Countrywide bought our original loan about a month after we purchased our house. No big deal, we knew it was probably going to get sold off and Countrywide had a decent website.

Few months go by and rates drop like a rock and refinancing is looking like a good idea. At about that time we were contacted by Countrywide and offered the "Quick and Easy" refinance option. We figured we were already with them so it would make things that much easier. Well, I've come to realize nothing is easy when you're dealing with Countrywide.

After completing the "Quick and Easy" application over the phone we are told we should be receiving paperwork in a few days. I wait five days before calling to follow up. I am told to contact the branch in Corona, CA. I thought this was a little odd considering we live in San Diego, nowhere close to Corona. The Corona branch tells me to call the San Diego branch, who tells me they have no paperwork and to call Corona. Well final 7 days later the papers are ready, I drive out and pick them up.

I am by no means a mortgage expert and have been a homeowner for less than a year, but the way they put together their numbers scares me. After going through everything with my father, I show up at the branch with some questions. I think I walked out of there dumber than when I walked in. The "Loan Consultant" I dealt with came across as a complete knucklehead. I finally got her to correct some of the more blatant mistakes but when she didn't know an answer she just talked around it. I didn't want to cause any problems so I let it go.

Immediately following my office visit all voicemails, pages and emails went unanswered. Well you may say I was a jerk when I met with her, but that was not the case, her blacklisting me was completely unwarranted.

So after getting everything signed and returned, the wait begins. My calls regarding the loan status get me nowhere, I finally have to drive to the branch. I am promised I'm third in line for docs and it should only be a couple days. A week goes by, after numerous contact attempts my fiance gets a phone call and is told the papers should be ready the next day. We finally get them four days later.

I once again review all the paperwork with my father and we come across a few mistakes and questionable figures. By this point I have given up trying to contact anyone and drive to the branch yet again. I get to talk to someone else because our "Loan Consultant" is out sick. Luckily this lady sees the errors and sends me next door to the title company to have them fixed.

At this point everything looked good, we bring in the money we need to close and figure we're almost there. We get our final statement and excess escrow funds back and everything looks good.

Turns out it was too good to be true. We received our first statement for the new loan in the mail today and it contained a couple surprises. According to the statement we have no funds in our escrow account(for taxes,etc)and for some reason it is now our responsibility to pay home owners insurance. The escrow funds were supposed to be transferred from our old loan and the insurance was to be paid from those funds.

If I didn't know how incompetent Countrywide was I would figure they were trying to defraud me. So back to the branch I go.

Lesson learned:
Do not refi through your lender or a least Countrywide. They have no motivation to close, brokers don't get paid until they do. My father went through a mortgage broker for his refi and was done inside of a month and without any headaches. It took us 10 weeks and we are still having headaches.

I will never do business with Countrywide again.

Update Dec 11 2002

After my initial review we had some additional mix ups. The escrow balances was eventually found, in the form of a check that was mailed to us. Originally we had been told the balance would transfer over, not too big a deal. Next thing that came up was how insurance and taxes were to be handled. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say our supplemental tax bill was paid twice. After being told by two separate individuals there was no way Countrywide was going to pay, we paid it.

This is were thing start to turn around a bit. I come home one day and there is a message from a woman at Countrywide customer service, who leaves a direct number to reach her at. I returned the call and I am finally talking to someone who doesn't seem more confused than me and actually comes across as caring. She tells me she will look into the tax matter, tells me to call her direct number if I have any more questions and says she will get back to me when she knows anything. Get back to me? From my experience this seems too good to be true. Well, believe it or not, 2 days later I come home to another message, she has some info and would like to hear from me. I'm told once our tax collector kicks back the over payment she is going to have a check sent to us.

It's a shame our positive experience had to come so late in the process.


Recommended: No