Complaint Review: Guaranty Bank GB Home Equity LLC

There have been two incidences where Guaranty Bank missrepresented themselves to us. The first incident came about on 5/21/07 when we met with the Attorney to close on our second mortgage. The bank called to schedule our closing appointment, at which time they stated the terms of the loan. It was to be a 30 yr. fixed rate for the life of the loan. As we met with the Attorney, she disclosed that the loan was a 20 yr. fixed with a final BALLON payment of $36,000+. Of course at that point we discontinued the meeting and instructed the Attorney to void all paperwork.

We contacted our Broker, who was very disgruntled with Guaranty Bank. The Broker tried to make amends so they would not loose our business. Guaranty Bank decided they would lower our interest rate because of the miss-representation, but they would not take the loan to a 30 yr. fixed. Because we were on a time crunch to consolidate our debt, we decided to agree to these terms.

Several days later we met again with the closing Attorney and signed the paperwork. The Attorney stated that the money for the creditors would be paid to the creditors by the next Wednesday. She went over all the paperwork with us thuroughly, including the Disbursement Request and Authorization which stated, "Please Disburse as follows", "Amount paid to others on Borrower's behalf," with each creditor and their amounts listed below. This is the ONLY documentation throughout the ENTIRE paperwork that tells how the money will be disbursed. This naturally lead us to believe that after signing the paperwork, Guaranty Bank would payoff our lenders! We have consolidated debt in the past and the banks have always paid off the creditors electronically.

The next Wednesday came and the debt had not been paid. On Thursday, to our suprise we found a FedEx envelope on our doorstep. Inside the envelope were 5 checks to each creditor totaling $60,000! There was NO other paperwork, only checks! We signed NOTHING stating we would recieve five checks totaling $60,000 on our doorstep via FedEx! We never imagined we would have to take care of this ourselves. I hate to think what might have happened if we had not been at home and found those checks! There was not even a request for signature!!! Now it would take another week or longer for our creditors to receive their money. We were now accumulating interest with both the creditors who were suppose to have been paid, along with interest from Guaranty Bank!

We immediately contacted Guaranty Bank. The first person stated that she could not help us and there were no managers in the office who could help. She advised us to call back on Friday. On Friday we called the manager whom the first lady gave us the name of. She told us it was FedEx's fault (although there was NO request for signature from Guaranty Bank). She told us it was our Broker's fault, although the Broker was given the SAME information as we were and he also assumed the money would be paid electronically. Finally she told us it was OUR fault for not requesting that the creditors be paid electronically. Then she told us we would need to contact the Atlanta branch for further compliants. We then contacted Josh Bryan at the Atlanta, GA Guaranty Bank branch. Josh Bryan was also VERY rude to us. He told us we should not "assume" things. He told us that we should have been expecting our package even though NO ONE told us to expect it!!! He said that they've been mailing checks for years and everyone is always at home when the checks arrive! He also contradicted the lady who told us it was OUR fault for not requesting that the money be paid electronically. He said that they NEVER handle money electronically and the whole bank knows it! Wake up dude! It's 2007, everything is handled electronically. Money is always being wired to and fro. PAPER rarely exists anymore! We asked Josh Bryan to, at the very least reimburse us for the costs of overnighting the checks. (We were not about to mail $60,000 in checks through the regular post office and just hope that they arrive!) Josh Bryan told us he would not even do that much!

We then contacted our Broker who was appauled at Guaranty Bank. He couldn't believe the way we had been treated and he also could not believe that there was ABSOLUTELY NO paperwork stating the way the money was to be disbursed. When it stated "Amount paid to others on my behalf", we thought that meant Guaranty Bank was paying others on our behalf! We didn't expect that Guaranty Bank would write out a bunch of checks for us and WE would pay the others on our behalf!! The Broker agreed to reimburse us for the fees to overnight the checks. He was very appoligetic.

I want everyone to know the horrors we've experienced with Guaranty Bank! Our hands are tied and they know that. Guaranty Bank tried to blame everyone but themselves for what they did. They don't care about there customers and I guess they do not care if they have another customer, because I'm filing a complaint with everybody out there!

Charles
Commerce, Georgia
U.S.A.