Complaint Review: Ameriquest - Daytona Beach Florida

Last month, I received a cold call from the local Ameriquest office, asking if I was interesting in refinancing. As I currently have an 8.25% fixed rate with Chase, I said I might be, and that I also wanted $3000 cashout for home improvement. I answered several questions, and they called me back 30 minutes later with a fixed rate of 5.45%. They wanted me to sign papers that very day.

Fortunately, I don't do things that way. I said I wanted to look over the RESPA before I agreed to anything. They said I'd receive it in a day, two at the most. Fine, I said, I'd call them after I'd had a chance to look it over. Long story short, it NEVER ARRIVED (first red flag), and after several phone calls a day from them over the course of a week, I decided to agree to set up the closing, just so I could look at the papers.

I went in, sat down, and they immediately started flipping papers--sign here, sign here, etc. Each time I attempted to read anything, the two men started shouting about the "wonderful" seven day recission period, and telling me I could look it over at home(second red flag). But one thing they could NOT slide past me was that the interest rate had magically gone up to 5.5%. When questioned, their response was (are you ready for this?) that the rate WAS 5.45, but was listed as 5.5 because "the computer couldn't read it that way." Now, there are more red flags waving than I can count.

I am heartily embarrassed to admit that I signed the papers just to end the pressure. But by the time I arrived home, I had had plenty of time to read much of the paperwork. (I live outside Daytona Beach. With Spring Break in full swing, I was stuck in traffic for over an hour.) I realized that the interest rate was indeed 5.5%, and that the $3000 cashout I had been promised had magically decreased to about $1800, AND that, while my payment had decreased about $75 a month, they had not--as I had requested--put in my taxes and insurance.

All this was bad enough. Then I noticed, towards the end of the mountains of paperwork, that my brand new mortgage would immediately be sold to, and serviced by (drum roll, please) OCWEN. That name rang a very discordant bell in my brain. So I got on the computer, typed Ocwen into Google, and lo and behold--up pops the RipOff Report. I cancelled the mortgage via certified mail AND via phone call within three hours of signing it.

That didn't, however, stop them from calling me back three times until, at the last call, they were willing to give me everything they had originally promised me, AND "pay" my prepayment penalty. No thanks, Ameriquest/Ocwen.

Thank you, RR, and thank you to the many consumers who have taken the time to keep others out of the same situation they now find themselves in! You all saved my financial life, and I am forever grateful.

Mary

Deland, Florida
U.S.A.