I should have checked Epinions reviews first
Written: Aug 17 '04 (Updated Oct 16 '04)
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Pros: Low rate on the day we applied.
Cons: Horrible service
The Bottom Line: Poor service and inaccurate offers on website likely to negate advantages of low rates.
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| Granto's Full Review: Priceline Mortgage |
It looks like the huge majority of epinions reviews accurately describe our disappointing experience, too.
We just bought a house in October 2003. We're already refinancing, due to low rates and increased market value of the home. We're in WA state, but it seems the loan officer works in Florida. We're dealing with a fixed rate 30 year mortgage.
Priceline Mortgage has been slow and unorganized. Promised return phonecalls never happen. A promise of "I'll call you by this afternoon" turns into you calling and leaving voicemail for 2-3 days, and finally having them answer one day or leave you a voicemail outside your normal working hours.
Details of the mortgage that were verbally agreed upon "weren't remembered" by our rep on the next phonecall. Get everything in writing. I would also suggest recording the phonecall. (You need to check the laws for your state. Many require consent by both parties to record a call.)
Online, we were offered refinance rates as low as 5.5% with no points. After they did credit checks and called us back, they decided we only qualified for 5.675% with no points (despite us having excellent credit histories). The paperwork they sent us was for 5.675%, and 1 point. Originally, they verbally specified no points. But later, they argued that wasn't the case, we were mistaken. It's almost like they are baiting and switching, by advertising the lowest rates and not giving them to you.
That's why I recommend getting everything in writing or recording it. I suspect these people must work with large volumes of clients, and I can see how they could make mistakes like that.
Despite having filled out the application online (with the correct data), they appear to have someone transcribing it manually onto the printed paperwork they sent.
My DOB, address, employment length, and marital status were entered correctly on their website. On the paperwork we got, they were all incorrect. I corrected them by hand, and send the forms in. 3 weeks later, they contacted me by phone, to verify my answers. They would read the incorrect info, and I responded it was wrong, and that I had corrected it on the form. When they double-checked it, they saw that was true.
It's been a month since we applied, with us responding immediately to everything we've received. We're locked in at a rate that is lower than our local lenders, but higher than many other lenders. Since they're really reselling mortgages of other lenders, you may not qualify for the rates listed on their website. The rates they have on their website now are lower than what we locked in at, with no floatdown options to get a lower rate if they continued to drop before we closed. We still don't even have a closing date.
Unless they get their act together in the next week, we're going to forfeit our non-refundable $395 fee, and go with another lender.
Our first mortgage was through Washington Mutual. Their rates aren't really competitive now, otherwise we would go with them. Although I was disappointed with parts of their service at the time (About 60% of the paperwork had typos in our names, addresses, etc), working with a local person who knew our details, and didn't "forget" the terms of the mortgage, in retrospect went a lot smoother and was far easier. We only met face to face twice.
In fact, the original purchase of our home was much smoother than this refinance. Although it took about 6 weeks until closing on that, it was owned by someone else at the time, who was doing extensive work on it.
It's taken us nearly that long to refinance the house we already own and live in!
I would highly recommend avoiding Priceline, unless you can handle poor service. To some people, their marginally lower rate may be worth the hassle. But generally, there are lenders with far better service for the same or marginally higher rates.
Update: after 9 weeks, they continued to occasionally contact us for info we had already sent to them. Rates had continued to drop in the meantime. They still had no estimated closing date.
By forfeiting our $395 fee to priceline and switching to a different lender, we reaped these benefits:
-Got better service
-Got a better rate of 5.375% with no points, saving us about $15000 over the life of the mortgage
The lower rate will cancel out the lost $395 fee in less than a year.
It also resulted in additional inquiries on our credit reports, from the new lender. This (like all inquiries) has temporarily lowered our credit scores slightly.
I am still recommending that people stay away from priceline mortgage, based on my experience.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Granto
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Location: Bellingham, WA
Reviews written: 45
Trusted by: 5 members
About Me:
I don't write as many epinions as I used to, because they pay less now.
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