Outline · [ Standard ] · Linear+ Surprise Prepayment Penalty and more lies from broker

[randys42]

I can say that I got hit with a surprise pre-payment fee. I had applied for a 1 year mortgage with Ameriquest (August 2004). I needed cash out to repair my credit and keep my interest low so I went with an ARM. They knew I was going to refinance the following year, maybe with them but there was no guaranty. When I refinanced this year, I found that my pay off to Ameriquest included a $4,717.18 early payment fee! There was nothing that I saw indicating such a penalty. I would have never taken a one year mortgage knowing that in addition to the $5K to $6K in closing fees to Ameriquest and simlar closing fees to the new mortgage company I'd be paying another $4717! That would have been insane.

Randy

[Christine]

I suppose that somewhere in your closing papers is the disclosure of the prepay - did you look through everything?

I just posted http://creditsuit.org/credit.php/blog/comm..._fraud_rampant/

In this posting I explain WHY lenders (not just Ameriquest) get away with this:

the governments WANT you to get these loans.

You also mention credit repair, and you can also thank the government for the lack of information on how credit scores work. Instead, they allow scummy credit repair outfits to DESTROY peoples' credit!

There is a reason for this madness: Greed

The legislators and regulators and judges are totally corrupt and the goal is to have bankers exploit as many people as possible. You're one of them.

Lying is a perfectly acceptable practice in American courts and businesses.

If the prepayment penalty is disclosed on your Good Faith Estimate, there's not much you can do except hope for a class action based on their failure to dislose verbally, which isn't really required.

If the prepay disclosure is not on the GFE but only on the closing docs, you have a good reason to complain.

And of course they can't charge a prepayment penalty if it's not in the closing docs.

[randys42]

I thought I had. I'd had 5 closings prior to that one and never had a problem so I wasn't a newbie. And you're dead on about repairing credit through one of those credit repair companies. I had heard so much about them and they were being used by so many people. I had perfect credit before running into some bad times and suddenly I was getting 28.9% interest rates. At that that point I figured signing with a credit company would get the rates dropped which it did but I paid a ton of money for that service.

Now the new mortgage broker First Guaranty had said they'd put the payoff and prepayment penalty at the backside of the new mortgage so it wouldn't affect our cash out. This was stressed constantly by my wife. At closing there were still questions about some issues but the cash out was stated clearly. On the fitfth day after closing we got a check that was almost $5000 less than what we needed. That was because they took the $4717 pre-payment penalty to Ameriquest out of our cash back. They had also cut checks to Sears both a balance that didn't exist. The account didn't exist so the checks we did get are not even usable at this point. These checks were all cut during our right to rescind period. Interestingly, they never disclosed this, that the mortgage company owns the Title compnay. We had to have a $15,000 job done to our basement because of water and black mold. This cash out was to pay for it. Between that and the incrediuble amount of junk fees they tack on at closing, we literally have no cash whatsoever. I mean nothing and we owe thousands of dollars. I have a pretty nice amount of money in my retirement account but the only way I can access my retirement fund is if I retired from my job. I'm way too young for that.

I don't need to say that this has create incredible stress on our marriage.

This is a nightmare and you are right, this government (at all levels) just serves itself. If it does help someone it's only because there is something in it for them. You would get more representation if instead of paying taxes, you gave that money to a candidate in office.

Randy

[Christine]

Thanks for posting, it is REALLY important that people like you come forward and at least tell their story as it happened.

The primary reason for divorces is financial problems and I hope you can work things out with your wife.

If there's any way you can prove what was said by the broker, you also have great legal claim. Even if you can't prove it, you might want to submit your complaint to the broker's licensing agency.

I can't even imagine why they wrote the check to Sears, I suppose they'll fix that.

MAYBE you can ask for recission because you didn't get what the closing papers said?

From now on, make sure that you always follow up on verbal communications by fax or e-mail.

"This fax is to confirm that you will ..... Please advise immediately if I misunderstood."

Personally, I record my calls, but it's much easier to have a written record.

And everybody looking for a mortgage ought to read http://creditsuit.org/credit.php/blog/hous..._fraud_rampant/

Your broker just wanted to make a commission at ANY cost.

[Christine]

I just moved your postings to a new topic. You might want to send the URL to your broker for response.

And, you can send out a press release entirely free of charge.

The ONLY way to change how business is done is to hit them where it hurts: damage their reputation, as that will ultimately cost them $$$$.