I applied for a refinance loan a few weeks ago. What started out with a 4.875% rate quote and approximately $2500 in lender fees ended up with a 5.00% rate and approximately 7600 lender fees. They just kept coming up with more “issues” on why my particular loan situation merited a “specialized” underwriter (I believe that they refer to them as “investors”). My credit scores varied from 730 -780. The loan-to-value was in the mid 50’s. My net worth is around 830k.. I have guaranteed income for the rest of my life, since I retired a few years ago. All of this information was verified by Amerisave. In other words, I am a good "risk." Yet, Amerisave kept coming up with reasons to milk me for more money.

Make no mistake. Amerisave will increase fees/rates from the rates that you applied for on the date of your initial application. Their “system” is geared toward NOT granting you the lower rate that lured you to them in the first place. Why don't they use the same practice as other lenders and just lock in the rates on your command? Even after their online system "pre-qualifies, " they WILL NOT lock in your rate--until you document your income with the paperwork they deem "valid."

Shop and compare. Amerisave is the ONLY online lender that does not lock in the quoted rate, just by you stating that you want the rate locked in. They make you go through submission of paperwork and then, when they are satisfied that they can get more out of you, they MAY lock your rate in. The actual forms that they have you “e-sign” are actually “defaulted” to a “float-rate, ” which leaves you at the mercy of the market. NEVER, EVER agree to e-signing anything UNTIL you read everything! The fact is that they are pressuring their customers to get the “paperwork” in to lock the rate. That puts pressure on the customers and they tend to sign (including e-signing) paperwork in their haste without reading what they are signing. Again, they have their system aimed at getting the most money out of their customers. Shop around and compare and you will see that Amerisave is not the way to go…

This unethical company practically inserted a camera up my rear end to get as much info about me and my excellent credit as they could; after a month of sending them every item they requested, and me having a credit rating of 860, they denied my refinance, with no explanation. They made me pay for an appraisal at $450., a credit report for $45., spoke with my financial planner for more financial info, and then denied the loan.

I to was ripped off by Amerisave. I was told that I would have a certain percentage rate and a certain type of loan and was "locked in." I am no mortgage expert and took this company on thier word. I gave them my credit card and paid up front for a credit check and appraisal. After they got that credit card payment everything changed. My rate, the type of loan and the communication they gave me was horrible. The rate went up, the type of loan changed and it was like they were trying to make the loan not go through.
I am not a rich man by any means and what they did to me and my family really hurt.
We needed to refinance and I feel like they really took advantage of us and our situation. Luckily, I was able to put a stop payment on the credit card that I paid for the credit check and appraisal with. The credit card company is investigating and hopefully they won't get paid. Please reconsider doing any services with this Company. I learned the hard way. And if anyone wants to get a class action thing going here or needs testimony on this company and thier fradulent practices please contact me. Mark in P.A. (Screwed by Amerisave)

Never been more disappointed with a company in my life.

Don't waste your time, especially if you think you are going to save money. Amerisave appears to be straight forward and simple. I tried to refinance with Amerisave thinking I was going to save money over my broker and instead lost out on low interest rates because the lock in process is a scam. Do NOT expect to lock in the low rate on your screen... it takes days if you are lucky and also costs $500 (NONREFUNDABLE lock fee that no other broker charges)

If you are used to calling your mortgage broker and saying lock me in when rates are low, don't hold your breath, expect rates to rise before you can lock... I worked with 3 diff Amerisave reps and getting a rate lock is not a priority to them.

Here's the scam:
1. Low rate with fixed fees lures you in, appears you are going to get an unbelievable deal.
2. You fill out the application: they charge you $30.50 for credit check. No way around it. This is pure profit. If its been more than a month, they'll charge you another $30.50 to run it again. Keep in mind companies this large probably pay a few dollars for these reports.
3. Next they schedule an appraisal. $400 down... notice you aren't rate locked yet?
4. Once you have the appraisal, you have to pay a $500 non-refundable lock fee. No other companies do this. And at this point you have already paid $400 for an appraisal that can NOT be used/transferred w/another broker. So that's when they have you, you have invested $430.50 that you will not recoup if you don't lock. So there is a good chance rates have raised by the time you can lock.

PLEASE READ THE WARNING ON THEIR MAIN PAGE:

Disclaimer:
Until you lock your rate, A.P.R. and terms subject to change...

I recently applied for a mortgage with Amerisave and did not have a
pleasant experience.

Mr. Walt Parks was our loan "advisor"

For a week I have been asking a simple question: Do our scores
qualify us for your best rate. I asked this question 8 times, and it
was completely ignored by Walt.

Prior to submission of my application, I asked what the max
debt/income ratio was. I was told it was 50%. From this information,
I did not submit rental income documentation because I hadn’t done my
09 taxes and without rental income considered, our ratio was 46%, well
below the threshold.

The application denied because debt/income expense ratio was too high.
I asked how since it was well below 50%. Walt completely ignored the
question several times.

1st reapproval request:
I provided a lease to prove rental income. I was then told it was not
an acceptable form of income documentation and I needed to provide 09
taxes. I was told this after Walt submitted this document to the
underwriter and Walt should have told me before that this would not be
an acceptable form of documentation (I didn’t know because some banks
allow the lease to serve as rental income documentation). This is an
important detail because Walt blamed me for having to go back and
forth to the underwriter for an approval. If this was not an
acceptable form of documentation, Walt should have told me that prior
to submitting to the underwriter, and consequently blaming me for
having to go back.

2nd reapproval request:
I provided my 09 tax return with schedule E showing my rental income.
Schedule E had my income, but also deducted mortgage interest, condo
fee, property tax, and depreciation against this income. The
application was again denied because the underwriter did not add these
write-offs back into the rental income. This was a problem because
mortgage interest, condo fee, and property tax is already listed as a
liability. It cannot be counted as both a liability AND as a
reduction income, which it was because these were not added back in.

Subsequent correspondence:
Walt continued to refuse to speak over the phone which made this whole
process more time consuming and difficult. Walt then said that the
condo payment is not considered a liability when tax forms are used to
document the income, but then he has yet to explain the rationale for
declining based on expense ratio being too high when the expense ratio
is only at 32.5% as shown:

Income:
89400+50000 per year = 11616/month
Loss from schedule E = -8105
Adding back in deprecation from schedule E = 8105

Debt:
Proposed mortgage payment (P&I, MPI, tax, hazard) = $3750
Credit cards: $20

debt/income = 3770/11616 = 32.5%

All the documentation I submitted confirmed my income and I did not
exclude a single penny of debt from my credit files.


Walt then told me to use another bank without explaining why my loan
was declined when the expense ratio was so low so I have no idea why
my loan was not approved and never got an explanation.

During the entire correspondence, Walt was very unhelpful and did not
seem to even want me as a customer as demonstrated by is indifferent
tone and by continuing to flat out ignore my questions and concerns.
He was very poor at explaining anything and did not seem to understand
even basic loan approval processes as demonstrated by his inability or
unwillingness to explain the reason for denial, and blame me for
reapproval requests to the underwriter when I attempted to get it
correct the first time. It was Walt’s incompetency that caused the
application to be ping-ponged, first by him telling me that the
highest expense ratio was 50% and thus leading me to believe that my
rental income documentation was inconsequential as I was at 46%. Then
he submitted my lease to the underwriter which he should have known
was not an acceptable form of documentation (Again, I didn’t know
because other banks I went with did accept the lease as
documentation).

Bottom line is that I will not be able to take advantage of Amerisaves
low rates and Amerisave will not earn my business, despite the fact
that I am an extremely low risk candidate having a 32.5% expense ratio
(after the proposed monthly payments) and FICO score of 780. Walt’s
inability and incompetence cost both me and Amerisave thousands of
dollars.

It is also very suspcious that every other bank quickly gave me a GFE upon loan application, but I had to pay Amerisave to run my credit. No other bank asked for money to apply for the loan upfront. I could never get anything in writing from Amerisave that validated the rates on their websites, so it was all a LIE