Date Received: 2023-02-25
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Since last year, I have been trying to get the PMI removed from our loan. This was in process when we got switched to a new servicer, Freedom Mortgage. We made additional principal payments to bring our balance down to approximately 79 % of the original purchase price and sent multiple messages to Freedom Mortgage requesting in writing that the PMI be removed as required by the Homeowners Protection Act. They replied that we would still need a Brokers price option per investor guidelines and sent us a letter instructing us to pay {$100.00} to remove the PMI. This is despite the fact that home values in our neighborhood have risen considerably and our loan amount is less than 80 % of the original purchase price.
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: MO
Zip: 63129
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-24
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I keep receiving calls at XXXX to collect payment on my mortgage. My wife and I both work and have a child who sleeps very lightly and is awoken when these calls come in. We have never missed a mortgage payment past its 30 day due date but are harassed as if we are delinquents.
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: CA
Zip: 92806
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-24
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: My mortgage was recently transferred to Freedom Mortgage Company from XXXX, the PMI had been removed last year when my loan dropped below the 78 percent mark. Freedom Mortgage added the PMI back to my loan even through it was at the 75 percent loan to value ratio and refuses to return the money that they erroneously charged me for the past three months. This should not have happened since PMI automatically cancels at 78 percent under the Homeowner 's Protection Act of 1998. I have contacted them multiple times to try and resolve the issue to no avail.
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: TX
Zip: 75071
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-24
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I have been struggling financially for about a year now and my mortgage company offered to put in a forbearance program that would suspend my mortgage payments for 6 months with further consideration after the 6 month period is over. They said they don't report late payments to the credit bureaus during the 6 month forbearance period and I can either make a payment or not. Its meant to give me some time to get back on my feet. However, they have been sending me letters that my payments are missed and that I owe them 2 months of mortgage payments. They even sent registered letters. I have called the customer service people 3 times and they assure me that the paperwork sent to me is a formality, however, I'm not so sure. It looks like on paper that they are setting up a case for foreclosing on my home while claiming over the phone that I can miss payments while claiming on paper that I'm in default. Its very confusing and I feel like I'm being set up to lose my home and they are misleading me intentionally. I don't know what to do. I can't make up the two back payments in one lump sum right now and I'm worried that they are preparing to foreclose while telling me everything is still ok. It looks like my only option is to sell my home but in Colorado, there's nowhere to go. My mortgage payment is lower than the average rent for an apartment and I can't qualify to buy a home because I'm priced out of the market. Is there anything you can do?
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: CO
Zip: 80013
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-25
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: I am a customer of Freedom Mortgage company, who acquired from XXXX XXXX in mid-XXXX, where my original loan servicing was through. I pay my mortgage in advance, and for several months now, Freedom Mortgage has incorrectly processed and improperly applied my pre-payments to the correct months they are due, as well as improperly applying additional principal and escrow pre-payments. They are not applying my additional principal correctly and continue to show contradictory information ( i.e. a payment due date online doesn't match the due dates on paper statements I am mailed and doesn't match the due date a representative gives me over the phone ). Currently, this company verbally said my next payment is due in XX/XX/XXXX. My paper statement shows XX/XX/XXXX. My records ( and reconciling bank statements ) show my next mortgage payment is due in XX/XX/XXXX In addition, Freedom Mortgage only allows me to make these pre-payments 'over the phone '. Also, they do not have the capability to mail or email me a receipt of my payments once this is made. This seems ridiculous and outdated. When I finally was able to get a receipt after multiple attempts, the company could not provide a breakdown of what monies went toward the current payment, what monies went to additional principal, and what monies went to additional escrow - only a lump sum payment. And because I am not able to pay this payment online through their portal ( ex : early payments made a month or more before their due date can't be made online ), when I call in over the phone I have to explain what's going on with my account every single time I call in. Each time, I speak with someone new, and each time that person tells me something different they see on my account from the last time I called in. Despite these efforts to call in, explain the situation, escalate to a supervisor to correct, the payments continue to be misapplied. I feel as if I'm being penalized for paying early. When I've tried to call and contact Freedom Mortgage to correct these errors, with at least four attempts now since XX/XX/XXXX, I get a different response from the company representative that I'm speaking with. I've used their online message center, which does not allowing for external emailing. Today, I received another incorrect mailed notice that extra monies I have been paying toward principal are now being placed in a 'suspense ' account because Freedom Mortgage is trying to applying them towards a mortgage payment ; these monies are additional principal! Because these are also not being properly applied, that means additional interest monies continue to accrue. I have now requested copies of the audio recordings they make during these calls to ensure they are recording properly how I'd like these payments applied. However, I was denied and a subpoena was suggested. In addition, because Freedom Mortgage is incorrectly applying payments, they adjust and readjust my mortgage balance due. When they increase, decrease, and then increase the mortgage balance, my credit score is adversely affected. When checking my credit report, my available line of credit constantly fluctuates based on their adjustments. This drives down a credit score. I have tried without resolve to get this company to correct their errors ; I'm at my wits end and feel stuck with them because I have no other option since my original mortgage lender sold this mortgage servicing off and now it's been acquired by a different company. I am forced to use Freedom Mortgage for servicing, but this has been a nightmare. Should I be able to choose, I would use a different company ASAP. My home is my largest investment, and they continue to mishandle my payments on that investment. It's extremely discouraging and time consuming to continue to go through this debacle on a reoccurring and monthly basis. Please, please, please help!
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: MS
Zip: 39564
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-25
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-23
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: My mortgage company received funding from the Homeowners Assistance Fund on my behalf in XX/XX/XXXX. ILHAF paid all money in the rear {$11000.00} plus 3 future payments totaling {$2700.00}. My mortgage company applied the payments incorrectly to my loan therefore causing a lot of issues for me. It has been a headache, time and energy wasted trying to get them to correct this issue. I called in XXXX and sent them a written request on XX/XX/XXXX regarding my payments being applied incorrectly. All the back payments and future payments sent by ILHAF were applied to the 1098 tax year XXXX, which should not have been. Two of the payments should have been applied to XXXX tax 1098. My mortgage payment are XXXX and has been for over 16 years. I have a conventional loan so the amount should not have changed. I do not have PMI or an Escrow account. Where did they apply my lost payment of {$920.00} plus {$19.00}? They also have a Corporate Advance Fee on there for {$19.00} which Im not sure why its there but ILHAF paid that as well in the lump sum amount of {$13000.00}. They actually applied PMI to my mortgage and that should not have been there. I have a conventional loan. Ive been in my home for over 16 years and have equity of over 50 %. I have never defaulted on my homeowners insurance. Now they are sending me statements saying I owe them a payment for XX/XX/XXXX, a late fee and {$19.00} for a Corporate advance Fee which is incorrect. Im tired!!! Can you Please assist me with this company?
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: IL
Zip: 60462
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-23
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-24
Issue: Struggling to pay mortgage
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Freedom mortgage is the worst company. I streamlined twice in XXXX it took once from XXXX to XXXX of the next year to complete because they are so disorganized. Ony reason we did it was for them to " improve '' my rate then at XXXX and now at XXXX. They take an enormous amount of time processing payments this past XX/XX/XXXX its bounced twice because I have NSFW ( non sufficient funds withdrawal ) so no more online payments with just makes things harder. Today XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter informing me I must now order checks and submit payment to another address by mail. Like that's quicker.
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: CA
Zip: 92240
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-24
Issue: Problem with a credit reporting company's investigation into an existing problem
Subissue: Investigation took more than 30 days
Consumer Complaint: I had a loan with XXXX mortgage. In XXXX I received a letter AND XXXX statement stating that Freedom would be my new servicing lender. Instead of paying XXXX with their invoice/statement, I followed instructions and made my first payment to XXXX XXXX. I did not have anything from XXXX at the time, only documents from XXXX. So, when I made my first electronic payment to Freedom, I used my loan number from XXXX and made my first payment. I continued month after month to make my payments with the original XXXX loan number under bill pay. It wasn't until XXXX, when I noticed on my Freedom statement that it showed I was past due. I reached out to Freedom 's message center and was trying to clarify for months that in fact I was not past due, my payment was sent. I finally got a hold of a gentleman ( In XXXX ) who told me that my XXXX payment was missed, when it fact I showed him proof that it wasn't. During this time I was told I didn't have insurance on my home, when in fact I did. My bookkeeper sent them proof via e-mail, messenger and through the insurance portal. Finally, this got cleared up after they tried to force place insurance on my home. Going back and forth with the message center, I decided to reach out to the President of the company because no one could find my first payment. From there, another gentleman responded back. He informed me that as well that my payment was missed and suggested I looked at my statement for that month to see what happened. To my surprise, in the middle of the month, the payment was returned, and without any notification. When I looked at the statement, the payment returned was from a company called XXXX XXXX XXXX The gentleman told me that Freedom couldn't identify me as the borrower with my XXXX loan number. That immediately put me behind. Since then, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and so forth, I have continued to bill pay Freedom every month using the only loan number I knew, which was XXXX and the payments were accepted to my account. The statement was very complicated to understand, not like XXXX. In XXXX and XXXX, a simple mistake, my bookkeeper shorted 2 months of {$80.00} each by putting the wrong amount. I was not notified about the first payment being incorrect so through bill pay, I made the second payment. Then I was told they didn't know where to put my 2 month payments, so they left them unapplied, which doesn't make sense. If they had applied it, I would have noticed the accidental short pay. Because of this, my credit score has plummeted from the 700s to the 500s. It has impacted my ability to do any type of financing. All this was because they didn't accept my first payment and didn't notify when I made the first mistake on my payment ( for XXXX ). Please review the XXXX monthly statements compared to Freedom 's, which is very difficult to understand. Let me know what else you need further from me.
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: FL
Zip: 33020
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-24
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-21
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: Freedom Mortgage XXXX, TX XXXX XXXX Fixed rate impounded mtg. Escrow deficiencies more than satisfied on two different requests yet payment still went up claiming taxes and insurance went up. Well of course they did and I sent in more than you asked on both requests. Then they said it was for the safety margin and I said I would send more $ and they said they would refuse it. I will retire soon and I want to keep my payments as low as possible. If escrow is satisfied then payments should not go up, not one bit! My last contact with the Escrow Mgr or Supervisor at Freedom Mtg was approx XXXX.
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: CA
Zip: XXXXX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-21
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A
Date Received: 2023-02-21
Issue: Trouble during payment process
Subissue:
Consumer Complaint: My loan servicer was switched from XXXX XXXX XXXX to Freedom Mortgage in XXXX of XXXX. I received and paid bills to Freedom Mortgage every month XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX. My XXXX statement showed me up to date and I made my regular payment on XX/XX/XXXX. I received a letter telling me that my account was past due on XX/XX/XXXX. To the best of my knowledge, on XXXX XXXX, {$2000.00} was debited from my account. The explanation was originally it was sent back to my prior loan servicer XXXX XXXX XXXX. They told me to contact XXXX XXXX XXXX to find out what happened. XXXX XXXX XXXX said that the loan switched and since then there has been no activity on my account. Also, they stated that there has never been a transaction of {$2000.00} in my entire account history. My payments for my mortgage are {$1700.00}. When told this Freedom Mortgage said I had a payment returned to my financial institution. They cant provide this documentation and I have since sent them statements that show no such payment was returned. It has been almost 2 months since this began. I have begun doing all transactions on email since I want a paper trail and also, I have spent too many hours on the phone trying to resolve this. I have included all the phone conversation notes below. This includes details of their responses. On XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX stating that " your loan is now two payments overdue. The total amount due to bring my account current is {$3500.00}. This information may have been reported to the credit bureaus. '' I called on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX and spoke to teller # XXXX XXXX. She said she couldn't figure out the problem on my account and forwarded me to to XXXX # XXXX in the escalation team. After 42 minutes speaking to XXXX, they said they needed to call me back and that the department that needs to investigate this is closed. They assured me that I would hear back the next day in regular business hours. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX I called back and spoke to XXXX XXXX She could see that there were notes in my file that late fees would be frozen but that XXXX was on the phone and still hadn't heard back with the information needed. ( 22 minutes on phone ) On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX # XXXX in the management team for almost an hour. She sent me a direct email because she said I should have heard back. She said there were no notes to explain what had happened and that was unacceptable. She emailed me and the cash department and said to email her back or that she would email me information She said I should have to keep calling and waiting and getting the same response. She said it would probably take about a week. On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed XXXX and never got a response. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called her and left a voicemail, no response. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call in attempt to collect on defaulted mortgage. I was very upset and asked to speak to the escalation team. The agent said she was sorry she could see notes in the system but couldn't figure it out. She sent me to another agent. I spoke to XXXX # XXXX. She said they had no updates. She assured me that the will email the cash department again and to call back on XX/XX/XXXX. She again personally emailed me. She said that it appeared that they had sent my payment back to my bank account. She asked me to send a copy of my bank statements for XXXX to show that I never received the payment. I emailed her my bank statements that day. She said she would follow up. Again no response. She is not replying to emails. At this point, I began emailing through their website. The responses have never answered my questions. One response was not even in regards to my question and seemed as though they sent an automated response regarding escrow information. I seem to be getting no where and dont know how to get a resolution. I feel attacked, I cant stand receiving emails and phone calls and letters saying I am in default when I havent missed a payment. I feel harassed and they cant answer my questions.
Company Response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
State: FL
Zip: 334XX
Submitted Via: Web
Date Sent: 2023-02-21
Company Response to Consumer: Closed with explanation
Timely Response: Yes
Consumer Disputed: N/A