Consumer complaint received 2026-04-01 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Fees charged
Company: Freedom Mortgage Company
State: FL

Complaint narrative:
My lender set up my autopay to withdraw on a XXXX schedule in XXXX. Several years ago ( at least as of XX/XX/XXXX ) I noticed late fees on my mortgage statements. I called initially and was told it was a clerical issue, that the statements were being printed and mailed before my second payment was reaching my account ( at the end of the grace period ). Because of this conversation, and because no late fees were being withdrawn from my bank account, and because I was signed up for autopay through Freedom Mortgages system, I trusted the late fees on my statements were small clerical errors based on the information I was provided by the company. Recently, I had to pull my most recent statement to apply for a new loan and I discovered even higher late fees ( from {$30.00} to now {$200.00} ) showing as unpaid, and so I jumped through the hoops to reach someone on the phone. I was told by the first agent that my payments were arriving to them on the XXXX and XXXX of every month, but that the grace period ends after the XXXX. I asked how its possible that their autopay is set up to receive my second payment outside of their window and was told this is the policy. I requested to be sent to that agents supervisor and was escalated accordingly. The supervisor explained that they could see my regular payments going back 36 months, and that all of my statements still held late fees. I explained my initial phone call to her, and she continued to search for the source of the initial late fees, but was unable to retrieve the starting point due to limitations on their internal system. Because none of the late fees were reported as paid, she only waived all late fees from my account ( no refund was necessary ). She stated that this is not supposed to happen but that the system glitched during XXXX of the payment periods ( though she was unable to specify due to the 36 month limitation of their system ) and the late fees began accruing from there, despite my autopay being on their bi-weekly schedule. She encouraged me to monitor my account at all times ( which, I do, but I have been trusting it was a clerical printing error for years, since that is what I was told ). I was also encouraged to switch my XXXX payment to semi-monthly, but when I reviewed the date options for twice a month payments, I saw there is no limitation to a XXXX window. For example, if I select the XXXX of the month as my first payment, I am allowed to select any day up to the XXXX. This falls outside of the XXXX grace period I was described, and there is no warning regarding the grace period if I select the XXXX and the XXXX. I also reviewed the bi-weekly payment plan and noted that it does limit selections to within the grace period, which does not clarify why my payments set up as bi-weekly were being received outside of that window. Although my past issue has been resolved at this time ( late fees waived ), I am unsatisfied with the lack of options or clarity to prevent future errors. I also wanted to report this incident because others may have the same glitch but choose to make independent late fee payments that they do not actually owe. Customers should not incur late fees as a result of using a lender-provided autopay system as configured.

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