stated that they never sent them a bill, and no taxes were due, and there were no arrears. I talked to the bank several times and they kept insisting that my town sent them a bill for back taxes and they only pay bills they get and that this was right. I demanded that they stop paying my escrow, and that I will no longer give them anything but my principal and interest payments. I also contacted my insurance company and pulled the sending of my HO bill to the bank. This alone would result in about {$65.00} less in escrow a month. I got nowhere with the bank, and I send them a certified letter stating what I stated above. They went ahead and paid myXX/XX/XXXX tax bill without my ok, after I told them not to. They then sent me a form demanding that I pay them {$270.00} to stop the escrow! So, here we are, 3 months later, they hav still not resolved this issue. I sent them an email to the customer service person who is supposedly handling this, XXXX XXXX, stating that they had until close of business on XXXX XXXX XXXX  to straighten this out or I would take legal action. I also stated they need to return the {$580.00}. XXXX  that I wanted the legal interest the state of Mass says I am entitled to on it ( 12 % ), that I wanted to cancel the escrow and that they would do so without fees, and I wanted compensation for their fraudulent actions. All I got was a phone call form some guy named " XXXX '' who said they were 'working on it ' and that they would get back to me within '7 to 10 business days '. I told them it was unacceptable. He stated that as a courtesy, the bank would allow me to pay the previous escrow amount in myXX/XX/XXXXmortgage payment. I told him that I was not giving them a penny more in escrow, and would only pay principal and interest for XX/XX/XXXX. This bank has committee fraud, they have lied to me ( previous CS person, XXXX told us that the reason we have the escrow was because they gave us a 'better rate ' on the loan if we had escrow - which is a lie - and then they changed the word to 'risk ' from rate and then changed the story to they have escrow because it is a risk to them. ). Santander bank is very un customer friendly, and seem to do whatever they can to nickel and dime the customer. If I could get rid of them as my mortgage holder, I would iid a heartbeat. I have spent at least 30 or more hours on this problem, not to mention the stress and low of sleep to try to straighten it out. Santander bank itself makes me ill. I have spent another 40 plus hours trying to find some other bank to finance our home to get rid of them. I have been told that the reason they won't take it is because when we rewrote the loan under the government home affordable program, they put us into a 4 year mortgage! We were NOT told this! One bank stated that Santander could be guilty of predatory lending. Santander is currently charging me 4.875 on the note, and have been for two years, which is FAR above the going rate and has been for some time. They have been ripping us off right and left.