Consumer complaint received 2025-11-18 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Fees charged
Company: M&T BANK CORPORATION
State: MO

Complaint narrative:
To whom it may concern : M & T Bank is a predatory company. They are preying on a XXXX veteran and trying to force me into foreclosure, presumably to take advantage of my VA guarantees afforded through the VA home loan. They seem to be doing every underhanded thing they can to push me into foreclosure.

A few months ago my mortgage was being serviced by XXXX XXXX XXXX  ( XXXX ). An escrow analysis was done and somehow my escrow went up about $ XXXX increasing my payment from around $ XXXX to over $ XXXX. Very close to the same time that my payment went up drastically ( on a fixed rate mortgage ) my mortgage was transferred without my knowledge or consent to M & T bank. The payment increase, the transfer, and the payment in question all happened so close to each other I am not sure in what order they happened. The muddiness of the situation feels intentional. 

I was already having trouble affording the $ XXXX on my fixed VA XXXX XXXX ; I cant work due to my XXXX. The first month that my payment jumped to $ XXXX I was having some financial trouble and my wifes church was gracious enough to cover the mortgage that month. They paid by check directly to the bank. I gave the church the paperwork I had at the time which showed the $ XXXX payment owed to XXXX which XXXX what was paid by check. Little did we know that now, apparently, my payment was over $ XXXX and was being serviced now by M & T bank XXXX The {$1600.00} check wouldnt cover the surprise new payment and on top of that I had a roughly {$400.00} taken from the {$1600.00} paid by check to cover escrow backpay. This left roughly {$1200.00} which obviously would not cover the now over {$1800.00} mortgage payment. But instead of applying that remaining {$1200.00} to the balance owed XXXX decided to put it in escrow until a full payment could be made only to promptly transfer the mortgage to M & T bank. They didnt feel the need to tell me this though. I only found this out when at the beginning of the month, only a few days after that months payment was due and still within the 15 day grace period, I got a letter from M & T bank telling me that my mortgage was in default and at risk of foreclosure.

Im in shock because I thought we were only one payment behind and within the grace period for the current payment which I was going to pay without problem within the 15 day grace period. So I immediately confirmed with XXXX that my mortgage was transferred to M & T and then call M & T to find out whats going on. When I called to find out what was going on only then did I find out that the payment the church made was not applied to the mortgage, {$400.00} of it was gone, and {$1200.00} of it was being held in escrow until a full payment of over {$1800.00} could be made ( while they obviously collect interest on the {$1200.00} in escrow ). Due to the transfer I assume this is an honest mix up so I offer to pay the {$600.00} needed to complete the first payment on top of making a second payment for the new month thus getting me back to only one payment behind. This is when they tell me that since I am now magically three months behind on my mortgage and in default I can no longer make a single payment.

M & T Bank tells me that the only way to make a payment on my mortgage now that it is in default is to make two full payments in a single payment. This by itself seems extremely predatory. If nothing else it makes it take longer to make the payment while getting funds together thus allowing M & T to charge a late-fee, and thats even if you can afford to make two payments at once. Why cant we just make a single payment to get out of foreclosure? This is on obvious ploy to push people on the edge into foreclosure.

Luckily for me though, I have the money to make two payments at once. So I ignore the obvious predatory behavior and simply tell them that with the {$1200.00} theyre holding in escrow I can absolutely complete that payment and make another full payment thus equaling the required two full payments. This is when they tell me that, again, since my mortgage is now magically in default, they refuse to release any money from escrow. I tried desperately to explain to multiple representatives that if you release the {$1200.00} youre holding in escrow then I will have enough money to make their predatory double payment and get out of default. But because my mortgage is magically in default now that money is going nowhere. They refuse to release a dime from escrow while the mortgage is in default. They even gave me some kind of tiered system where two full payments will get the mortgage out of default but since it was in default they still wont release any money from escrow until the account is caught up in full, meaning three full payments. Until the loan is caught up entirely they will not release any of my money from escrow and are obviously collecting interest on that money while charging me late fees for missed payments, which wouldnt be missed if the money were released from escrow. All Im able to do is make two full payments to get the mortgage out of default. I didnt have enough to make three full payments which means my {$1200.00} is still sitting in escrow to this day.

The VA considers me 100 % Permanently and Totally XXXX. I am unable to work and live on a fixed income that barely covers my bills. With {$1200.00} of my fixed income being held hostage until I make a full payment of over {$5000.00} getting, caught up on my mortgage is not very likely. Meanwhile Im still getting charged late fees for missed payments and theyre still making interest on my {$1200.00} in escrow. That {$1200.00} dollars of my money that has been sitting in escrow and collecting interest for about six months now.

We are in the process of trying to sell the house now, for obvious reasons, which had me looking into the property taxes for my home. They were surprisingly low and nowhere close to high enough to reflect a $ XXXX increase. So I took a closer look at my mortgage statement and apparently the only reason my mortgage went up so much in the first place is because at the same time that the mortgage went up from the escrow analysis ( around $ XXXX to cover tax and insurance increases ) a fee was attached to my mortgage payment. This fee is literally just listed as Other. There is absolutely no documentation or explanation as to what Other means but Im paying $ XXXX for this fee. 

That Other fee is the only reason my mortgage went up $ XXXX which is what triggered all of these events in the first place. Taxes and insurance only went up about $ XXXX which is not a problem for me to handle. But a $ XXXX increase though is a problem on my fixed income. I cant afford that overnight. It turns out that {$180.00} dollars of this roughly $ XXXX increase was just because of Other fees. There was absolutely no information about this fee anywhere that I could find and it definitely wasnt the late fees since they were listed separately in another line item. 

My wife called M & T bank yesterday to inquire about the Other fee. The representative on the phone couldnt even find out what that fee was for. He also noticed that it was separate from the late fees which were listed separately but told us he had no clue what the Other fee was actually for. Since he didnt know what it was for he couldnt remove it or do anything about it. This is the bank that is charging the fee that she was speaking to but the representative from the bank doesnt even know what the fee is for and cant take it off. Where do I go from there?! 

With a $ XXXX decrease on my monthly mortgage payment plus my {$1200.00} theyre holding in escrow and a full refund of every dime Ive paid for this absurd Other fee XXXX be able to get completely caught up on my mortgage with no problem and should have no problem making future payments. But because of these obviously predatory practices that M & T Bank is performing at every turn my mortgage is again in default and I am at risk of becoming homeless. 
Apparently M & T Bank has a long history of fraud and deceptive financial practices as can be seen here : https : //violationtracker.goodjobsfirst.org/parent/m-and-t-bank. Even more importantly is the fact that M & T Bank just recently settled a class action lawsuit revolving around charging their clients fraudulent fees XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Now here I am on the verge of foreclosure because M & T Bank is charging me fraudulent fees. Obviously they could not care less about not only the laws they are breaking but the human beings that they are defrauding. I am on the verge of losing my home because M & T Bank wants to AGAIN charge their clients fraudulent fees and even in my case withhold my own money thus forcing me into default. On top of the multiple fees and interest collected through this fraudulent activity M & T has even greater motive to push me into foreclosure since my mortgage is backed by the XXXX And after M & T makes money from defrauding me and foreclosing on my home I will be left homeless, XXXX, and on a fixed income with extremely poor credit and not a dime to my name. I have no family to speak of. I will end up homeless. 

THIS is why 1 in every ten homeless people is a veteran that served this country!

THIS is why 22 ( yes 22! ) veterans kill themselves every single DAY! 

WHY is this company allowed to continue to exist when it has a strong history of defrauding its clients even after recently settling a class action lawsuit for defrauding its clients? M & T Bank has factually demonstrated that they will never stop defrauding their clients. These people act with impunity and the country I served in the War on Terror just lets them! Why are they allowed to exist as a bank in this country? And on a personal level why is this habitually predatory company allowed to finance VA home loans?? Companies like this are a big reason this country has a massive amount of homeless veterans and allowing them anywhere near VA guaranteed home loans is only adding fuel to the fire. They dont care if we end up homeless as long as their losses are covered and they make money. 

Will my country help me in my time of need like I helped my country in theirs?

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