You Want Service? Try Someone Else.
Written: Jul 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: decent loan rates
Cons: rotten customer service
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| Psych3's Full Review: Bank One |
About three years ago, my wife and I took out a second mortgage with First USA bank. We borrowed enough to frame in a 1300 square foot addition to our house, which allowed our home to appraise high enough to add to the loan and actually finish the addition. So far, so good. First USA loaned us the money and we finished our project.
About six months into our payment schedule, we were notified that Bank One, N.A. had gobbled up First USA and would now accept our payments. O.K., no problem. We paid them for awhile and put the finishing touches on our addition. We contacted a local financial advisor who recommended refinancing the whole package under one loan, which we did at a significantly lower interest rate. The First USA/Bank One loan was paid off. End of story? Not quite.
We recently decided to do another second mortgage because of the tax advantage to property secured loans. Our new bank sent us a letter congratulating us, saying we qualified and that was needed was a quick property appraisal and we would be set. Oops . . . it turns out that Bank One was still holding a lien on our property a full year after the debt to them had been paid.
Since we live in Washington State and the closest Bank One is in Arizona, I contacted them by phone. Basically, I never talked to the same person twice. It took a full two weeks of phone calls and explaining the whole thing over and over to each new person to finally find someone who told me the reason that nobody could find any information about my account was that it was a First USA account, not a Bank One account. But we were making our payments to Bank One, shouldn't somebody have some record of my account? The lady I talked to gave me a number for First USA. However, this number turned out to be their credit card department, and the guy at the other end of the line said he didn't think First USA even had a home mortgage department. He gave me yet another phone number, and I was finally able to find someone who could confirm that my account was indeed paid in full. End of story? Not quite.
As it turns out, the local closing company that helped us refinance our primary home loan had been trying to get Bank One/First USA to release the lien on our property for some time. The closing agent told me she actually threatened legal action if Bank One did not release, at which point they finally did a release.
Mega-banks, in this case Bank One, have plenty to learn about customer service. In this case, their failure to do what should be routine cost only time and frustration. Had we needed to sell our home or access our equity for a financial emergency, the consequences could have been much more serious.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Psych3
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Member: Kevin Isherwood
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
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