Complaint Review: Ameriquest Mortgage

In response to Christian:

well done ! Its so typical of employees of corporations to think from their 'cubicle' and all the 'policies' floating around in their head to see the forest from the trees. Which is what certainly a judge will do.

To Argent:

I have to caution you again that the 'employee' of Americaquest did in fact tell him to miss the payments -and in fact fully admitted he did so in a 3 way call with his direct supervisor. Ameriquest is bound by law to in fact obey the action of its employee -no matter what 'techincal laws' it upholds. The judge will state what was reasonable for the guy to believe -and that was being directly told he could miss his payments from the very holder of the loan.

you obviously could care less about the guy -or you would be on his side like everyone else.

Stop insulting our intelligence and give the guy a break.


dont expect me to ever refi or negotiate an Ameriquest loan.

Dear Argent employee,

I am hoping that you do not work in the legal Dept for your company, if so your company is in trouble. It is the lenders responsability to tack on the payments at the end. A judge will not care how your company is structured, loan servicing vs. sales etc.. An agent/employee of your company stated that the payments did not need to be made, the department this came from is irrelevant.

Your response is far from sufficient. "Take responsibility and read the fine print"?

What fine print did this person have to read at this stage? No respa was sent and a verbal commitment was made. If a person claims that they got screwed after they refi-ed with you then yes they should have read the fine print. This however is a case of misrepresentation before the transaction was made and it is was done by an employee of the company that holds the loan. This borrower is right and should e-mail the VP and this will be taken care of.

Your continued ingnorant responses only hurt your cause further.

I am not passing the buck. Not by a long shot. The LO is guilty of not explaining to the borrower the impact of missing a payment on their credit should the loan not close before that payment becomes past due. The employee may be guilty of actually telling the borrower to skip a few payments. Not being part of the conversation -- I don't know if that is what the employee actually said or if the employee explained the common thought that one "skips a payment" to the borrower in a way that made it seem like he was getting a free month. What is clear is that the borrower understood something other than what was true -- however that occured.

Prior to joining Argent a number of years ago, I originated loans for a large "A+" paper lender. I heard on more than one occasion that the reason there is a lateness on the mortgage we are refinancing was because they were told they could "skip a payment" when they refinanced previously -- so they did -- not realizing that all they were doing was not making their first payment as scheduled, because they already had at settlement.

My post was not to admonish the borrower -- but to explain why this happened. An employer is responsible for the actions of their employee -- without a doubt. I'm not quite sure, however, how you will be able to sell a Judge that the servicing department is involved in a potential refinance of a loan. They are not -- they service the loan they have until such time as the loan is closed -- and then they set up and service the new loan. They don't even know an application exists for a new loan, until it has actually closed and been set up for servicing. The branches originate new loans.

If everyone wants to only blame the big bad lender for taking advantage of them -- without taking the time to read what they signed and take responsibility for their own commitments -- then people will continue to feel taken advantage of.

Dear Ameriquest employee:

My name is tom and i have been a credit professional for over 16 years. I have no idea who you think you are -but lets face it , you are not someone i would feel safe doing business with.

I have been a lender. Prime and sub prime. Lets get something straight right off the bat.

The idea that some shmuck calling directly from Ameriquest to refinance your home -the very loan you already have with Ameriquest -yes makes the fellow who is calling responsible for his/her actions.

The guy then proceeds to 'sell' a refi -then later on tells the consumer that he does not have to make the 2 next payments . This is the main evidence . He is a paid professional from Ameriquest, and if he tells the consumer to miss the payments, the consumer does not have to make the payments.

Regardless of whether the consumer is bound to make his payments, nor if the loan agreement says so or not until the refi kicks in or is tied up in closing -the guy told him flat out he didnt have to make it.

you must be the inventor of the phrase 'pass the buck' . According to you , the misguided employee who fully admits telling the guy to miss the payments -need not have to pay for the action. No , according to you , the consumer has to eat the situation and be near forclosure.

You have GOT to be kidding me right? The employee can be reprimanded and or fired, however the company itself is legally responsible any action an employee makes on its behalf. Therefore, Ameriquest is legally obligated to tack the 2 payments on to the end of the loan -taking responsiblity for its employees actions - and reporting the consumer as still current.

Why? -the employee told him so. End of story. Passing the buck to the consumer after the fact is the biggest crock of s**t i have ever heard of.

According to you however, it doesnt matter what an Ameriquest employee tells the consumer -they dont have to be responsible for what they say to said consumer? Fly that by a judge. It is irrellivant what the contract states if the consumer can prove his lender told him to miss payments.

What an assole.

When you refinance your mortgage -- be it with your existing lender or a new lender -- you are not relieved of the obligation to make your payments on time on the existing loan. The loan papers you signed at closing of the existing loan -- do not say that you can skip payments for any reason. They say that the payment is due on a certain date. Period. Nothing other than a letter from the EXISTING lender referencing the EXISTING loan lets you off the hook on payments of that loan.

When you make an application to refinance your mortgage, your obligation to the present mortgage does not cease UNTIL such time as you have closed on the new mortgage, which pays off the old one and ends your obligation to it. Depending on what day of the month you close on a refinance, often times the next months' payment gets rolled into the new closing -- so the "first" payment isn't typically due for 30 days. This is because when you make your mortgage payment on the first of the month, in most cases you are actually paying the interest charges from the previous month and the principal from the current month. So on a refinance transaction, included in your closing costs is accrued interest from the beginning of the month until the date of closing (which is part of the pay off of the existing loan) PLUS interest from the date of closing until the last day of the month (which is interest on the NEW LOAN) -- and in some cases the entire next months' payment (again, it depends on what day of the month you are closing -- the closer you are to the end of the month, the more likely you are to make that months' payment at the closing table).

If your loan officer told you that you were not going to have to pay two payments -- it is likely that what he meant was that he planned to have you close on the new loan before the payment was late and you would have the next payment included in the closing costs. This practice is typical --as there is no "free month." Whether it's the new loan or the old loan -- you are paying interest for each day you live in a house with a mortgage.

Nonetheless, the LO should have explained to you that there is no free month -- or even free day for that matter. He should have explained that in order for you not to be late on your payments, you have to do one of two things. Either close before the payment is 30 days past due (the 1st day of the month following the missed payment is when you are reported as 30 days late) -- or make your payments on time until you close.

Your loan officer did not, actually, "rip you off" -- but he clearly did not correctly explain the "no payments for two months" statement that he made -- or the consequences if for some reason you didn't close on the new loan before the old loan was 30 days past due. The LO clearly dropped the ball by not making sure your loan closed in time and now doesn't want to take responsibility for his misinformation.

There's very little you are going to be able to do about this -- because inspite of the LO's bad information/explanation -- you were still obligated to the first loan and nothing about initiating a mortgage application to refinance that loan changes that obligation -- except when the new loan is closed and funded.

Try calling ACORN in your area They will help you get the loan and get out of trouble, do not wait, also call the office of the Pres. at Ameriquest, record all phone calls and let them know you are recording them. They love to put you out on the streets, do not let them! and again call ACORN.

GOOD LUCK

I have been offered by a number of companies (but never a mortgage company) the opportunity to skip a payment. A good rule of thumb is never to accept such an offer. Interest continues to accure and it places you in a deeper debt position.

As for your case, Ameriquest worked a number on you. They got you to withhold two months payments and consequently put you in a possible foreclosure situation. I suspect the reason you could not get refinanced was because you had one or two missed payments on your mortgage.

Even after the salesman acknowledged to his boss that he gave you wrong advice, Ameriquest did not do the right thing. The right thing would have been to forgive the two months, and just extend the loan by two months.

I suggest to you and any other reader that:

1. Never skip a payment for any reason, it only helps the lender, and will financially harm you.

2. Check with the credit bureau to see if the reason you were not able to get the loan was because of a missed mortgage payment. If so, write each of the three agencies explaining what happened and contesting the entry.

3. Do not accept that Ameriquest can do nothing. Their representative gave you admittedly bad advise, for which you should not have to bear the consequences. Insist that they stop the collection calls, and correct any error appearing on your credit report caused by their action.

4. Finally, assuming they may have fired the sales rep that gave you advice, they may say something like "He doesn't work here anymore".
SO! While acting as their representative, and under their employment, they are liable for the actions of their employee, particulary when you act in good faith upon that advice. Firing an employee does not relieve a company of its obligations.