Consumer complaint received 2025-03-11 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Escrow, taxes, or insurance
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: OH

Complaint narrative:
Logged into to make a payment and it said effective XX/XX/XXXX payment is going up. I freaked out and went on a search for why and found out that they charged me for a XXXX XXXX XXXX {$400.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, and an additional mortgage insurance payment {$1500.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. I didn't know our original insurance company that I had for the last 7+ years dropped us out of the blue. When I realized I immediately reached out to our broker and asked for help. They hooked us up XX/XX/XXXX with a new insurance company who sent over all the information to our mortgage company. The downside it wasn't effect until XX/XX/XXXX and I thought all was well until I logged into make our XXXX payment.. I called Freedom Mortgage and they explained they took the money out of escrow and now that it's short I need to pay a minimum of {$1300.00} or the monthly mortgage payment will go up. 

Yes its my fault that the lapse happened not denying that. I work XXXX jobs to afford this house, I always make the payment and I have spent most the rest of my free time at the hospital for my mother so I had been behind on opening mail. Not once did they send a secure message to advise this change, nor did they call and say they needed to speak with me in regards to this matter. I did ensure to obtain adequate mortgage insurance as soon as I realized what happened. I'm upset that they still submitted the charged after the fact insurance was in effect and they refuse to reimburse for the costs..even if it's not the full cost. Like I said I understand it's my fault this is my first time dropping the ball, I have a great track record for making timely payment and carrying insurance. I feel its wrong to be treated as such. I feel its wrong that the mortgage company put little to no effort in contacting me to make this right... and I feel it's wrong that they can just take whatever they want from my escrow account to cause it to go negative and then up my payment to the point that I could lose my house.. it feels like theft. I told all of this to the agents on the phone mind you it was an hour phone call and they tried to drop the call twice by putting me on hold for 15 + minutes. The first time i thought maybe it was by mistake the second time not so much, It took me through the prompts twice. The last guy I spoke with basically said sorry nothing they can do. Insurance lapsed, they took what they wanted from escrow and now you need to pay escrow back. I said even though I showed proof of insurance granted it was effective XX/XX/XXXX but you guys took out the payments XX/XX/XXXX & XX/XX/XXXX it doesn't make sense that it's after the fact. I feel as a one time courtsey you could at least return some of that money to escrow. He basically laughed said no they won't do that. I requested to speak with manager or someone on the matter but he said they were gone for today and I'd have to call back.

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