Posted on 07/29/2012 9:09:44 AM PDT by dagogo redux
Has anyone else here had the experience recently of having one of the large banks jerk them around on a home re-finance application?
We’ve been at it for months now with Chase, with a constant, ongoing drip, drip, drip of requirements, including updates on many previously-submitted documents since the process has been going on now well into a new quarter. Discussing this with some friends this evening, it seems they’ve had exactly the same hassles with Bank of America for over six months now, and have been through several rounds of re-submitting updated documents.
Our friends and us both have multiple personal and business accounts of longstanding with these banks, have always paid bills on time, have been loyal customers that have brought a lot of business to the banks, and have refinanced before with them a few years ago. All four of us have great incomes and excellent credit ratings. The pending mortgages are for about the same amount as the current mortgages, and are for a fraction of the appraised value of the house. In both cases the household incomes are many times what is needed, and the mortgages are backed with huge emergency funds.
Despite a sizable, non-refundable application fee, we and our friends are close to simply walking away from the application process, closing all our accounts, and taking our business to one of the remaining local banks. Talking to local bank representatives gets nothing more than evasiveness and excuses that don't seem to hold water. We are also on the verge of contacting the Better Business Bureau, bank regulators, as well as state and federal Congressional Reps.
Credit unions don’t suck like big banks. Fees and hassles are pretty much non existent.
There are also (some) outstanding mortgage brokers out there that do much of the hard work for you. Just get a upfront disclosure of any fees.
We tried to refinance with Countrywide back in the day. Same experience - constant request for more/updated documents, calls for replacements of lost documents, constantly having to fax over things that had been faxed three or four times already - it was a nightmare. We asked them to give us a checklist of everything they would possibly need and we were told that such a thing didn’t exist.
My husband is normally a very mild-mannered gent, but even he had enough. When they asked for the same document for the third time, he said, “Do you do this for a living? Because you really suck at it.”
Needless to say, we took our business elsewhere. Smooth sailing with Farm Credit.
That's funny, I was wondering why anybody would want to go through Chase or B of A for anything right now? Let alone a refinance?
I understand that VA loans are constantly being barraged with refinace offers and are easier but to go through these large banks? It really has me baffled.
Bingo! Use a mortgage broker. If you don’t get your loan he doesn’t get his cut.
Additional comment to dagogo redux: Sorry you’re going through this, but afterwards, a good policy is to avoid B of A altogether. Writing letters of complaint is just an extra waste of time at best. They’re like Ernestine said of the phone company: “We don’t care. We don’t have to!”
I’d pull out immediately — of the process and the accounts — and leave them with the waste of time on their clocks and the egg on their faces.
I have other creative advice on dealing with banks, especially w/r/t mortgages, but I don’t think you’re THAT upset yet :)
We have had the same problem with a business loan.
PS, what I wrote applies to Chase as well. Avoid the big banks.
“Are U daft? Why would you do business with a whore?”
Good question, but the fact is that the whore took over Washington Mutual when it went bankrupt four years ago in the housing crisis, and we had had all our personal and business accounts and our original mortgage with WaMu for years.
We thought we’d see how the relationship went, and we were actually very pleased for the first three years. We felt like valued customers.
Our credit scores, for the person who asked, fluctuate a bit around the 800 level. Like the ER doc here, I’m in private practice, but I have been so for over three years, with a history of solid profit/loss statements comparable to the salaried income I had when we last refinanced. Wife’s an ER nurse working two jobs. Our income and credit ratings are rock solid. Heck, my wife’s even a minority! We simply don’t see the grounds for this treatment, unless they simply want to deny us the loan in order to make a buck on our non-refundable application fee, or unless they’re simply edging “The Rich” like us out of the picture in favor of more “valued” citizens.
Quicken Loans was a joke I quit. US Bank was simple and easy.
Other than an appraisal down 35% from one eight years ago that stopped the whole thing dead in it’s tracks, nah.
” I have other creative advice on dealing with banks, especially w/r/t mortgages, but I don’t think you’re THAT upset yet :) “
Try me! :)
To everyone who has replied so far - Thank You! Some very helpful advice and insight here. Please keep it coming.
I’ve got one more updated profit/loss statement almost completed (no small task), and if submitting it tomorrow doesn’t end this charade quickly we will be taking the advice offered here. Much appreciated.
I’ll vote for the credit union route. A friend (Army Colonel) was getting jerked around by the BoA at the Pentagon and I convinced him to walk over to Navy FCU. He did, and closed on the refi three weeks later. PFCU is also good (I belong to both, and have two mortgages with NFCU).
TC
You’re in good company. Just google “chase bank mortgage complaints” and start reading. Here’s one link:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/finance/chase_mortgage.html
If you’ve already paid fees, maybe you should get a lawyer to send them a letter to help hurry things along or to ask for your money back? And of course, complain to the BBB and anyone else who will listen. I don’t trust the TBTF banks, and if I get another mortgage, I’ll look for a small local one or a credit union or somesuch.
I had just relocated to Orlando to take a software development job at Disney, and I was in the process of buying a house. I just assumed that the Disney credit union would be better than any bank, so I went there and started the application process.
While looking over the paperwork, I discovered that they has a "demand feature", which I had never heard of (this is my 3rd house, and my 5th or 6th mortgage). It turned out that they could call in the entire mortgage at any time for any reason, or no reason at all. In practice, they could "cancel" the mortgage if interest rates went up, thus eliminating the advantage of a fixed-rate mortgage, which this was.
I later discovered that they also tied any other loans into the mortgage, so that if you were late with a car payment (for example) they could use that to change the terms of the mortgage or even cancel it.
I have no idea how common this is, but watch out for it.
For background; I do this for a living for one of the biggest lenders.
You are suddenly self employed; guidelines generally want a 2 year history.
Our banks private banking area might be able to do it depending on your asset base.
Your situation is one that drives us crazy as loan officers. You would be considered a a top flight borrower by us; but the guidelines don't have the flexibility they used to.
Underwriters are all running scared. Every file is audited after closing to make sure every letter of every bank statement is documented correctly.
The investors (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who everyones loans go to); look for any loophole if a loan goes bad in the future. They will make the lender buy the loan back if any small piece of info is missing from application.
It kind of stinks to be doing my job at times right now!
Suggestion: Either they don’t want to lend to you at a low interest rate knowing of the impending round of foreclosures currently accelerating across the country, or,they have bungled your paperwork. Go to the county recorder in your county and get all of the filings recorded for your property since you last re-financed. Ask yourself this question: “Who really has clear title to my property.” You may need an experienced lawyer to help you answer that question. Check livingies dot wordpress dot com may help you as well. Good luck.
I just closed a refi deal last Thursday. Smooth as silk.
High credit rating greases the path.
Take it to another bank.
That is simply eye-opening. Although many of those complaints are from people with upside down or distressed situations, many are not, and even the ones that are sound like the same sort of tactics are becoming institutionalized as policy. Thanks for the link.
We ARE going from 30 to 15. :(
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