Should I stay away from applying for Bank of America mortgage?

[superdesi]

I've been here for quite some time (on and off) and now finally ready to apply for a mortgage pre-approval.   I will be applying to a few lenders within a week (so it will count as one inquiry).

On this forum,  I have read many threads on how people stayed away from BoA mortgages and did not recommend them.    Does that still hold true?  

[Anonymous]

When I applied to pre-qualify for a loan with BOA, all I had to do was enter the details of my income and the desired loan amount. The automated systemt went out and pulled my credit score, then returned a "congratulations your  approved" pre-qualify letter. From what I understant, BOA pre-qual isn't worth much because nothing is verified by a human.until much later in the loan application process Anyone and their dog with descent credit could go in and enter numbers in order to get a letter generated.  

[marty56]

Check out a local CU.  They tend to have the best rates, low closing costs and possibly no PMI.  I will never do business with a commerical bank again and with cause I hate BofA with a passion. 

[superdesi]

Thank you guys for your input.  I will look into a CU in my area.  I don't think all commercial banks are bad.  I seem to hear praise regarding Wells Fargo.

[Anonymous]

Both BofA and Wells Fargo are notoriously hard to deal with customer service wise.  Especially if you ever get into some trouble.  The upside is that they often do have some lower limitations than smaller banks, etc.  I know when everyone was moved up to 620 minimum FICO they were still doing limited loans down to 580 or 600.  I doubt they still do that (as alot of banks are already moving up to 640-660 minimum FICO), but they may be easier to get done in some ways.  That said, the general customer service with BofA has been horrible for me and Wells Fargo got alot of flack for how they handled alot of the mess over the last year or two.

[Duke-of-Earl]

Here's my tale of near-woe with BofA.  They acquired my mortgage when they bought out Countrywide.  I thought they did an excellent job of servicing it, except that they never really seemed to integrate the mortgage and deposit branches of their business.  Even though I scheduled online mortgage payments from my BofA checking account, the mortgage system kept warning me that my payment was due soon.

On the whole, I was satisfied enough that I started my search for a refi with them.  The rep I talked with quickly quoted me a rate, 4.00% (this was last June).  Seemed pretty high to me, but I went on to ask some of the other questions on my list.  After answering a couple, he suddenly interrupted me, "Wow, I've never seen anything like this!  You know what?  I just got an e-mail, all our rates are going up by 5/8%.  I can keep you at that 4% I quoted if we can lock in the next 10 minutes."  Red alert.

I said I wasn't nearly ready to apply yet, had just started shopping around.  He insisted it was a "no lose proposition", app fee wouldn't be charged until later.  I thought it might be OK since I hadn't given him a CC number (although I do have a BofA card).  Well, their rates didn't go up, and I got quotes at 3.50% and 3.25% from other lenders.  When I called back at that rep's "private extension" to say I wouldn't be going ahead with the BofA loan, I got a different rep, who said they normally charge an app fee in such a case.  I gave the name of the original contact and quoted exactly what he had said.  The second rep went away to consult for a while, came back and just said "We' ll cancel your application without charge".  I never heard anything further from them about it.

I came away from the experience with a sour taste about BofA, but I have to say any large company could have a sleaze or two on board, and they did make it right for me in the end.  Naturally, I took one of the lower rates.

[mauve]

I'd go to consumerist.com and search for posts on BoA, WF, etc before committing to any of them - there's stories about them doing things like foreclosing on *current* mortgages, and ones that aren't even theirs. 

[Anonymous]

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@mauve wrote:

I'd go to consumerist.com and search for posts on BoA, WF, etc before committing to any of them - there's stories about them doing things like foreclosing on *current* mortgages, and ones that aren't even theirs. 

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You can't always go by what you read in the complaint boards. If you search any large financial institution, you will find some kind of complaints and horror stories. With the volume of customers these places have, if a miniscule percentage of their customers is unhappy, that could equal quite a few people since they serve so many customers. Try it: Go to Google and type in WF Complaings, BoA Complaints, US Bank Complaints etc. You will find a lot of info.

[mauve]

Consumerist.com is actually affiliated with Consumer Reports. 

[Anonymous]

Ok. I thought it was just another complaint website, where anybody could post anything, like rip-off report etc.