My husband and I decided to look for a refinance not particualarly to save monthly but to save thousands over the life of our loan. Monday September 29 I called our benefits line for UPS employees. The line refers us to (supposedly) trustorthy lenders. I called all 3 lenders available on the benefits line and Cendant offered the best rate.
While on the phone with Cendant I asked if they could beat an offer from America's Mortgage for 5.7% and 1950.00 in closing costs. After Martin Syre (cendant associate) ran our credit, he said he could definitly beat that. He gave us a 5.6% rate and no more than 1750.00 to close. And because of our good credit he said he would waive the title insurance (which shouldn't be needed anyway on a refi, its already been done when the house was purchased) and no appraisal fee.
We went over the #'s and compared to the Good Faith Estimate from the previous offer and Martin assured me the costs would be lower with the Cendant loan. I asked him to start the loan process and send us the paperwork. He then told me that he needed a 300 dollar deposit which would be credited back at closing toward our interest payment for the month. I called my husband to make sure it would be okay to charge the 300 deposit to our credit card. He was just as suspicious about this 300 upfront deposit as I, we didn't want to pay it. Martin said "your asking us for 200,000 dollars and your won't give us a measly 300?!" He was like a used car salesman at that point. I had Martin on my home phone in one ear and my husband in the other on my cell phone.
I told Martin that we would have to consider it and he wouldn't give us time. He said that this isn't something we could just think about we had to do it now because he said he had to get permission from a supervisor to get our rate down to 5.6%.
Against our better judgement, because UPS as my long time employer supposedly trusts this company, my husband and I decided to give them the 300 dollars and wait for the paperwork.
The nextday air envelope arrived at our home on Thursday the 2nd of October. I opened the packet to find that the Good faith Estimate contained about 3000 dollars worth of extra fees and closing costs not disclosed to me over the phone! Martin had taken a 201 thousand dollar loan and turned ito into 208 thousand dollars to cover fees and costs. I called them right away and demanded my 300 dollars refunded because I was lied to and taken advantage of by Martin. They refused and still a week later are refusing to refund the money.
This associate (Martin) had gone so far as to tell my husband that he can pencil out the "incorrect" #'s on the good faith estimate, sign all of the paperwork and send it back and he will have the real #'s on the paperwork at closing.
WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DOES HE THINK HE IS DEALING WITH!? Who in their right mind would sign something that could get them into financial trouble on the word of someone who has already lied!?
I am not for any reason going to do business with Cendant or any of its companies. Budget rentals, Century 21 mortgage, Merril Lynch nor the many other businesses this company ownes.
No wonder they are such a big company. Just think, if just one of thier associats makes 5-6 of these bad deals in a days work, thats 1500-1800 dollars a day each associate is ripping off from people like me.
Dont let this happen to you! Never put money down on a deal over the phone!
jo
colorado
U.S.A.
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