I was recently outraged by the fact that First Horizon couldn't wait to damage my long-standing perfect credit record (706 score). I have never been late on a morgage payment in the past but recently was informed by my morgage broker that I was: My husband and I applied for a construction loan and our broker ran a credit report which indicated a 30 days late payment reported by First Horizon. Completely shocked, I called the bank immediately. They informed me that the payment still had not been made (into 45 days at this point), so I immediately took care of it. Our family happened to be very busy that month (we're self-employed and have two teenagers) so it's not inconcievable that I may have forgotten to call the payment in as I usually do. (Shoot me - I'm human).
The thing that has really made my blood boil though is how First Horizon has handled the situation. When I first called them after speaking with my broker, I asked why they had not called to let me know there was a problem. They said they had - three times. I informed the cust. Service rep. That I had not recieved any of these messages. I asked what number they called and the woman recited my home number; she said they had my work number on file also but admitted that no attempt had been made to call me there. (I was later told by one of the supervisors that they don't call customers at work because "some" customers don't like to recieve such calls at work.)
Since I work full time, my teenage son checks our phone messages when he gets home from school each day. I asked him if he remembered playing back any messages from First Horizon Bank. He said yes, but then explained that because these were telemarketer-style recorded messages ("you have a very important message from First Horizon Bank"), he assumed they were telemarketers and didn't bother to let me know.
First Horizon said they had also sent a letter informing me of the late payment; however, because we had misplaced our mail box key and had to get the lock replaced, we didn't recieve our mail for three weeks.
I tried to explain these circumstances in a letter to First Horizon's research department but that didn't do any good. Next, I called and asked to speak with a supervisor there but she had no sympathy either.
The big question is, would anyone who has worked so hard to maintain an excellent credit record delibrately ignore a call or letter from her morgage company? Of course not! After three unreturned phone calls, you would think First Horizon would get a clue and try to contact me at work! Instead the big bullies rushed to damage a perfect credit record. (They reported deragatory info. Within two weeks after 30 days had elapsed) How unethical, unprofessional and totally UNFAIR!
On top of all this, despite all the advertising, it's impossible to make payments on their faulty website. I tried over and over on my pc at home and at work when we first took out the loan two years ago, but I finally gave up after calling their rep. Who was unable to solve the problem (I'm very computer literate so it wasn't anything I was doing.) Further, when I tried to have the PMI (private morgage insurance) dropped from my payments just over a year ago, First Horizon informed me that even though I had just had my house appraised by a licensed appraiser, they would require that I pay them to send their own appraiser out (what a scam). They are still collecting PMI from me even though the value of my home has increased by 50% in the last two years.
I now have a hatred for this bank and have informed my banker that I would rather pay a higher interest rate than ever take out a loan with First Horizon again. I plan to write a letter to their corporate office about this and send letters out to any other consumer website I can find. I'm going to contact the Better Business Bureau, as well.
This means war first horizon bank!!!
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