As a single parent, I got a home mortgage with another Associates Home Mortgage. They told me less than 2% of mortgages were sold the first year. Before my fourth payment was due, my mortgage had been sold. I had been escrowing insurance and taxes with the first mortgage company. Once Citifinancial bought my mortgage, they told me they did not escrow and that my taxes and insurance were my problem. As a single parent, I was devastated.
I got paid twice a month, and my mortgage ate up an entire paycheck. Therefore I would pay all my bills with the first paycheck, and my mortgage would be paid within the guidelines of the grace period. As long as it got there by the end of the month was what Associates Home Mortgage had told me. On the 6th day of each month, Citifinancial would start calling me, wanting me to post-date checks, pay over the phone, or wire funds. You name it, they suggested it. I was adamant that I would not do that. I got phone calls up to 11:00 pm and as early as 6:00 am.
There were times that I had to defer a payment due to hard times. I thought the payment would go on the end of the loan. I also found out that I had a 5-year prepayment penalty: if I refinanced with another company or sold the home, I would have a 20% penalty for the first five years. I persevered and paid the mortgage, taxes, and monthly insurance.
Finally I had enough! Recently I tried to refinance and was turned down by another company because the payoff from Citifinancial came in $3,000 higher than reported on my credit report. I made upgrades on the house to get the appraisal to come in higher. I went to another mortgage company, and the payoff just 4 weeks later was $5,651.41.
While the new mortgage company and I were in negotiations, I made a mortgage payment, although it was $100 short. I called and explained what had happened. I had been laid off, and times were hard. I was refinancing and was due to sign the contract at the end of that week. Marcus with Citifinancial was adamant that they were going to garnish my wages even though I had told him that I was signing the new contract and they were going to get their money. I had to hang up on him. He got me so frustrated and upset that I had an asthma attack.
I signed the contract with another mortgage company, and the principal balance was higher than what was reported to the credit bureau. They charged $101 in other fees that have not been explained. Even though Citifinancial knew that I had refinanced, they hounded me for a payment because the funds had not been wired to them yet. They also reported possible foreclosure to the new company on the payoff quote, slandering my reputation. I called from my work phone number to check the balance on my account to see if the funds had been wired. I did not speak to anyone, but shortly thereafter I got a collections phone call at work. They should never have had my new work phone number. Just because I called from this number, their computer system picked it up.
After the funds were wired to Citifinancial, satisfying my loan, I got a statement from Citifinancial that shows I have funds escrowed. I have contacted them in writing for an explanation of the enormous interest they charged me and requested that the escrowed funds be returned to me. NOW they do not call.
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