Researching refinance options today. Found rates and basic terms (closing costs, points) on some lenders’ websites. Called a couple others, and received rates and basic terms over the phone.
Called Quicken, and got asked a bunch of questions, including how much cash we had in checking and savings. :dubious: Finally he asked for my full name, and then my SSN, and that’s when I stopped. He claimed that he needed to check my credit history in order to know exactly what terms they could offer me. He wouldn’t even tell me the closing costs at that point. I told him I’d discuss all this with my wife and call them back if we wanted to proceed.
The whole thing seemed uncomfortably streamlined, intended to guide me toward applying for a loan before the call ended. Maybe their terms would have been really good, but I’m not excited about doing business with them.
Have you done business with them? What’s your experience been? Good? Bad? Ugly? Should I call them back and beg them to take me in, or should change my name and get a new phone number so they can’t ever find me again?
I’ve done business with them several times, and several times with other loan companies. Sometimes Quicken Loan’s rates are the best I could find, sometimes they weren’t.
I WOULD work with them again if they had the best rates I could find. The loans I did with them went pretty smoothly.
J.
P.s., I suggest you tell them you’re not comfortable giving all of that personal information on a first phone call. Then ask, what terms could you offer someone in my situation if the credit score was 800? (Or whatever credit score you know that you have.)
I pretty much did that; I told him to assume for the sake of our discussion that I had “excellent” credit. He claimed that there was info in a person’s credit report beyond just the score that was of use to them in deciding what terms they could offer - the implication being that there was no way he could offer me any specific terms without accessing my personal credit history.
That is certainly true. I would say it’s perfectly reasonable to decline to give the terms before they have a chance to do a full credit check. Closing costs should be up front, though.
This is remarkably different from all the other lenders I checked with, all of whom provided interest rates upfront (under the assumption that you had excellent credit).