LendingTree

Pros: one place to get many quotes
Cons: $450  fee and my phone is still ringing off the hook with persistant brokers!

What lending tree doesn't tell you up front is that once you close a loan from using a quote from their site the lender will charge you $450 lending tree fee on top of everything else!  Very disappointing! 

Pros: None. Don't bother using this service
Cons: Lack of quality vendors. One offer received was misleading or dishonest.

I signed up for a mortgage refinance through Lending Tree and despite excellent credit, I only got one company's offer.  The company WCS Lending gave me a great quote ~4.375%, but when I got the Good Faith Estimate the rate was ~5.5%. It felt like a bait and switch tactict to me.

The mortgage consultant, said it was a typo and he simply entered the wrong number. But, the revised rate was 5.5 not even 5.375. A typo from 4.375 to 5.5 - or even 5.375 is inexcusable. Since they refused to stand by their original rate, I tried to enter a formal complaint with Lending Tree since according to their records, both WCS Lending and the mortgage consultant have 4 star feedback. Lending tree only said that they would consider all information received.

Lending Tree is waist of time, provides bad information from bad companies and then does not allow you to enter negative feedback about the company or the mortgage consultant. 

Buyer Beware!
 

Pros: Settled quickly. We've got no debt and an 820 credit rating.
Cons: We probably paid too much for this refi.

After weeks of back and forth with agent from LSI, Inc. one of the Lending Tree brokers that contacted me, we "locked" at .4625 for a 15 yr refi with 1 point. About 5 hours before the escrow agent shows up for settlement, the origination fee went up to 1.25% -- an additional $500. I couldn't believe it. The agent gave me some bullcrap which made no sense and said that he pleaded with their bank to knock charges off of the title stuff. The difference was supposedly $180. Nonetheless, we came very close to cancelling the loan. I would steer away from these guys and try to find local banks or brokers you can negotiate with and trust.

Pros: None.
Cons: Very expensive lesson I learned. Unprofessional and unreliable staff, and expensive.

Horrible customer service. They'll ask for upfront fee of $600 for home refi and then leave you hanging. I had to call them to get updates, got stood up by their appraiser. No one had any idea what had happened. I missed the December 31st deadline due to their incompetence, and got charged $600 for which I have nothing to show for.

Pros: I found no pros in this experience
Cons: Supposed to be easy and effective -- it's neither

I was recently in the market for a home mortgage and thought I would try Lending Tree. They said you would get up to four responses within minutes. I realized quickly that the operative phrase here is "up to."

In fact, I got one response -- from Quicken. And from Quicken I got a used car hustle - complete with "If I get the rate you want, are you prepared to do a deal today?" And the requisite: "I have to take this to my manager." They quoted what they said was their best rate because I was such a solid borrower. And when I said that they were way high -- they immediately started coming down. I need to go on line for this? When I told them the rate and costs I got from a local bank, the sale person's response was "My manager says that is impossible." Well -- that is the rate I got and the mortgage I now have.

And just to complete the experience -- very few of the facts I dutifully filled out on Lending Tree made it to Quicken. I essentially had to do the app again.

Pros: Great Customer Service.
Easy To navigate site.
Great rates for good/excellent credit.
Cons: N/A

We have now gotten 3 loans through lending tree and we are always very happy.  We get great deals on rates (we have 1 auto loan refinanced, 1 home refinance and 1 new mortgage) and the customer service is awesome.  Like any lender, if you have so-so or bad credit, even lending tree isn't going to compete for your loan but if you have good or great credit, this is the place for you to get a loan.  Everything is extreamly clear and easy, never any bumps in the road and if you have any questions, they are answered fully and promptly.  I cannot say enough good things about lendingtree.com and I will continue to use them for future loans.

Pros: None
Cons: Sell your contact information to telemarketers, featured lenders offer nothing special

Literally minutes after completing my LendingTree application I began receiving all kinds of phone calls from pushy, deceptive, telemarketer/used car salesman-type mortgage lenders. Most offered nothing special by any stretch of the imagination, and had relatively high rates. After receiving endless phone calls, I attempted to ignore them. Many continue to call my house several times a day. In addition to the few lenders that lending tree selected for me, I am pretty sure that they sold my contact information to countless others who have also been ringing my phone off the hook. The other day I had nine new voice mail messages. I am seriously considering changing my number. I feel like an idiot for using LendingTree. I should have expected this type of thing to happen. Personally, I think I will be much better off searching websites of local and more reputable/established banks and comparing rates myself.

Pros: the agent was very friendly and knowledgeable.
Cons: wouldn't give me the appraisal report that they paid for with my money.

I signed a rate lock agreement and decided not to go through with the loan that I started to process. I don't have a complaint about their service in general. There is nothing special about this company. They are an ordinary broker. However, I am very upset that they wouldn't even give me a copy of the appraisal report that I paid for, UNLESS the loan funded. I wouldn't do business with a company like this again.

Pros: In the end- NONE
Cons: $600 Lock Deposit Non-refundable even it THEY are at Fault

After paying Lending Tree a whopping $600 to lock the rate, which, by the way many local banks do absolutely free, they sent an appraiser from out of state who undervalued the home by $40,000! The square footage was off by a couple hundred! I received NO HELP from Lending Tree, they basically acted as if it was my problem to deal with. I ended up having to use a local bank, who actually ended up giving me a lower rate, but I was unable to get my $600 dollars back even though it was their fault that the loan did not go through! BEWARE!

Pros: One application netted four offers
Cons: the offers were so far off my terms as to be useless

Competition is meaningless when the terms vary as widely as my 4 offers did. I asked for quotes on $15k over 4 years and got offers for $20k over 5 years and $25k over 6 years, and one for $13k which was useless.

Principal is kind of a fixed notion, so I was struck by the offers not sticking to that amount. I fully expected different (nay competitive!) offers as to interest rates, but got only above market quotes on different terms than I requested.

I tried LT online help to see if A) My request was unusual or B) Maybe I messed up the application somehow. The answer (3 times) was to contact the lender. So what was the whole application process for? Contacting a lender by myself is easy, I wanted a meaningful response to my loan request.

I didn't get that at Lending Tree. And now they have my info for 2 years :(

Pros: Easy to use website
Cons: Customer service is non-existent Not satisfied with its business practices

There are much better choices than LendingTree.com. They tend to cater to the people with lower FICO scores who don't know differently. I was pushed to four lenders all substandard even with a FICO store of over 800. One lender wanted $400 upfront and then sends me all of the mortgage paperwork expecting me to have it notarized myself.

When I complained about the practices of one of their vendors, my compliant went ignored. I would never use this company again.

Pros: Lots of offers
Cons: Can't stop the offers from coming (phone and email), even if you get a loan.

I found a better loan elsewhere and tried to close my account with lendingtree.com, but they stated that they couldn't because state and federal laws required them to maintain a record of the loan request. I said that was fine, but to close my account so that I wouldn't keep receiving offers for a loan that I no longer needed, but again they said they couldn't do it. The best they could do is put my phone on a "Do Not Call" list that will take up to two weeks complete. I regret giving them my contact information and recommend that everyone steer clear of them.

Pros: Easy to Use
Cons: Quotes are not accurate

I tried LendingTree to see what kind of offers I would get and was excited to see that I did indeed get offers from 4 lending institutions and the rates and fees were much lower than I expected. However, upon talking with these lenders directly, those rates and fees quoted to me on LendingTree (after I filled out a lengthy application, including authorizing a credit check) were WAY off. Fees were sometimes twice as high and rates about .5% higher. After this experience with the first lender on the list, it became clear that I would have to contact each lender on the list and answer more questions to get actual quotes. This saved me no time and the quotes I got were less than competitive. I understand that the initial quotes are just estimates, but given the amount of information I provided on the LendingTree application, those quotes should have been a lot closer to reality. Don't waste your time with LendingTree, just contact lenders directly.

Pros: quick form, quick response
Cons: No good deals, lots of annoying calls and emails

I am so sorry I bothered with lendingtree. Starting moments after I provided my applicaiton, I was beseiged with emails and phone calls, even though I did not want to receive any calls. And even worse, ALL THE BANKS they sent me to conducted their own credit checks right away. What they don't tell you is that all these credit checks serve to LOWER your credit!!! That's because the bureaus' mysterious methods figure that if you apply alot, it's because you get turned down alot.

Finally, not one of the offers was anything special. It took one phone call to a random local bank to beat them all.

Lendingtree is nothing but a LEAD GENERATOR machine. They get your name and they sell it. They sell it as many ways as humanly possible.

Basically, this is not a tree you want to climb!

Pros: NONE
Cons: Not what it seems, avoid avoid avoid.

This is not a search engine like orbitz or expedia where they search the web and come back with the best price. They take your information and send it out to all kinds of lending agencies that will hound you until you want to change your phone number. Do not fall for their nice website or slick commercials. This is a scam.