Suntrust Bank Customer Service and Insurance Scam Smyrna Georgia

Summary:

One:

It would appear Suntrust are trying to force some of their customers to default on their mortgages by force placing insurance (which significantly increases the mortgage premium) on mortgages they would rather not have in their portfolio and then making it next to impossible for the customer to have that forced placed insurance cancelled.

Two:

If they are not trying to manufacture a default then their agenda is for monetary or other executive level gain from their insurance suppliers.

Three:

I have discovered that Suntrust have the most aggressive insurance clause in their mortgage documents I have ever seen and unlike other banks we have mortgages with Suntrust repeatedly enforce this clause.  I have had extensive and ongoing issues with Suntrust force placing flood insurance on our properties for the last several years.  Every other bank that lends against properties in the same building find the building insurance acceptable and do not force place insurance.

Four:

Suntrust’s customer service department are not interested in resolving issues and merely antagonize and rush to collections immediately threating to damage credit.  If you are seeking a mortgage or a car loan and have other options I cannot stress how much of a mistake it is to sign a Suntrust loan agreement.  Since experiencing Suntrust’s underhanded business approach we have taken out more than $1M in mortgages and car loans all of which Suntrust have bid for and we borrowed from other banks.  I will not give them my business again.  I hope the reader will feel the same way and choose another bank after reading the following.

Detail:

2015:

Force Placed insurance:

This is when the lending bank buys insurance on your behalf and charges you for the insurance policy.  Suntrust have done this to me twice in 2015, once for H06 insurance and once for flood insurance.  They are not supposed to do this if an insurance policy is in place.  Our HOA buys flood insurance for the building and provides a copy of same to Suntrust every year, and, our mortgage documents do not provide for Suntrust to purchase HO6 insurance yet in 2015 they bought an HO6 policy and a flood policy and charged my account for both.

In the interest of brevity I’m just detailing the flood insurance.

2015 April:

Suntrust claim the property is uninsured and threaten to force place insurance.

2015 April:

I contact the building insurance provider.  They mail Evidence of Commercial Property Insurance to Suntrust and provide me with a copy by email.

2015 Early May:

Suntrust send me a second and final warning that they will force place flood insurance.

2015 Early May:

I call Suntrust to check if they have received a copy of the insurance from the insurance company.  They tell me they have not and that I have to FAX it to them with loan numbers written at the top of the paperwork.

I fax the insurance proof and have fax receipts showing proof of receipt.

2015/05/13:

I call Suntrust and spoke to a RENEE JOHNSON.  The conversation was lengthy, approaching an hour and no matter what I asked she would only say “it’s under review”.  She promised me she would call back in three days following the review.  She did not.

2015:/05/19:

I called Suntrust again and spoke to JOHANNA MEDRANO who could not or would not answer whether my insurance is acceptable.  I asked to speak to a supervisor and was passed to CHRISTY BARNFIELD who turned out not to be a supervisor.  She would not answer whether the insurance was acceptable.  She hung up on me after 1hr 15minutes.

During this call we conferenced in the insurance agent from the insurance provider.  Her first question to BARNFIELD was why is this insurance not acceptable?  BARNFIELD would not answer.  The insurance agent then stated that the same coverage was acceptable last year, and that the same insurance was acceptable for 30 or 40 other Suntrust morgages that she was aware of.  CHRISTY BARNFIELD declined to answer.  The insurance agent could go no further and left the call.  I asked for an email address and a single point of contact so I could start a paper trail and work the issue.  CHRISTY BARNFIELD would not give me an email address.  She then hung up on me.

2015 Late May:

Suntrust send me a letter stating they have force placed insurance and are billing me for the policy.

Early June:

I send a letter to Suntrust by first class mail and recorded delivery detailing the above, including copies of proof of insurance and requesting an email address of a senior person so we could work the issue.  Suntrust did not respond to my letter.

End July:

Suntrust send me a letter stating that they have cancelled the force placed insurance.  However, we have two identical units in the same building falling under the same insurance policy.  All the above was done for both units.  I wait for the notice of cancellation for the second unit.

End August:

I send Suntrust another letter by first class mail and recorded delivery to the same address asking why the second policy has not been cancelled.  Suntrust ignore my letter.

September:

Suntrust send me a statement saying my escrow account has been re-evaluated and my mortgage payment has increased by 79%.

Early October:

I receive a letter stating essentially that, it has rained a lot in the area where my property resides and the feds (FEMA) had notified Suntrust of same and late fees are to be waived for one month.

I make my regular (not increased) mortgage payment.

Mid October:

I receive a letter from Suntrust stating my payment is insufficient and my account had been placed in collections.  DESPITE the “Late Fee Being Waived” letter from 5 days previous?

2015/10/22:

I call Suntrust again and ask again why the same insurance policy that is acceptable for one unit is not acceptable for the second unit?

Reader: understand calling Suntrust is always a 30 minute to one hour call while being passed from pillar to post. 

I was on the phone for upwards of 30 minutes, only to get hold of the same agent RENEE JOHNSON from the May series of calls.  She said the file was in review and she would call back in 5 days.  She missed her deadline but did call back late, only to state the file was still in review and nothing had changed.  I reminded her I was in collections and asked again for an email address of the VP of the insurance group.  She declined to give me an email address or the name or phone number of the VP.

2015:/10/29:

I called Suntrust and spoke to a MICHAEL TANNER and asked if the forced placed insurance has been removed.  He told me it had not so I requested a call from his supervisor, ROBERT WILLIAMS.  MICHAEL TANNER promised ROBERT WILLIAMS would call by 1pm.  ROBERT WILLIAMS did not call.

2015/10/29:

I called my attorney and asked which was the best option; sue Suntrust for the dollar amount of the force placed insurance plus attorneys fees, or, allow the unit to go to judicial foreclosure and counter to their complaint with damages and attorney fees.  She said try one more thing first; go into a branch and talk to the branch manager and get them to take ownership of the problem.

2015/10/30 am:

I met with TIMOTHY WILLIAMS (relation?) assistant VP of my local Suntrust branch.  My goal was to get him to chase the problem through, or, to tell me the name of the VP of the insurance department and provide contact information for that person.  He said he would do neither.  Reluctantly he said he would raise it with his supervisor.  He called back later that day saying I had to call the insurance group.  He knew full well I had being doing this since May.  He would take no more action on my behalf.

2015/10/30 pm:

ROBERT WILLIAMS called back; a result of my Suntrust visit?  He stated that he had placed my account in review and it would be a further eight business days.  Note RENEE JOHNSON said it was in review on 10/22/15 and the review would be complete within five days, ie., on 10/27/15, three day ago.  I pointed this out to ROBERT WILLIAMS and he simply repeated himself offering no explanation, apology or offer to speed the review along.  ROBERT WILLIAMS then stated that the collections letters would stop while the account was in review.  I asked him to confirm that my payment would be removed from suspense and applied to the loan to satisfy my monthly payment and my account would be taken out of collections and he said he could not confirm that.  He conferenced in the mortgage/collections department to ask them the question.  Also, during this conversation, I discovered that even if my insurance is deemed to acceptable (as it was for the other unit months ago) I have to wait a further eight business days for the insurance department to refund the collections department.  Meanwhile, if during those eight business days a payment date passes I will incur late fees, penalties and a negative credit report entry.  Back to the collections department agenda: they simply tried to collect a mortgage payment over the phone.  When I re-iterated the whole situation YET AGAIN to them both, she simply said words to the effect of “pay me now or I’ll damage your credit”.

CONCLUSION:

Don’t let this happen to you.  Never ever sign a mortgage or loan note from Suntrust.  Choose another bank.