I am writing this letter to inform as many as I can about a company by the name of Ameriquest Mortgage. Rather, to warn people of the company and their way of running a business. Ameriquest Mortgage is a home equity lender.
My husband and I are not wealthy people we are just trying to keep our head above water, trying to keep up with the bills. When we got in a hole to far to get ourselves out of we contemplated filing for bankruptcy. However knowing that only we had acquired the debt that we were in it seemed unfair to file bankruptcy and have someone else pay for our mistakes. We wanted to be responsible for our own debts. So, our only other option, it seemed, was to go for a home equity loan.
I filled out an application on the Internet and after about a week started receiving non-stop phone calls from Ameriquest. At that time I told the caller I was still undecided about putting my home on the line. The phone calls did not stop. Rather they wanted us to come in and fill out paperwork to see what the numbers would look like and what our new payments would be after consolidating all of our debt. We did go in and they explained that with everything combined we were looking at a payment that would only be about $60.00 more a month than what we were paying for our mortgage then.
We asked what our percentage rate would be and they told us it would be 10.5%. I was uncomfortable with that because I knew that they were basing that number on our credit history. Our credit history was not flawless, but did contain reports that we could have cleared (i.E.: credit for charges of both of our ex-spouses, credit fraud on mine, back child support leans that had been cleared, etc.). Given time, we could have cleared these things up before getting a loan.
The woman who was helping us, explained that she would call the credit bureau and see if she could clear some of our credit problems up. She said, if we were to bring in the proof that showed we were not responsible for some of the credit (i.E.: Divorce decrees, release of lean for back child support, etc) We did as she asked, and I don't believe she ever tried to clear any of these things.
She called us at home and explained that she could get the rate down to 10.25%. I told her that I was not impressed and asked if we would be charged for a lower interest rate. She told me that we would not be charged for a lower rate. Time went by, all of the bills kept coming in and we got desperate. We decided that this loan was the only way out. We told them to go ahead and draw up the loan papers and we would come in to sign and to ask more questions. We asked specific questions about the interest rate, taxes and insurance. They explained how the payment included taxes but not insurance.
They told us the payment would be $462.00 a month, without insurance. We told them that we wanted to pay insurance and taxes included in our mortgage. I told them that I still wasn't pleased with the interest rate they were offering. They told me that this is how we could get out of debt and that most people just re-finance after their credit is cleared, after a year.
They drew up papers and the papers read $462.39, as our new payment. This didn't sound so bad considering we were paying $401.00 at the time, and we could get out of debt. They later called and said that they didn't include insurance and taxes and the amount would be $571.33. I wanted to walk away from the offer then. They somehow used hard sale tactics and convinced me that this was my way out of debt and I could always just refinance after we had gotten ourselves out of debt.
They then had us come in and sign our Election Not to Rescind. We had decided to go ahead with the loan and we signed. They told us we had three days to cancel. At the end of the third day I had changed my mind and just had an overall bad feeling about the deal. Of course though, when you change your mind on the last day, after business hours, you're out of luck. I did have second thoughts about it on the second day as well, so I called Mike at Ameriquest, and told him how I felt like backing out. I felt so intimidated, and he went on about how I was in debt and made me feel like he had put so much time into my loan that it was wrong for me to back out.
Anyway, I will skip to the closing day. Evonne called us and told us that we had to go down to Netco Title Company on Sunday 9-30-99 and do the closing. We explained that we were uncomfortable about going on a Sunday and she said that this was the last day that we could, if we wanted the loan. We found out after we closed that they charged us $200.00 for going in on a Sunday.
So, we go in and they bring us papers that had numbers on them that we had never seen. We explained that we were leaving, and again they convinced us to stay. They said they would look it over and see what was wrong, which they did. Mike came back in and said that they had drawn it up on a 15-year note instead of the 20 or 25 year note that we wanted. He went and had the papers drawn up again and this time the payment was right, but I noticed an extra $2500.00 charge on the break down. Then he told me that it was for our lower interest rate. He said that our interest rate would be about 16% if we didn't pay that amount.
I told Mike that I had specifically asked Evonne if we were being charged for a lower rate and she said we were not. He said he was sorry, and by this time he was acting very irritated an impatient. We told him that we didn't know if this was right for us because everything we had been told so far about this loan was untrue. We had been told that we would receive a check on the day of closing (which was not true), we were lied to about the interest rate and not having to pay for it and the whole deal seemed like a scam.
They told us we had already signed the Election Not to Rescind. We went ahead with it, feeling obligated and uncomfortable. Mike told us we would get our check in a few days and would be able to cash it immediately, at any bank. He explained that it would be a cashiers check.in fact, it was not a cashiers check, but an out of state check that even our bank should have put a 5-7 day hold on. We were in a bind again by the promises we had made to pay the companies that we owed money to. We had called all of these companies and told them we were going to pay them on the following Monday. Which of course we couldn't because of when the check would come in and when we would be able to actually cash it.
So, after all was said and done, we were stuck with $571.33 payment and we decided that we would just deal with that until the time when we could re-finance. Well, about two-month into the loan we got notification that our payment was going up to $806.00. I called Ameriquest and they said that it was escrow shortage. So, we sent the escrow check in for $1900.00 that we received back from our other mortgage company, and thought that it was taken care of. About one month later we received notice that our payment would be going up to $646.89. Again I called and told them that there was a misunderstanding. They replied that when they were figuring our loan that they accidentally didn't add in our taxes.
They said that it was a typo and that we were responsible for our new payment. They admitted that it was clearly their mistake. Yes, their mistake, but at our expense. We cannot afford $646.89 a month. I believe that this mistake was not a typo. I believe they figured the numbers the way they did to keep us from walking out at the closing. They got our payment where we wanted it and had us sign the papers knowing that when our payment went up later that it would be too late for us to do anything. Also, I am sure that they are getting away with this because they told us the typo was in our taxes. We were told that someone typed in $1.00 instead of our actual tax amount, which is closer to $1700.00. I wander sometimes if it is common practice for Ameriquest to make this tax figuring typo, or if we were the only one's this has happened to.
Ameriquest has already sold our mortgage to a company by the name of OCWEN. We have since received a certified letter saying that our loan was in default. Our loan was in default because we had been paying the $571.33 payment that we had originally agreed to pay. We have tried to talk to OCWEN about re-figuring our loan to get our payments lowered, leaving us with taxes to be owed at the end of the year. Apparently they are unable or unwilling to do that.
I want to reach as many people as I can with this letter to keep Ameriquest Mortgage from doing this to anyone else. I believe that they lied to us and deceived us and because of that we may be at risk of losing our home because we can't afford the new payment. You see, Ameriquest had an ideal deal with our house, we only owed $26,000. Now we owe over $50,000 plus interest, and we only re-financed with $20,000 cash back. I realize that it was a huge mistake on my husband's part and mine to go through with the loan. However, It wasn't right for Ameriquest to deceive us into a loan, and change our payment after we had already signed all of the legal documents binding us to that loan.
I hope that in writing this letter I can keep even one couple from going through what we have gone through since walking into an Ameriquest office. This letter is also being sent out in hopes that someone may have any advise for the situation we have now been put in by Ameriquest.
Mike
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
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