I have read a lot of the complaints here about Option One and there is a lot that is unfounded. If you don't pay your mortgage for two or three months, a mortgage holder is certainly within their rights to foreclose, and if you aren't willing or aren't able to hire an attorney to fight it, you get what you deserve.
That said, Option One engages in abusive customer service and collection practices as a matter of course, often against individuals that are not in collections, and their customer service personnel often mishandle money and act abusively on the phone.
First, I have four loans with Option One, two of which I was backed into by a mortgage broker with Wachovia who mishandled a loan that should have been with his bank and switched it to an Option One loan at the last minute when I couldn't afford to drop the deal. (I reconstruct homes and this fellow dragged these two refinances on for several months by mishandling paperwork to the point where I needed the proceeds from the deal to move on to the next project — but that's another story).
I have noticed two issues with Option One:
1) Repeated and Harassing Phone Calls
I have never made a late payment to Option One. Because I am in the rental business, I generally pay Option One around the end of the first week of the month, after rents come in.
Every day, starting on the first of the month, Option One will call me 15 - 20 times a day (3-4 times per loan) to ask where the money is. Yes, this is illegal in Virginia, and if they were in the US I'd swear out a harassing phone call warrant (something I've done before against call center personnel) — however, they are in India and swearing one out against the head of Option One's call center division probably would not fly here in Roanoke.
The calls don't particularly bother me, since I field 60 - 70 calls a day, on average. I've programmed my phone to ignore their major call center numbers, so I only take them when I'm in the mood.
Their call center personnel are always rude, and I have discovered that the only way to deal with them is to be a notch ruder.
When in the mood, I often reduce the Hindus on the other end to tears by suggesting they strap bombs to themselves or asking what the odds are of their facility turning to glass when they get nuked by Pakistan. I have also asked them what they are going to do when Option One finishes going bankrupt and they all lose their jobs. They are trained to take abuse and not hang up the phone, and for those willing to give them what they deserve, this is a huge opportunity to verbally abuse them.
The best response to their threats or demands for money is to say "I don't care". Generally, when I do occassionally pick up, I just tell them I'm out of money and never intend to pay them again. Remarkably, when you do this, they often stop calling you.
2) Mishandling of payments.
I make four mortgage payments per month. I have often found that their Hindu payment processors will apply all four payments to one account, or two payments to one account, and then declare the other accounts in default and in danger of foreclosure. I had a set of real estate deals scuttled earlier this year after Option One applied two payments to one account, then reported another account "30 days late" and in default to the credit bureau. It took three months and the intervention of my attorney to correct this — and, even after this was corrected, they still restored the original incorrect report and had to have it corrected.
My experience with Option One is that their company is mismanaged, their customer service is terrible, and they are used to abusing poor people who are unable to defend themselves — which means that they are a sitting duck target for lawsuits from those who are not poor and who are able to defend themselves against unlawful proceedings.
Bill white
Roanoke, Virginia
U.S.A.
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