Consumer complaint received 2024-01-20 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
When I started my mortgage in XX/XX/XXXX, my monthly mortgage was {$2000.00}. After XXXX year, in XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from Wells Fargo called an Escrow Review Statement. The escrow review statement is something I am familiar with because we received XXXX on our last house/mortgage when the property taxes went up. Basically, because the property taxes went up, our escrow account had a shortage, so we received the letter ( on our last mortgage with XXXX ) and the letter said to pay the escrow shortage amount or the mortgage will go up, so we paid the shortage to keep our monthly mortgage the same. The Escrow Review statement from Wells Fargo in XX/XX/XXXX on our new home and current mortgage was similar, but it stated that we had an escrow shortage of {$1400.00} and if we paid the shortage, our mortgage would still go up to {$2100.00}. I've tried to get Wells Fargo to explain this to me but I either get transferred or hung up on. All other mortgages i've had when you pay the escrow shortage, the mortgage doesn't increase. Did they not give me the correct amount of escrow shortage on purpose so that my mortgage would go up and I could basically give them an interest free loan by increasing my escrow account. My property taxes from XXXX to XXXX went up by 38 % and it seems like Wells Fargo is predicting that my property taxes are going to increase in XXXX by the same percentage and is increasing my monthly escrow payment due to their prediction/projection for XXXX. 

Around the time I was investigating and researching this Escrow Review Statement, I started looking into how my payments were applied just out of curiosity. My previous mortgage matched my amortization schedule down to the XXXX. According to my amortization schedule for my current mortgage with Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo is misapplying my principal payment by shorting it by an average of {$0.00} per month and misapplying the interest payment to themselves by overpaying themselves by an average of {$1.00} in interest per month. In XX/XX/XXXX, my principal balance was shorted by {$0.00}, also in XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX my principal balance was shorted by {$0.00}. XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX my principal balance was shorted by {$0.00}. XX/XX/XXXX it was shorted by {$0.00} and {$0.00} in XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX around the time the Escrow Review Statement came out, my principal balance was shorted by {$4.00} per month. {$0.00} in XX/XX/XXXX, {$1.00} in XX/XX/XXXX, and {$0.00} again this month XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, Wells Fargo overpaid themselves in interest by {$1.00}. They overpaid themselves in interest again in XX/XX/XXXX by {$1.00}. XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX they overpaid themselves by {$1.00} per month. In XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, they overpaid themselves in interest by {$1.00}. In XX/XX/XXXX, they overpaid themselves in interest by {$1.00}. In XX/XX/XXXX, they overpaid themselves in interest by {$1.00}. In XXXX & XX/XX/XXXX they overpaid themselves by {$1.00} in interest. In XX/XX/XXXX, they overpaid themselves by {$2.00} in interest, and finally this month, XX/XX/XXXX, they overpaid themselves by {$1.00} in interest. This is causing me to overpay in interest and pay down my principal balance slower than what should be. This seems to be systemic and I wonder how many people they are doing this to. My loan began in XX/XX/XXXX and I have a 5.375 % rate and an initial mortgage balance of {$300000.00}

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation