Consumer complaint received 2024-11-17 00:00:00
Product: Mortgage — Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Interest rate
Company: Shellpoint Partners, LLC
State: PA

Complaint narrative:
We are writing to formally dispute the erroneous interest rate applied to our Home Equity Line of Credit ( HELOC ) account that was transferred to Shellpoint, a Division of Newrez from XXXX XXXX XXXX on or about XXXX XXXX, XXXX. As a direct result of the incorrect interest rate being applied to our HELOC account, our monthly payments predicated on a FIXED 4.25 % XXXX no longer cover the monthly interest at the incorrectly applied VARIABLE 9.75 % XXXX and our payments are not being applied to our account. This has resulted in excess erroneous interest charges accumulating on our account, and the HELOC being placed in a suspended status. This constitutes predatory lending practices and should be fully investigated by Federal Regulatory authorities. 

Per the terms and conditions of the Annual Percentage Rate on the mutually signed HELOC closing documents with our loan originator ( Spring EQ, dated XXXX XXXX, XXXX ), this HELOC has a discounted interest rate of 4.250 % XXXX fixed until XXXX XXXX, XXXX and is not subject to variable rate interest charges until the expiration of the discount period. Page XXXX of XXXX of the original closing document reflects this in section 8 ( Annual Percentage Rate APR ) : The initial APR is 4.250 %. This initial rate reflects a discount from the Variable Rate section formula used for later rate adjustments. This initial periodic rate will be used to calculate Finance Charges. This XXXX includes interest and no other costs. The discount will remain in effect until XX/XX/XXXX. After that time, the rates will be subject to further adjustments and limitation and produce the effects described in the Variable Rate section. 

When the loan originally transferred to Shellpoint, the interest rate was correctly applied at 4.25 % as reflected on Shellpoint monthly statement effective XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ( enclosed ). As of XXXX date XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, Shellpoint erroneously modified the interest rate to variable XXXX  of 9.75 %. 

Prior to this letter, we have made at least XXXX ( XXXX ) formal attempts to resolve this matter by contacting Shellpoints Customer Care line, to include multiple requests for escalation to management / supervisory personnel. Customer service agents have indicated that this issue has been escalated and at least XXXX agents have noted verbally during these calls the interest rate should be fixed at 4.25 %, but they did not have the authority to adjust the rate. All attempts to resolve this issue are detailed below. 

To date, Shellpoint has provided no official response to our repeated requests for remediation, nor have they made any good faith effort to correct their deficiency in applying the correct interest rate to our HELOC account per the contractual terms of our HELOC agreement. In fact, it appears Shellpoint has intentionally made this process excessively difficult and continue to move the goal posts on the process. Our correspondence via the Web Portal remains unanswered and unresolved. 

Detailed Timeline to Resolve this dispute with Shellpoint : XX/XX/XXXX : Initial call to Shellpoint Customer Care Line to dispute incorrect interest rate and to file an official help ticket XX/XX/XXXX : Follow up call to Shellpoint Customer Care Line no update from agent could be provided XX/XX/XXXX : Escalation Phone call to Shellpoint Customer Care Line. Spoke to XXXX, who acknowledged the 4.25 % APR was noted in XXXX of the original loan documents but that she could not change the XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX  Escalation Phone Call attempted with no resolution. We made extra payments to minimize impact of erroneous variable interest rate while Shellpoint back office personnel resolve issue. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Web Portal Correspondence requesting resolution of incorrect interest rate. 
XX/XX/XXXX : XXXX  Escalation Phone Call. Agent confirmed receipt of Web Portal correspondence. Indicated we would hear back soon. 
XX/XX/XXXX : With no resolution to date, we are submitting this Registered Mail Correspondence, and have separately initiated a formal complaint process via Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( XXXX ). 

Feel free to contact us at the phone number below if you have any questions. Thank you in advance for your time and attention to this matter. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX

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