Consumer complaint received 2025-08-15 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Payment process
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
b'This is the third complaint with the CFPB because the Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU) has repeatedly violated RESPA law and ignored our qualified written letters requesting information and addressing our disputes.  \nNFCU continues to cause our retirement into financial nightmare, and continues to harass us, sending unwarranted certified and uncertified letters (four to six per week, duplicates) to our home addresses and the XXXX  mailbox we have had on file with them since we opened our account.  THIS NEEDS TO STOP IMMEDIATELY! The only address we were getting our mail from the credit union in the past, was at the UPS mailbox and this should never have changed.  NFCU actions sending duplicate documents and three and four times to our home address is not professional, costly, and we consider this action retaliatory and vindictive.  Ever since we protested the forcing us into an escrow, filing complaints of senior/elder abuse,  our questioning why they chose to pay our property tax without contacting us with a telephone call, message, email, or mail specifically certified mail. We have received over XXXX  items XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX over the last XXXX XXXX.  What the Navy Federal Credit Union.  This matches what is described FRAUD and/or Scam used on elders and seniors (see below). The Navy Credit Union has never called us or left us a voice message and has ignored our request for a face-to-face meeting which HUD documents state we are entitled.  Their response in the second complaint is a total lie as they have never left messages or called us on our phones.  The Navy Federal Credit Union has a problem with communication.  We have never received an answer to the three certified letters we sent the credit union as a qualified written response required.  We are sending another certified letter qualified written response in a day or two to again ask the Navy Federal Credit Union what did they do with each payment we sent within the first four days of the last seven months and why is the payment coupon amounts for payment each month change and doesnt match either one of the two Escrow Analysis?  According to the statements the payment was applied to the loan but the dates dont match with the letters sent to us.   NFCU determined when it was to be applied.  We have paid each months payment within the first five days each month. The Navy Federal Credit Union appears to be taking different amounts of money out of each of our payments without our approval and applying it to, only NFCU knows, the statements are inconsistent.  According to Lawyers.com, the servicer responsibility: Collecting and Processing Your Payments states, The process is usually supposed to work like this: The borrower makes a monthly mortgage payment.  The servicer then applies the money to interest due, then principal due, and then escrow.  That is the way my wife and I understand it to be  and it has always worked that way for the past six houses we have financed and lived in.   That is not what NFCU is doing with our loan since they forced us to have an escrow account.  NFCU is quick to send us a certified letter on the 1st of each month telling us they did not receive our payment which causes our past good credit history to be less than desirable, affecting our ability to get an equity or personal financial loans.  We believe NFCU is doing this so we would only be able to get help from them seeing how they send the XXXX  page certified documents asking us to complete it for soliciting help from NFCU.  This is exactly what is described as elder or senior financial abuse (see attached) common abuses seniors face with financial institutions.  This is no different than someone attempting to take your home or keep asking for more and more money to cure the problem.  To the best of our knowledge, and for the pasXXXX XXXX XXXX we have been current and in fact according to the attached recent statement, it appears the escrow account has more than enough money in it for this time of the year to pay for the property tax.  My wife during her visit to the local credit union branch was able to speak through the branch representative to a mortgage representative and she stated she could not understand what was going on after printing out several months of statements. See her attached notesXXXXThe most current statement just received for XXXX  payment showed XXXX  for escrow balance.  That is more money collected than our entire taxes that are due through two installments for a year, which are approximately around XXXX   XXXXThe Navy Federal Credit Union caused this quagmire, and this is a great opportunity for government agencies to update their policies for financial institutions and credit unions for what a service company can and cannot do regarding forced place escrow!  Just because the homeowner(s) signed a Deed of Trust that says this gives the mortgage servicer the right to pay a homeowners taxes if they miss a payment.  How can a homeowner work with their property tax authority to seek discounts or other benefits when a financial institution pays the property tax without notifying you and you dont have any leverage to negotiate when the tax authority is closed accepting applications between XXXX  and XXXX.  Why was the credit union in such a hurry to pay our taxes without our knowledge?  In California, property is not foreclosed until the fifth year of delinquency, and they will contact you well before that ever happens and if necessary will contact the homeowner in person well before foreclosure in the fifth year.  We were in the middle working with the taxing authority for XXXX  California and we did not know that the credit union had paid our taxes until my wife had gone down to the tax office to submit our application. We see this as a financial scam and the credit union has disappointed us with everything they have done.  I would like to see the credit unions policy of financial, senior and elder abuse and what they have done to prevent this from happening.  The credit unions unwilling to correct their mistake and not send the certified letter requiring a signature or picking up a phone and calling my wife or I, has caused us grave concerns with our emotion, physical health, financial wellness and retirement opportunities.  Is this the way they treat all their members that are veterans; especially when whoever responded to previous complaints and represents the credit union has documented false information and cannot seem to correct the situation. XXXXForce-Placed EscrowXXXXThe mortgage servicer (NFCU) paid our California property XXXX installment taxes without our knowledge and made no attempt to contact us!  It was not until my wife attempted to work with the county tax assessor in XXXX  that we learned that the taxes had already been paid and we were ineligible to submit our application for senior discounts and deferrals. NFCU has a history of avoiding calling or returning any calls that they said they would.  The one time the NFCU representative did call me was on XXXX XXXX XXXX after we left a message on the credit unions electronic message board.  (see attached msgs)\nThis is a new type of scam where a financial institution, in this case, NFCU never tried to contact us regarding the second payment installment on our taxes not being paid on time.  This was our decision as we were working with the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  What was the urgency to pay our taxes that we had under control?   I am recommending to the CFBP in this complaint and in a separate cover, to change the wording in mortgage deeds of trust to clarify a better process for notifying mortgage loans include a time frame of at least a year or two before paying a persons property tax because in California, NFCUs decision to immediately pay the delayed taxes was not only a scam, fraud technique it caused us into a financial crisis we had not expected and the nightmare has continued for over seven months without the credit union ever calling or apologizing and never answering our three qualified written letters that were sent to the credit union (See attached)XXXXMy wife and I do not have an understanding on why NFCU is paying themselves with the escrow account first from our mortgage payments and then holding our loan payments in a suspense account causing us to pay junk fees and penalties and then showing our mortgage loan not paid.  NFCU then sends out a barrage of form letters and supports outdated government disclosure documents ranging from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX to our two addresses (house and UPS).  We have received over XXXX documents from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  (see attached picture) and just in XXXX  which we thought we were current we received another XXXX  documents and mortgage statements with different amounts due for the same month within two weeks (see attached).  Why did NFCU send out another escrow analysis in XXXX?  I paid the amount it said on XXXX XXXX, but that apparently wasnt enough.  Two letters to each of us were sent stating were behind again.  The NFCU is harassing us and threatening to take our house. This is all because NFCU made the decision to pay our property taxes without our permission because they said they could because we signed a deed of trust that states that.  NFCU does not appear to be a  honest credit union to do business with a history of questionable practices that have caused lawsuits to be filed and is in violation of the California State Law recording telephone conversations without consent. We believe the credit union does not have a policy for seniors to prevent financial scams.  What policies does the NFCU have that protect their members from excessive junk fees, financial scams moving money for loan payment around delaying payments that would normally be on time?  I called several mortgage servicing companies and asked them how they process the loan payments with an escrow account, and everyone stated the payment is applied to the loan first then to escrow portion.  If payments are short, the short is made up prior to using the escrow money account to pay the taxes. XXXX XXXX XXXX  Help Center:  Mistakes made by mortgage servicers can have a devastating impact on homeowners if they do not detect and address them. For example, a mortgage servicer may fail to properly process monthly payments by the homeowner and promptly credit them to the account. Under the prompt crediting rule, the servicer must credit your payment on the day that it receives the funds, with certain exceptions. A mortgage servicer also may fail to account for a grace period that it provided and inaccurately report a payment as late or missing to credit bureaus. This could result in major damage to your credit even if there were no foreclosure results.XXXXSometimes mortgage services engage in outright deceptions or abuse. They may improperly charge late fees to a homeowner, tack on inappropriate foreclosure costs, or impose other invalid fees related to a homeowner falling behind on payments or facing foreclosure. Even if the fee itself is legitimate, you may have grounds to challenge the amount of the fee if it is excessive.XXXXA mortgage servicers mistakes may be the basis of a defense to foreclosure.\nAnother type of problem is known as dual tracking. This involves the mortgage servicer ostensibly negotiating with the homeowner to modify their loan while also pursuing foreclosure. Dual tracking might result in a foreclosure taking effect before the loan modification application is complete. State laws often prohibit this practice altogether, and federal law restricts its application.  This appears to be the reason why every month, we receive XXXX XXXX XXXX certified and non-certified correspondence wanting our financial information and making statements that the credit union stated we missed a payment and wants to help us. XXXXWe did not want an escrow account and NFCU forced this upon us and made our lives very stressful and is attempting to cause us financial uncertainty with the excessive amounts of escrow, fees and junk fees illegally attached to our loan.  We have called and spoken with NFCU representatives several times upon getting egregious letters threatening some inappropriate action, more financial unrest and possible foreclosure.  We have asked to meet with a mortgage person to explain and make some sense of what the credit union has started.  NFCU lied on a government document when they stated they called and left us messages, which is not true!\nWe insist that NFCU admit the mistakes that was made, correct the records, reverse the forced escrow account decision, and apologize for making our lives unnecessarily miserable.  Reimburse us for all the fees and penalties NFCU added to our account, close the escrow account and return all our escrow money with interest and stop harassing us with lies and deceptions, constant deluge of threats of intervention, foreclosure and wanting to help us.'

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation