My husband and I applied for refinancing of our home at First Bank, now known as USbank, on the west side of Richmond, Indiana last year. The woman in charge of loans was named Donna. After meeting with her, she checked our credit and turned it over to their underwriters in Cincinnati, Ohio.
After supplying ALL of the information they requested, we were told we were APPROVED, and the next step was to have our house appraised. Barton Barker, of Connersville, Ind., was sent by First Bank aka USbank, to appraise our house. We were told we would have to pay him almost $300 for this appraisal.
Barton Barker appraised our home in October for $115,000. We were applying for thousands of dollars LESS than the appraised value. We paid Barton Barker in cash.
After hearing nothing for a couple of weeks, we called the Cincinnati office and kept getting voice mail of the underwriter who said we were approved. Then, after returning home one day, we had a message on our machine telling us we weren't approved and our appraisal fee was NON-Refundable! We had SPECIFICALLY confirmed we were approved BEFORE we shelled out the hard-earned money for the appraisal.
I called NUMEROUS times to this Donna at First Bank and to this underwriter and no one would take my call. I left messsages telling them we wanted a letter stating WHY we were not approved, ESPECIALLY after we were told we WERE approved and PAID the money for the appraisal. To date, we have NOT heard a word.
Now, we are out the money that we could have used for bills. Let me reiterate... We were told we WERE APPROVED.
This is a consumer rip off, and upon consulting with other banks, we were informed that the appraisal only comes AFTER a person is approved and that First Bank was known for it's 'shady' dealings and had done this to other people, as well. We were told they are very unethical. However, that still does not get us a refund of the money we are out of for the appraisal.
First Bank has a scam going to mislead consumers into believing they are approved for financing and then getting the consumer to spend money with this 'appraiser', and then refusing them.
BEWARE all consumers! IF you are looking to refinance your home, or for any other loans, etc., DO NOT deal with First Star, aka, USbank.
Harry
Richmond, Indiana
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