Answers to frequently asked Mortgage and Home Equity questions

Wells Fargo is immediately approving a payment suspension for all customers who request it due to a COVID-19-related hardship. We are not requiring documentation of your hardship at this time.

The CARES Act specifically states that you qualify for an initial payment suspension up to 6 months, if you have a Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Federal Housing Administration (FHA), Veterans Affairs (VA), or U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) loan.

Assistance can be requested for all eligible accounts. When you are ready to resume making payments or need to extend relief, contact us. Let us know about each account and we will review the steps needed.

The payment suspension is not retroactive. We can apply it immediately once you request it, but any reporting to the consumer reporting agencies will remain as stated prior to your request for payment suspension.

Once you miss a payment, even if you are enrolled in the payment suspension plan, your loan will have an outstanding balance and we’re required to send notification of that outstanding balance to you. We are not notifying the consumer reporting agencies of this outstanding balance.

You can contact us by calling 1-800-219-9739.

Yes, we are legally required to send you a billing statement showing the amount due every 30 days. While the statement will still show the amount due, it will also reference your short-term payment suspension under the section Important Messages.

There is no fee for the short-term payment suspension. If you suspect you have been contacted by a scammer, please submit a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.

You are eligible in both situations, but you may have fewer repayment options at the end of your payment suspension period. We can explain the differences to you and discuss what repayment options are best for your situation.

If you select to use this short-term payment suspension, we must cancel your loan modification. Contact us to discuss the best option for your situation.

If the mortgage was modified under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) or Second Lien Modification Program (2MP) and you don't make a payment during this time, you could lose the pay-for-performance incentives. This is because you must remain in good standing with HAMP and 2MP.

Yes, you are eligible for payment suspension. We recommend you speak with your bankruptcy attorney about post-payment suspension options.

Wells Fargo is honored to serve those who serve our country. The immediate short-term payment suspension is for any Wells Fargo Home Lending mortgage or home equity customer who requests assistance.

In addition, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) may offer protection or relief to members of the military, including the Reserves and National Guard, the Public Health Services, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and their spouses, partners, and dependents. If you have recently been called to military service in support of state or federal efforts during the COVID-19 response, or are the spouse, partner in civil union, domestic partner, or dependent of a person who has been called to military service, and you have not made us aware of your status, you can provide your military service documentation in one of these ways:

• Mail or overnight mail:
  • Wells Fargo Bank c/o SCRA Request
    DSR – MAC D1118-02M
    1525 W. WT Harris Blvd.
    Charlotte, NC 28252-8522
• Fax: 1-855-872-6262
• Secure email options. For details, call 1-855-USA-2WFB (1-855-872-2932).
• Visit any Wells Fargo branch.

We’ll continue to make your tax and insurance payments during the payment suspension period if you have an escrow account. However, depending on your loan type, this could increase your future monthly payments. If there is a shortage on the account, we will continue to work with you.

As a result of unpaid or partially made payments during payment suspension, you may be ineligible to have your escrow account closed.

If you miss payments or make a partial payment during payment suspension, you may delay when you can remove mortgage insurance.

While you’re protected under the payment suspension (forbearance) for this loan, if you have a Wells Fargo home equity line of credit, it will be restricted from further advances and you will not have access to funds from the account. When the payment suspension ends on the loan and you’ve resumed regular payments, please contact us to request a review for reinstatement to access funds on the line of credit account.

Call 1-866-508-7059 or write to:

Wells Fargo Home Equity
MAC-P6051-01A
P.O. Box 4790
Portland, OR 97208-4790

If you had a loan modification in the past that offered principal forgiveness that was contingent on your loan remaining current, you risk losing that benefit. Contact us to discuss the best option for your situation.

By accepting this short-term payment suspension, you will be ineligible for any new Wells Fargo mortgage product, including a new home loan or a refinance of an existing home loan, until certain conditions are met. Your financial hardship must be over. You must be out of payment suspension. You must have resolved any missed payments. You may also be ineligible for other new Wells Fargo consumer credit products, such as an auto loan, personal loan, or credit card, until these conditions are met.

Our sympathy is with anyone who has lost a family member. If our customer has died, we encourage you or an authorized representative to contact: 1-877-822-7864. We have a dedicated Life Events Team that can assist during this difficult time.

Payment assistance is available even if the payment suspension enrollment form is not available for your account in online banking. Just call us at 1-800-219-9739 to discuss the available payment assistance on your account.

If you don’t have Wells Fargo online banking, you can enroll online or contact us at 1-800-219-9739.

Note: We may be experiencing high call volumes and apologize for any wait times. Once we speak with you, we’ll provide an immediate confirmation of the payment suspension and mail you a confirmation letter in 7 to 10 days.

Things to know when requesting payment suspension: While you’re protected under the payment suspension (forbearance) for this loan, if you have a Wells Fargo home equity line of credit, it will be restricted from further advances and you will not have access to funds from the account. When the payment suspension ends on the loan and you’ve resumed regular payments, please contact us to request a review for reinstatement to access funds on the line of credit account.

By accepting this short-term payment suspension, you will be ineligible for any new Wells Fargo mortgage product, including a new home loan or a refinance of an existing home loan, until certain conditions are met. Your financial hardship must be over. You must be out of payment suspension. You must have resolved any missed payments. You may also be ineligible for other new Wells Fargo consumer credit products, such as an auto loan, personal loan or credit card, until these conditions are met.

If you’re making automatic payments from bill pay on Wells Fargo Online^® or with any other financial institution, you’ll need to stop them.

If you have a plan with us to automatically withdraw your mortgage payments directly from your checking or savings account, you’ll need to cancel it right away. If you need our assistance to do so, you must notify us that you want to cancel automatic payments at least 3 business days before you want the automatic payments to stop. If you don’t, we’ll cancel your automatic payments for you. If we’re not able to stop the next withdrawal before it occurs, please call us if you would like us to return it.

You’ll need to set up any automatic payments or plans again once the payment suspension period ends.

We can refund payments that will not cause a customer’s account to become past due (due for a previous calendar month). For example, we can refund October’s payment if you make that request in October, however we could not refund September’s payment if you make the request in October.

Please call us at 1-800-219-9739 or send us a secure message in online banking.

Making payments whenever you are able is always a great choice. Using electronic payments is the preferred and safest way. Here are your options:

• Wells Fargo Online: Go to Transfer and Pay to make your monthly payment.
• Bill pay: If you have a Wells Fargo checking or savings account, access bill pay through that account, rather than your mortgage account. Learn more about Bill Pay
• If you do not have a Wells Fargo checking or savings account, you may use your preferred bill pay service provider to make your payment from a non-Wells Fargo checking or savings account.

Other options:

• Call 1-800-219-9739 and follow the voice response system or speak to a representative to pay by phone. Please have your bank account and routing number available.
• Mail your payment: You can continue to mail your payment and coupon to the address on your monthly statement.

To extend your mortgage payment suspension, sign on to online banking. On the mortgage account details page, use the Payment Assistance: Action Requested form. Or call 1-877-937-9357. To extend your home equity account payment suspension, call us at 1-800-219-9739.

We want to understand if you are continuing to experience financial hardship. We’ll ask:

• Are you ready to resume regular mortgage payments and discuss options for repaying any missed payments?
• Do you need additional time to recover?

We want to make sure you do not suspend more payments than you may need. Remember, payment suspension requires you to make up the suspended payment at some point and can impact your ability to obtain additional credit.

You do not have to wait until 3 months to update us about your forbearance needs. Let us know as soon as you are ready to resume monthly payments — there is no need to wait for your 3-month check-in.

Because resuming payments:

• Provides you with the opportunity to apply for new credit or to refinance.
• Reduces the chance that your escrow account, if you have one, will have a shortage. If you miss payments, your escrow account may not have enough to cover your tax and insurance bills. We’ll continue to pay them, but this could increase your future monthly payments.
• Reduces the number of suspended payments that you’ll need to repay.

You can contact Wells Fargo and resume your payments. With the short-term payment suspension, you still owe the payments that were missed, however fewer missed payments means less that you will owe.

If you can afford to do so, you can repay the entire amount due at once. You can then continue with your normal payments. We understand that you may not be able to do this. We’ll work with you to discuss other programs that may help.

We'll consider your financial situation, which includes your loan status, type of loan, and whether your payments were current when the COVID-19 emergency was declared in March. This information will help us determine if you’re eligible for one of these programs:

• A repayment plan: We may be able to divide the amount due from the missed payments into manageable amounts, spread out over time.
• Payment deferral: We may be able to move the amount of the suspended payments to the end of your loan term.
• A loan modification: We may be able to change certain terms of your loan — such as the interest rate or the time allowed for repayment — to make payments more manageable. This program is intended for those experiencing long-term income reduction due to the crisis.

Please know that most COVID-19 payment deferral programs can only be used once. This varies depending on who the investor is on your loan. For detailed information about post-payment suspension programs, visit wellsfargo.com/repaymentdetails.

You can end the payment suspension at any time. If you decide to shorten the plan, or if you decide later that this is not the right solution for you, please contact us. When the payment suspension period ends, we’ll review available options to help you take care of missed payments. At that time, we’ll let you know when your next payment is due. You’ll need to set up any automatic payments or plans again once we do.

We’re available to help you lower your monthly payment with a rate/term refinance. But there are some temporary restrictions on the types of refinance loans we can process:

• Cash-out refinance, where you convert some of the equity in your home to cash, is not available at this time because we are not performing interior appraisals.
• Jumbo loans, which have loan amounts exceeding the current conforming loan limits, which vary based on your locale, are only available to current Wells Fargo customers who carry specific asset balances with us. Speak to your local home mortgage consultant or call 1-877-937-9357 to learn if you may qualify.
• Home equity line of credit (HELOC) applications are not currently being accepted. We have made temporary changes to the products we offer after carefully considering current market conditions and economic uncertainty due to COVID-19.

Call us at 1-877-937-9357, use our online mortgage application, or contact a local home mortgage consultant to guide you through the process. Our physical mortgage branches are closed; however, our local home mortgage consultants are available by phone or by appointment.

Yes, Wells Fargo continues to offer loan modifications and other payment assistance options. Call us at 1-800-678-7986.

Wells Fargo Home Lending customers with a loan secured by a 1-to-4 family investment property are eligible for the same payment suspension option available to customers who occupy their homes. Options available after payment suspension options may vary by loan type and investor.

Yes, we would be pleased to move forward with your rate/term refinancing. Please contact your home mortgageconsultant or call 1-877-937-9357 to discuss.

Wells Fargo is not currently accepting applications for home equity lines of credit (HELOCs). We have made temporary changes to the products we offer after carefully considering current market conditions and economic uncertainty due to COVID-19.

We have decided to make temporary changes to the products we offer after carefully considering current market conditions and economic uncertainty due to COVID-19. We will begin accepting new home equity line of credit applications when the economic situation and housing market conditions improve.

No, unfortunately, we are not currently accepting applications. However, please call us at 1-877-937-9357 so we can review other options with you.

No, unfortunately, these temporary product changes also impact customers with existing home equity lines of credit. We’re happy to work with you to see if another option could meet your needs.

Refinance loan applications are now eligible for interior appraisal inspections. The health and well-being of our customers, vendors, and team members is our highest priority. Therefore, the following safety protocols will be followed.

• Maintaining social distancing and refraining from shaking hands.
• Use of face coverings and other protective equipment as appropriate.
• Limiting the number of people present in the property during inspection to the greatest extent possible.
• Customers (or other points of contact) are urged to leave all lights on and doors open for the appraiser.
• Refraining from scheduling an interior inspection if participants in the inspection have been sick or exposed to others who have been sick.

If you are unwilling to complete an interior appraisal, other options may exist. Please contact your Home Mortgage Consultant or call 1-877-937-9357 to discuss.

No, that’s not necessarily the case. Who you make your monthly payments to usually is not the loan’s investor. In fact, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who together are the investors for the vast majority of conventional, conforming mortgages, do not collect mortgage payments and service the loans themselves. Instead, the two government-sponsored enterprises contract with loan servicers, like Wells Fargo and other lenders, to handle the monthly payments and customer service on their behalf.

We would be happy to help you determine if a refinance is the right step for you. Please contact your home mortgage consultant or call 1-877-937-9357 to discuss.

Counseling agencies who are authorized to communicate on behalf of a Wells Fargo customer can call 1-877- 937-9357 or contact the assigned home mortgage consultant.

Note: We’re experiencing high call volumes. We apologize for any long wait times.

Counseling agencies who are authorized to communicate on behalf of a Wells Fargo customer can call 1-800- 219-9739. Note: We’re experiencing high call volumes. We apologize for any long wait times.

As we continue to evaluate how to best collaborate with partners and stakeholders, we encourage our partners to visit wellsfargo.com/mortgageassist for the most up-to-date information.