In September 2001 we refinanced our home. The mortgage was then sold to Household Mortgage Services. Monthly payments were made by check for the first year with no problems.
In October of 2002 an insert about their EZ Payment program accompanied the monthly statement. After reading about how funds could be taken from our account on a bi-weekly basis we decided to sign up and not deal with mailing checks every month.
The two payments in October 2002 came out and everything was fine. Then November came. At this time we stopped receiving statements on a monthly basis. Two payments were taken out in November, however, the second payment that was made in November was never applied to the November payment. It sat in an upapplied fund.
Here comes December. The first payment that was taken was then applied to the November payment and the second November payment was applied to the principle. This then created a domino affect of our mortgage being late for every month after.
When we would receive statements they would indicate that we owed payments for two months. I called many times inquiring about this and was always told that the statement went out before the payment was processed and we were not late.
When 2003 started our payments went up due to an increase in our escrow account. We were never notified by HMS that our payments would be increasing and they began to draft an amount from our account that was over $12.00 more per bi-weekly payment. This could have caused other checks to bounce had I not checked our account. Luckily I did check our account and was able to stop any further damage from happening.
Once again a call to HMS was made in regard to the increase in the payment. At this time I was advised that a letter would go out explaining the increase in the payment. As of today we have still not received this letter!
Fast forward to August 2003. Interest rates were low and we decided to refinance. I called in mid-August to stop the EZ Payment program as I did not want them taking money from our account since the entire amount would be paid off soon. At this time I was informed that my July payment had not yet been made!
The customer service rep. was no help at all when I questioned what had happened to the payments that they were automatically taking out of our account. In fact the response that I got was "I don't know."
Collections calls started and finally a research request was made (charging us $5.00 for them to print a few sheets of paper and mail them). I immediately saw the error and called HMS. I was told that in fact they had made a mistake and a work order would be put in to fix the problem and to call back in five days to see that the error was corrected.
We still were receiving collections calls and the error took almost a month to fix. I had to call HMS every day and stay on top of them to make sure that my account was corrected. In that time were not able to refinance our house because of this mess and had to make the September payment that we wouldn't have had to make if they had not messed up in the first place. Finally, on September 24, 2003 the error was fixed and late fees were reversed. We thought our problems with HMS were finally over.
October 9, 2003 I received a letter stating that our payment was past due. I called and inquired and was told that the payment was short by $25.00 and we were being charged a late fee. I explained that the payment they were talking about was a correction to the November 2002 payment and at that time the payments were $25.00 less that what had been paid monthly for 2003. The customer service rep. agreed and has once again set up a work order to reverse the late fee and correct this problem.
The same night (Oct. 9, 2003) we received a collections call once again from HMS after 9:00. It is illegal to call people after 9:00!!!
We have finally refinanced and to top it all off the payoff amount they sent listed late fees and 'other' charges that are not valid. This payoff was sent on October 3, 2003, oever a week after the error had been fixed!!!!
As I see it, they owe us money and I am not about to let them get away with ripping us off. I have every piece of paperwork they have sent me and proof that they screwed up and owe us money.
Melissa
St. Augustine, Florida
U.S.A.
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