Complaint / Review
Provident Funding Associates
Made me pay the appraisal and pay off a HELOC, then dragged the process endlessly until I had to terminate the application

I applied for refinancing through First Lenders in September. The underwriter was Provident Funding. I was pre-approved by First Lenders, but Provident Funding insisted I pay off and close out a HELOC for which I had $7K outstanding balance.in order to close it out I had a pay an early termination fee of $345. I also paid the appraiser $400. The house I am refinancing has a mortgage already held by Provident Funding since last year (when I refinanced with them). During the process of refinancing this time, Provident, through First Lenders, asked for all kinds of never ending information. Everytime I gave them what they wanted, they asked for something else.

An example was how they wanted to know what was the source of a $200 deposit 2 months ago. They even wanted me to show them a copy of a $133 refund check I obtained from a store and deposited. The stream of requests was unending. They expected me to remember every penny I earned I deposited or paid for the last 2 1/2 months. All this when I had a LTV of 57%, and my income put me in the top 2%. I believe that once they learned I was refinancing a loan they already held, with very favorable terms offered by the broker, they decided to forestall the approval until I gave up. Twice the broker had to ask them for an extension because of all the information they were requiring.

They almost caused me to be late in paying my mortgage and taxes because each time they said I was approved they asked for more things and the closing date could not be established. All this in contrast to my first refinancing 15 months ago, with Provident, which went extremely smooth. Finally my wife and I could not take it anymore and we asked the broker to withdraw the application. So, in the end, they wasted my time for 2 1/2 months, and caused me to pay out $745, plus almost $7000 to close out my HELOC which had very favorable terms. Since this happened, I have heard that they have likewise given a very hard time to other current Provident Funding clients who were trying to refinance with them.