I have had an account with Huntington Bank since my freshman year of college, so 23 years now. In December of 2019, my wife and I purchase a home and decided to try them out for two reasons. One, a friend recommended them and a broker who I went to High School with, and two, competitive rates. Everything went fine and then COVID hit.
I was furloughed for 6 weeks without pay and my wife was permanently laid off. So 3 months after doubling my monthly expenses, half my income was gone. Having significant saving I was not worried about recovering or getting into any serious financial straits. Another friend had something similar happen to him and was offered a forbearance by his US Military Veteran Credit Union. I contacted Huntington who asked me a few questions, and within a few days received a letter saying that I was approved for a forbearance for the months of January thru March of 2021, with an option to extend an additional 3 months. I was told after the 90 to resume payment of my mortgage, and that the approximately $6,600 would be tacked on to the principle.
Beginning that March of 2021, I started to receive notices saying that my mortgage was in default. I called the number on the notice, and was assured that this was simply a paperwork mishap, and that as soon as the administrative services at Huntington caught up, I would stop receiving these. I continued to receive these notices through September of 2021.
On October 17, I received a call from a Huntington representative saying that if I did not come up to date with my mortgage, they would begin foreclosure actions. I explained the above to this gentleman and he said I needed to fill out "Borrowers Request for Assistance" form if I did not want to get foreclosed on, something that had only been brought up to me as necessary if I was requesting a rate reduction, which I was not. In fact one of their letters stated that no additional information was required unless I was asking for a rate adjustment.
I filled out the form and sent it on October 20th. On October 27th I received a certified letter from Huntington stating that they were foreclosing on my house in 30 days unless I paid $9405.98, which is approximately $2800 more than my forbearance amount. I went to a Huntington branch that day and spoke with the Financial Relationship Banker who in turn spoke with a woman in the forbearance department. She assured me that my house was not in foreclosure, and that this was yet another paperwork mishap. She said that once the Borrower's request for assistance form was processed, this would all be resolved. The process time was 30 to 45 days, which exceeds the deadline of the foreclosure. I asked to have it stated in writing that they were not intending to foreclosure, and was denied this.
After this I received no more communication from my branch, or my High School friend who was my mortgage broker (two emails requesting an update went unanswered). The day before my foreclosure deadline (Thanksgiving) I went into the branch and said I was not leaving until I was told what needed to be done. I was then informed that I had been denied the forbearance I had been approved for 10 months prior based on my current income and not that of 10 months prior (My wife had secured new employment) The end result was me giving them a certified check for $6600.
In December, I filed a complaint with the BBB and was almost immediately contacted by a representative from Huntington who I had never spoke with. He was very polite and apologized profusely. He asked what I would like done and I said that I either wanted my $6600 back and that amount to be added to the principle as was agreed, or I would like my rate adjusted since interest rates had dropped about 3/4% since my mortgage. He called me back the next day and said that they were not willing to do either of these.
December 13 I decided to refinance my mortgage with Better. A third party credit agency contacted me and wanted to conference Huntington in for verification of facts of my existing mortgage. The Huntington representative claimed that I was never approved for a forbearance despite me proving a copy of the letter stating the contrary.
Next the Huntington Rep said that I had defaulted on my mortgage for 3 months, which strangely enough is the exact amount of time of the forbearance I was supposedly not approved for. They also said I was not approved to tack this onto the principle and extend the mortgage, despite me providing yet another letter listing that as a repayment option.
In short, using a repeated pattern of misleading information and outright lies, Huntington was attempting to tank my refinance. I sent Better all the relevant documents, and they have needed to request many more that they probably would have. I have yet to get my refinance completed, but I hope to soon so I can rid myself of the disease that is Huntington Bank.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/rnq8xd/my_experience_with_huntington_forbearance/
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