Fifth Third Bank refuses to acknowledge that my home equity line is paid off.
Starting from the beginning, I took out a home equity line through Fifth Third and everything was fine until I had some personal issues along with major back surgery that left me out of work for 7 months. Let me state now, I know I was late with payments, I do not in any way dispute that.By the time I was back on my feet, and able to work, my account had been referred to their attorneys, whom I contacted and paid a lump sum to catch up on my payments. They said that it would revert back to Fifth Third and I could start making payments back with them. I contacted Fifth Third, they would not accept payment, according to them it was still in the hands of the attorneys. After going in person to the bank. Leaving voicemails, (one contact person I was told could help me was actually no longer with the company, but still had an active voicemail box 12 months after leaving them) sending checks that were returned to me uncashed, about 5 months past and I was finally connected to Clara in the collections department, who agreed to take my payments and report me as current as long as I paid by auto debit from my bank account (held at another bank). I held up my end of the deal, they did not. Each monthe they debited 200.00 from my account, then added approximately 230.00 in late fees. On top of that, I found out that this account was shown as a charge off and I was never at any point shown as current like we agreed.
It gets better... To get out of this fix, I refinanced, and paid them off completely. They claimed that they did not receive the payoff. When supplied with the FedEx tracking information, they still denied getting the check. I got the title company involved, and they finally acknowledged getting the check.
But wait, it gets better... They continued to debit my checking account for 2 months after paying off the loan. When I contacted them, they would not reverse the debit, I had to dispute it with my bank to get it reversed.
But wait, it gets even better... It's now 2 years after paying this thing off, we're back on our feet and trying to refinance to bring the rate down, and guess what? Fifth Third is reporting us 120 days late as of 05/07. When I called them. They told me that they did not receive the total amount due and if I wanted to "solve the problem, send us the cash you owe us". I have statements from Fifth Third showing 0 balance, I called the title company, they have the release of lien, but that doesn't seem to be enough for my friends at Fifth Third.
I'm trying to straighten this out now, but in the meantime I can't refinance because I show up 120 days late on a mortgage that doesn't exist anymore.
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