CitiMortgage review: escrow mismanagement 31

I agree. This company is so big the left hand and right hand do not know what they're a doing and the people at top are stealing from the consumer.

My loan originated as a course of construction loan in 7/06 and the originator was a local bank. We signed the loan for the maximum amount which included mortgage insurance. The building didn't cost as much as we thought and so we were able to meet the 80/20 LTV required when the construction was completed. The loan was turned to permanent financing and then sold to CitiMortgage in 10/2007. Citimortgage sent me a letter in November stating that they are affilitated with REPUBLIC mortgage insurance company and asked me to respond if I objected to it. I responded immediately and told them I was at 80/20 so PMI was not needed. I called and talked to 3 people 1 who didn't know what PMI was. They said I would get a letter in 7-10 days. I got the letter that said removing PMI was denied because I was at 79.5 LTV and needed to be at 80 LTV...which didn't make sense since it was sufficient. I called and talked to a manager and she said it wasn't enough...she didn't "get it". Didn't understand or pretended not to understand. They told me to fill out a form and buy a new appraisal as values are going down. I just bought an appraisal and wasn't going to pay for another one so I did not respond.

My December statement shows they deducted 850+ for PMI for Oct-Dec and then they took another 285 today. My escrow account is now empty.

They then sent me a letter stating I was at 80/20 LTV and needed to be at 65/35 LTV now. I called my originator and they said they are having problems with CitiBank as well with other loans...my originator is going to help where they can.

I attempted to update my address which is 1307 N 18th Ave... it was updated as 13TH 07 N 18 Ave... If we are going to farm out CS jobs outside the country... atleast have them understand the formatting of an US address... GEEZ!

We HATE this company ! Our mortgage was sold to Citimortgage from ABN-AMRO, last year. Foreign telemarkers (who can barely speak english). call constantly, trying to sell us something. Yes, they identify themselves from Citimortgage. We are not interested ! We do not ever expect to hear from our mortgage company, except if a payment is late, missing or other catastrophy. We are also highly offended that they are not hiring Americans, with all the unemployment in this country. Believe me. we tell all our friends to avoid this company, because of their annoying sales tactics and the fact they are outsourcing using cheap foreign labor. Will refinance with another company, as soon as we are able.

I also hate this company. Our mortgage was also sold to Citimortgage from ABM-AMRO last year. We are in the process of refinincing our mortgage thourgh our local mortgage guy which we have used exclusively.

First thing was when our mortgage guy ran our credit report, it put a hit out a citimortgage which sent us an overnight ups letter offering us a $100 to refinince with them and all we had to do was send them all the loan info from our guy. Are you kidding me. I am not doing your dirty work!

Now 2 days before we close on our new loan with a different mortgage co, which now we dont have to pay PMI with the new mortgage co since our appraisal was high enough, they say we owe 3 months PMI insurance . I don't think so. They will not talk to my mortgage guy so I have to call them. It is so nice to talk to a India guy that barely speaks English. He is no help so I ask to talk to his Manager who also doesn't speak very good english. So Amit say's we can deduct 1 month PMI insurance but will no fax a new payoff statement to the title co. When the title co calls them they will not verify that that is wat they said. Thats a big surprice! Now it will take 90 days for them to refund any excess PMI insurance if there is any according to them. They take my money electronicly from my checking account on the exact day it is supposed to but it takes them 90 days to get your money back to them. Thank god we will be done with them. I have never had such bad service from a company.

Citimortage does not know what they are doing. You have to talk to 10 people before you find one that knows what they are doing. Forget trying to work with one person. You get different people from India every time you call. They increased my escrow account with no warning. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY IF YOU CAN AVOID IT!

We HATE this company too. They didn't pay my second tax installment and made an incorrect note to my account that I have to pay for the supplemental! The county sent the tax bill to us after getting no payment from them. It was a week late when I got it and I had to pay 10% PENALTY/LATE FEE to the county. I openned a case with CitiMortgage and asked them for the refund. Instead of sending refund to me, they made another tax payment to the county! I have called CitiMortgage so many times and have only got promises! It's almost 2 months now and I haven't yet received my refund! THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS VERY BAD BECAUSE OF BUNCH OF IRRESPONSIBLE LOSERS!

This company SUCKS SO MUCH. I called to simply ask what my balance needs to be in order to drop the PMI I am paying. I was transferred to five different people in India who had NO CLUE what my question was. I live in the USA, not INDIA. I expect to get an answer when I call customer service, but I never do. I finally sent an email to them, we'll see what happens. Companies that outsource to India should be shut down by the government. This is absolutely ridiculous.

I also was previously with ABN AMRO for three years with no complaint whatsoever! With no choice from me, my account was sold to Citimortgage. I sent them notice that I did would pay my own taxes if they couldnt pay them before the end of 2007. I was told that that was fine and that if I could produce a receipt for paying them I would have a refund within 30 days. They even gave me a fax number to fax the receipt copy to. I did so. Here it is 4/3/2008 and I still dont have my refund. I faxed the receipt on 12/26/2007. I have talked to no less than 15 people and I have come to the point that I am just as rude to them as they are to me. Their excuse is that they use a third part to pay and refund those monies. Well, in my business if someone doesnt perform their job, they get fired. I say FIRE THE THIRD PARTY! I swear I think they are just putting me off thinking it will get so confusing that I will just forget the refund. NOT A CHANCE...it is $2780.00 I am keeping records (although I dont know who I can hand them over to get this resolved) I asked for the Presidents phone number and they said they dont give that out. He doesnt take calls. I bet he would take one if Ed McMann called with Publishers House Sweepstakes to say he had a check. If they would quit farming out all of their work to foreign companies all of this money wouldnt get lost in the shuffle! I refuse to talk to a foreigner. I immeidately tell them to put a manager that is working out of an American office on the phone.
Who knows when I will get this refund but I will promise you that I WILL get it one day. I personally think they should have to pay interest on my money being delayed due to their crappy work.

Citimortgage SCAMS! They sent me a bill for escrow shortage, telling me because my taxs went up and my house payment was going up. I called the township that i live in and my taxs went down. I then called [censored]ymortgage and was told they assumed my taxs were going up a 04% increase due to inflation, the township told me inflation for this year is 1.023%. I then called [censored]ymortgage again and told them what my taxs are for the year and i want my payment to reflect the increase of 1.023% and not there charge of 04% and was pretty much told to get f ed. I told the representative that i refuse to make a payment that is more than my current payment and until they lower my payment back to what it was i will not be paying them.

My mom had ABN AMRO and hers was sold to these losers as well, when they took over they told her she owed 1 year worth of late fees and she has never been late 1 day she then threatened to sue them with her attorney and they removed them and said she was right now they are telling her that her house payment is going up $120.00 a month more due to property taxes going up she called the county tax office and and they actually went down she is so mad and I told her that was fraud they are terrible! SO LOOK OUT AND WATCH YOUR STATEMENTS! THEY NEED SHUT DOWN !

I'm going through the same dilemma with citiMortage since they acquired ABN... discrepancies in my escrow account, proposed property tax increses that are not valid with the Placer County Assessor's office, not to mention the language barrier with citiMortgage's middle eastern rude representatives... what is our legal recourse for this?

Stephanie

Have any of you had success with reducing your payment with Citimortgage? When I bought my house 4 years ago my payment was 1150. Now it is 1590!... and I have a fixed rate mortgage! They claim that they've had to raise my rates due to 3 different escrow shortages! Please help

Same deal with me… CitiMortgage took over my ABN AMRO account and has upped my escrow payments considerably. I am pressing them to provide me with rationale and justification for the increased amount. Until they do, I am making same payments as before. They are disregarding my lesser payments and threatening to report to the credit bureaus that my payments are late. All correspondence I have with CitiMortgage is in writing – they do not like that either.

CitiMortgage Contact Numbers

Use these numbers to bypass the India Call Center:

Mariela (upper level supervisor)
[protected]

Andrea (upper level supervisor)
[protected]

Sharon Lorenz
Research Services
Frederick, MD
[protected] Ext. 45401

Jon Hill
Research Services
Frederick, MD
[protected]

NOTES:
The Research Services phone numbers are like gold. If you call and ask for anybody in Research Services you will be told there are no contact numbers.

If you call in through the India call center always ask for an “American Accounts Representative”. Then ask for their supervisor. Demand a call back number otherwise you will be talking to a different person every time you call in.

Document every call. Otherwise they may try to pull something on you.

Be a squeaky wheel. CALL, CALL and CALL. They will always be polilte and say things like “we are working on it” or “we’ll expedite this or that” but DON’T assume they will.

According to my recent citimortgage escrow analysis, my new mortgage payment (on a 30 yr fixed rate product) was to increase by $175/month. After reviewing the escrow statement, I realized that the "projected" escrow balance as of June 19, 2008 was nearly $1000 too low (showing - $57.69 when it was actually over $900). I called their call center and was finally told that they made a mistake and an adjustment would be made.

I called back on July 21, 2008. No changes. I would have to start making the new payment. No adjustments would be made. My escrow balance is now nearly $1200.

The call center is in India so the reps have difficulty in understanding what I have been trying to communicate. They mostly read scripted responses and say over and over again, "I apologize".

I have written to the customer relations center in Maryland hoping to get some meaningful dialogue happening. I have provided a spreadsheet showing their error.

This has been very frustrating in that I cannot get through to the reps. Citimortgage is hiding behind foreign call center reps to ignore their poor service and errors. Very sad. A fixed rate loan should not be jumping this high - especially when the premise for the increase is based upon faulty figures that can easily be adjusted. I know...I work for a financial institution. I am merely asking for the reasonable thing to be done.

Anyone who had an ABN AMRO mortgage that was acquired by CitiMortgage should insist on a full escrow accounting. I discovered a significant error in my account… not in my favor either of course. After 3 months of letter writing, CitiMortgage finally acknowledged the error, however, they still cannot seem to give me a complete account summary.

Clearly, CitiMortgage does not have an effective system to handle customer issues, nor do they seem to care. Unfortunately, I think it will require the Fed’s to regulate the mortgage industry if we are to expect them to be accountable. As much as I hate more state/federal legislation, I plan to lobbying my elected representatives for some laws.

My mortgage company (Irwin Mortgage) sold to Citimortgage a little over a year ago. I never had problems with Irwin, never had a negative reason to call. I have called Citimortgage about 3 separate issues this last year. Today I called because of an escrow problem. The call center in India tells me that they cannot send me anything in writing to explain why they took more than they should have out of my escrow account. They can only tell me over the phone that it is correct. I have a letter from Citimortgage saying that it is NOT correct! It seems to me that they can do what they want with our money with no accounting of it. USE YOUR CALCULATORS ON EVERY DETAIL OF YOUR BILL! THEY ARE THEIVES!

No matter what mortgage company you are with, they will sell to one of the big ones. Don't use your money to refinance only to be sold right back into the big company's hands. Pay off your house and get out from under their claws.

Help! Citimortgage is trying to escrow taxes, that I have already worked out with the local tax agency, I will not have any liens till 4/2010. I will have them paid in full by May 2009. I was told to send a letter from the tax collectors office explaining this and they would remove the escrow payment. I did, but afterwards was told that I was given inaccurate information. They are trying to raise my payment from $370 a month to $1175 a month! No one will help, no one returns calls, what do I do next? I've been calling for two months!
TJ

I, too, have felt the cold hand of CitiMortgage's injustice as they continue to fist me. First, they underpaid my school tax. Paid only $100 instead of the $3500 it is. Then they issued me check refunds saying I was overpaying my escrow. So they lowered my monthly escrow payments, even though I told them they screwed up. After getting multiple letters from my local tax board and faxing them to Citi (nobody checks the fax apparently) over a 3 month period, they finally got in touch with my tax board and made the payment. 8 months late. When they realized I was right, they then put me in a negative escrow balance and jacked my escrow payment up an additional $800 to make up for their screw up. Then they tried to tell me that they paid $350 for my water bill. I'm on a well! Now they just paid my school tax for this year a second time, giving me a fresh new negative amount. Calling them is like pulling teeth. You can't understand them with their accent. This company sucks. I have two open issues with them and am waiting to have over $3400 credited back to my escrow account. If it is fixed as it should be, I'll be reaching out to my state's attorney general for assistance and see what they can do.

I recently received a bill that increased my escrow from $514 to $1234/month.

I called and was given a case number. I explained that they projected %120 increase in my taxes, and what was the basis of that increase? They could not respond.

I called today, and was told my new payment was now $900 more a month, however, customer service stated that my payment was the same.

THese banks are starving for cash and there is major fraud going on. I am contemplting filing suit as a lawyer.

the telephone number you have for Sharon Lorenz is not a correct number.

The telephone number you have listed for Sharon Lorenz is not a correct number.

Well ...they are the worst company ever in my opinion .
Here is our situation .
My husband was in intensive care 2 years ago for almost a month .
Out of work for over 2 months (went back too early because of just these issues )
I called and ask for 1 month deferment and was refused ..
Why ? because my husband was not working we could not get one month put on the end of our mortgage .
So, I got a month behind .
In July I paid 2 payments to catch up and got a default notice ...huh?
I called, they had put one payment on the end of my mortgage ...
I fought and fought and fianlly paid 1/2 payment to satisfy them and got behind then on my car payment ..
Because of all these health issues and other issues we never really got caught up ...We made our monthly payment but sometimes it was later in the month and not exactly on due date .
But I was making it, then in August of this year we had another issue .
The company my husband works for never pays the insurance on time and my medicines are over 1000.00 a month, when I can afford to fill them all, 3 of them are over 200.00 a month, sometimes it was 2 months and more before we would get our 80 percent reimbursment for medications .
After a few months of going through this, we needed help .
So I again called to try and get a 1 month deferment .
Was told why not get 2 months defered, since it would help you alot, easy as pie ...fill out the faxed forms and it is a done deal, don't make a payment, it takes 2 weeks ...
So we did and waited ...We got a default notice ...
So we called ..
them
" you did not fax back all three pages " please refax
Okay, so we did .
Nothing
So we call again
"you need to make a payment "
Okay ...we did ..
waited
Recieved a foreclosure notice .
Called ..
"you did not go by our rules, teh deferment was never processed "
RULES ! What rules !
'We need tax statements, bill statements, tag reciepts, all medication reciepts, paystubs ...on and on their list grew ...
We are doing a deferment, not a reloan or a new loan ...What ?
Oh and you need to make a payment ...
Okay ...next day ...made a payment and I call to get the total of what we needed to pay over that amount, should be about 800.00 and to tell them by teh end of the month we would pay the rest ...
Okay ...
I tell her we made a payment and would make the other one by the end of month ..we are only 1 month behind ..
She said, 'you were turned down for a deferment '
I said ...well that is strange cause yesterday it was not even processed !
Then she starts asking questions ..
When are you going to make a payment ...
TODAY FOOL ! Like I just told you .
then she was typing, I said
What are you doing ?
She said I am getting the forms ready for a deferment ..
I said ...what ?

I just want the total and she said
"You did want a deferment ...didn't you ?"
I said ...no deferment, no reloan, just gonna talk to my attorney "
She said ..."we can't tell him our rules "
What ?
I said "I didn't ask you to "
So, today we call again and tell them, we sent the one payment, will send the balance this week (which is hte one payment plus the late charges they charged us for all this ) and the first thing they say is
Where do we fax the deferment forms to ?
Nowhere dummies ...didn't say that, but thought about it ..
We told them again, NO DEFERMENT ...LAWYER| YES ...
I also contacted my Congressman and Senator ...
If one dollar of tax money goes to this company, I plan to sue somebody for misuse of our tax dollars .

HUD provides a process for submitting complaints on these types of issues (go to Hud.gov). Section 6 of RESPA requires that when you submit a complaint to the loan servicer, they must respond within 20 business days and must resolve the situation within 60 business days. I am in the process of doing this myself. Maybe more complaints will result in some action.

TAKE HEART CITIMORTGAGE VICTIOMS
stand your ground!
we are in the middle of an adversary suit with citi...they arent even compliing with federal judges order granted on our behalf...after over a year and a half they are now scrambling to try to settle///hahahahaha...this has about drove us looney but now they think they can settle and not have to answer to any of the 16 violations we are suing them for...well think again citi...they were supposed to have filed answer weeks ago they havent even done that...why? they have no answer/// For citi crime does pay the money they extort from us vs the fines and penalties IF they are caught are profitable for them...well i want the contempt of court on public record so take that you creepy citimortgage.!

Had a similar experience with them, they took over my loan from ABN AMRO, who I never had a problem with and screwed up my escrow account, paid things that weren't supposed to be paid, applied escrow payments to principal and ended up severely overcharging me.

I ever run into a citimortgage emloyee i will seriously beat the piss out of them...This is the most useless company on the face of the earth. 3 years running now we've set up a program where they will pay our property taxes before the 1st of the year so we can claim them on our taxes...surprise, surprise 3 years running they have not been paid on time. After being bounced around on the phone from achmed to shilate to muhambo we got nowhere...You need a translator to talk to the customer service dept. if you're lucky enough to even get to them...all this was after they accidentally put our mortgage into default status earlier this year, which later we found out we needed to clean up ourselves because they refused to take blame. This company has taken days of our time throughout the last 3 years, either be it by phone or paperwork...I would honestly rather be homeless than get a loan for a home from this company...If there was anything i could do to go after this company legally i would spend my last dollar to do it...

I agree. I have had my mortgage with them and for three years they have paid my property taxes incorrectly each year, sometimes not paying them at all. I agree with the comments that no one seems to know what they are doing. Countless calls, numererous faxes, and it takes me a good 4 months out of the year messing with them. I will agree with a previous post about not owning another home if I have to go through Citimortgage for my loan. They have turned my American Dream of owning my own home into a living nightmare.

Got a notice in the mail on Saturday that I owe taxes from [protected] from a third party. This party said that they had paid my property taxes on my home from [protected]. Strange...I thought this was supposed to be paid through my mortgage payment, right? I went and showed the letter to a friend, who does home loans, and she called this third party. Turns out that this third party actually reimbursed a fourth party (a mortgage company other than CitiMortgage) for paying my taxes. SAY WHAT? I have only ever been financed through CitiMortgage.

So, I marched my way down to the Assessor and Treasurer's Offices to find out where the money for my taxes had come from. Turns out that this fourth party, did, in fact pay my taxes. What happened to CitiMortgage, and why would a different company (that has NO vested interest in this property) pay my taxes?

I called Citi and since my loan was paid in full in February 2010, they claimed to not have responsibility for my taxes. This, of course, was said by some girl who called herself "Sally" or some such name and had a really thick Indian accent. I asked to speak to a higher up, who, at first, tried the same line on me. I read off the exact dates and amounts to him that the other mortgage company had paid, demanded he send me all of my statements from the time I had the house financed, including itemized descriptions of absolutely everything. I have a feeling I will not come out the winnder, but my feeling (as is the feeling of my lawyer), that Citi is responsible for these tax payments, not me. Where did the money go?

My Mortgage was with Peoples Bank. It was sold to Citimortgage in 2008 since Citi has had my account My escrow has been zeroed out every year and now in 2011 it is again zeroed out! My insurance and Taxes both have gone way down and they still say my escrow is empty! I call every year and every year I have to add thousands of dollars to fix my escrow and they can not explain where the money has gone to. I think WE have another ponzzie scam going on and they are taking our escrow and putting it in thier pockets! I have complained and complained but nobody will touch this company it like another wal-mart. Now I pay my escrow in full and now they want to raise my monthly payment saying I am short but they send me a $144.56 dollar check from my escrow account. What the hell ! I think all of us need to write letters to our congressman and the President of the USA. Lets get a petetion going and we all sighn it and send it in. Lets fight these crooks and stop the ponzzie game!

My wife lost her job in Nov of 2009 and we got 1 month behind on our mortgage. We called Citimortgage and explained the situation and were able to pay the mortgage the next month. Well, they would not allow that and payment plan was the next step. Adter 3 or 4 months of giving them the information they requested, they said they couldnt do the payment plan and so now we talked about loan modification so we can go back to our original payment. In November, it will be 2 YEARS that they still have not resolved this. THIS IS ###! What kind of company is this? I have spent a few HUNDRED dollars and many hours gathering info and faxing it to them. I have faxed EVERY SINGLE THING that they have requested yet they say they are missing X or that Y is outdated etc..I have heard every excuse. I asked them if they had received paper X and they say yes so I said then you have paper Y because they all went in the same fax and it transmistted ok. They tried telling me that pages 1-4 came through but were missing 5 and 6 but 7-9 came through. I have a copy of EVEY fax, a returned check for full mtg amount, all mail, documented every phone call, etc. If they want to try to foreclose me, I will sue the ### out of them. I now send my stuff to the VA and the VA sends it to them. Now, surprisingly, they receive everything. So why is this still not resolved? I contacted the better business bureau and will be contacting an attorney as well. No one at Citi has a clue what they are doing. Any other business that perorms like this goes out of business. It was not my choice for my mortgage to be sold to Citi. I used to have Irwin Mtg who was fantastic and I never had a problem with them. To top it all off, I find out through the VA that they say I owe X amnt of dollars which is basically what I paid for the house 9 yrs ago and they have added 40, 000 in interest that they are trying to charge me, yet, they wont allow me to make any payment and are dragging their feet just building up interest all along so now I'm gonna end up owing 210, 000 for a 130, 000 mtg? I DONT THINK SO. I would rather burn this house to the ground, then to let them get their hands on it. Maryland isnt too far either, I'm sure Citimortgage isnt too hard to find. Their needs to be a MAJOR class action suit against them.