Complaint Review: Amerisave Mortgage

On April 6, 1010 I completed an online refinance loan application with amerisave.com. I entered accurate, truthful information that never changed based upon that initial application through the entire lifespan of the application process. Amerisave's application system pre-qualified us for a refinance, cash-out loan. The loan had an approximate 58% LTV. I have FICO scores in the high 700's, have never filed bankruptcy, and have life-long guaranteed California state employee retirement benefits. Also, keep in mind that this was a 58% loan-to-value package. The property had a recent, independent appraisal of $335k and had recently ungone a complete remodelling. I was taking out $150k in cash for the purpose of buying out a partner, as well as paying off an outstanding balance of $28.5k, which was going to be paid off with the $150k cashout. Not exactly a high risk loan by any stretch of the imagination...

The nature of my complaint against this firm is as follows:
1. The amerisave.com online application is deceptive and designed to lure prospective customers to their web site with low rates/lender fees. The web site content misleads the customer in thinking that the rate that attracted them to the site will be "locked in" when they complete the online application process and are "pre-qualified" (the immediate lock is common practice by other online lenders). What the site does not tell the customer is that the rate is not locked in until the customer submits both income and asset verificationto the satisfaction of Amerisave personnel. In my particular case, the rate lock was delayed because the loan agent (DeeAnn M.) claimed she did not receive all of the documentation (I have documentation that I sent it via email attachment) and with issues brought up that had already been disclosed on my initial application. This caused both my loan rate and lender fees to increase, costing me more money to obtain the loan.

I might add here that they ask you to fax/email the documentation. I do not have access to a fax machine and most people nowadays are in the same boat. Unless your have dial-up, subscribe to an Internet fax service, or have an outdated fax machine--who needs it? Anyway, many people have reported that the Amerisave fax machine was inoperable and that they could not get their documentation to the firm. Well, guess who has control of the machine? I would think that in time of increasing rates, the machine will NOT work! And, in time of lowering rates, the machine will work... Such clever folks they are!

As an aside, please note that when you send email attachments, the information is NOT secure. Thus, anyone with the expertise can intercept your attachment and get sensitive financial information. Other lenders (like Aimloan, where I processed my primary home refinance last year) provides a secure Ellie Mae web site upload for its customers). So, be careful how you send documents to them... What I did was to password-protect the pdf via Acrobat and called them with the password so that they could open the documents. You might think of a more clever way... But, just remember that email attachments are unsecured...
2. The Amerisave online application process asks the applicant to pay for a credit report for an amount of $35 (April 6 price; I researched it and this fee has varied over months/years). In order to pay this, the online application process asks for a credit card number. In my particular case, I entered my Discover Card number. Amerisave charged my credit card WITHOUT authorization for an appraisal later on in the process. I disclosed my credit card number to Amerisave to pay for the credit report, not anything else. As a result of the unauthorized use of my credit card, I have filed a successful dispute with Discover Card. Once Amerisave knew that I had filed a complaint for an unauthorized use of my credit card with Discover Card, they quickly refunded my money for the appraisal.

3. I fully disclosed in the initial online application that the property to be refinanced (with cash out) had been on the market within the last 6 months. My appraisal was scheduled to take place (and did take place) on April 8, 2010, at 2:00 PM PDT. In an email on April 8, 2010, 8:31 PM EDT (5:31 PM PDT), AFTER the appraisal had already been performed, DeeAnn M. sent me an email asking me When was the home taken off the market? In all honesty, the date didnt matter in light of the fact that I had already disclosed that the home was on the market within the past 6 months in the initial April 6 online application. Of course, this resulted in Amerisave increasing the lender fees (from an initial $3100 at the online application pre-qualifying to a $7400 amount prior to me canceling out) to the point that I had lost confidence in Amerisave and did indeed cancel the loan application on April 9, 2010, 4:29 PM PDT. Moreover, in an email dated April 9, 2010, 4:59 PM EDT, DeeAnn M. wrote me an email outlining several options, including a cancellation/refund of appraisal cost option.

As the reader can surmise, I took Option 1 and canceled. However, Amerisave still without authorization charged my Discover account anyway. On April 9, 2010, 8:23 PM EDT, I received a receipt via email from Customer Service stating that my Discover Card had been charged for $350. I immediately replied via email (time stamp: 5:30 PM PDT) and stated that per DeeAnn M. there was to be a refund for the appraisal charge. On April 10, 2010, 10:42 AM EDT, I received an email from Jessica T. from Customer Service stating, This appraisal was completed and the appraiser has been paid. This fee will not be refunded.

There were a few troublesome problems with the appraisal. (1) The appraisal was already performed AFTER DeeAnn M. came up with issues of when the house was taken off the market (I had already disclosed that it had been within the 6-month period) and other issues she disclosed. Hence, I could not cancel the appraisal and avoid the appraisal fee. Moreover, it was someones error at Amerisave that overlooked this fact before it went to underwriting. (2) An employee of Amerisave that I was directly dealing with (DeeAnn M.) neglected to have timelines in mind and offered what she could not deliver. That being said, I took Option 1 of her offering. In doing so, I was charged for the appraisal AFTER the Amerisave employee stated in writing that I had the cancellation/refund option. (3) The appraisal only took 15 minutes! My independent appraiser (that I had done in late 2009), took some 40 minutes, by comparison.

For the sake of documentation, the Amerisave appraisal report was neither seen, downloaded or otherwise received by me. Although, Amerisave quickly made it available to me via email, in lieu of their documentation stating that it was "available after closing, upon request..." Guess why they wanted me to download/see it? Of course, they could claim that I had "received it" and hence their charges were legitimate. So, so many ways they can work you!

If one takes the chain of events in mind, it was Amerisave who mishandled this loan, as what information I disclosed initially on the April 6, 2010 application never changed throughout the loan application process. The question here is whether they simply botched the loan application or whether it was by design... Either way, the customers pay more--which is what they want!

The personnel involved in this transaction neglected and overlooked what I disclosed at the very beginning: The home had been on the market and that it had been within 6 months. How much clearer can an applicant be? I finally lost confidence in Amerisave and canceled the loan application on April 9, 2010. Luckily, I had not signed nor returned any documents which (BEWARE) includes that you agree to a $500 cancellation fee, should you cancel the loan process.

This $500 cancellation fee is well documented all over the Internet by other disgruntled would-be borrowers. Needless to say, this firm has multiple ways of insuring that they milk their customers for everything they can. Their rate lock scheme is in a class by itself, as it floats by default until, and only until, they insure a higher rate/higher fees ABOVE what their web site automated scheme hooks you with! I sincerely doubt that any applicant gets the low rate that lured them to the Amerisave web site to begin with.

Oh, by the way, BE CAREFUL with their deceptive "electronic signature" part of the loan documents section of their online process. Read the documents before you click that you eSign the documents! By default, you will be signing that you are "floating your loan rate"!

These folks are a piece of art worthy of federal and state investigation. They have so many ways to reap more money out of us! It is astonishing! Do yourself a favor, read the complaints that others have posted all over the Internet and notice all the SIMILARITIES among what is posted/complained about. Yep! This is the classic "bait and switch" at its finest! Borrower Beware! Let's keep posting our horror experiences with Amerisave until we shut them down...