Bank of America, DESOTO-BELT LINE BRANCH

Mr B.S.
Overall Rating
Interest Rate and Cost
Office Environment & Staff
Waiting Time
Other Services
by MrBS, Jan. 19, 2011

Dear Ricky Parks and the Refinance Team of Bank of America,
Thank you so much for educating me on how to do my part in stimulating the economy.  Please let me explain.  I currently have a 30 yr. fixed rate FHA loan with a 6.75% interest rate and a line of credit with you, Bank of America.  Back at the end of September 2010 I followed our wise President’s advice and decided to do my part and refinance my loan.  Hey, at least I could get rid of the $50 a month payment for mortgage insurance, I thought.  So I contacted BOA, the bank that already owns my loan, with the high hopes and naïveté, that I and my wife could actually refinance our loan with you, BOA.  BOA assigned Ricky Parks, loan officer, to my refinance.  Ricky was a nice gentlemen and very polite.  Quite simply, a pleasure to work with.  I told Ricky I wanted to do a refi. on a 15 yr. fixed rate mortgage, which would cost me an additional $150 dollars a month and save me tens of thousands in interest.   Ricky ran my wife’s and I credit and we were in the 690 range.  Great that meant we could qualify, but then we hit our first hurdle, my wife, a full time teacher, had only been working for the district for a year and a half and therefore we could not count her income.  Although, you could definitely hold her debt against me.  It is a good thing the genius switch is never off, because I had the brilliant idea of going solo on the new loan.  Armed with my info Ricky went back and plugged the numbers in and BAM!  I was preapproved.  Ricky sent me the good faith estimate on 9/30/2010 and with the giving of my debit card number; we locked our rate and were on our way to refinancing.  At the time I thought the $500 upfront and $5,131 in closing costs was a bit excessive, but hey the tens of thousands I would save on interest would be worth it in the long haul.  After the money was drawn from my account the hurdles started lining up in front of me.  Having been a hurdler in high school, I welcomed the challenge.  First came the usual easy hurdles, pay stubs, w-2’s, a survey, 2 mo. reserve.  The reserve I thought was a bit odd since I already pay you every month for the loans I have with you.  I collected all the paper work and emailed it to my pal Ricky, loan officer.  Well guess what? My accounts didn’t have the reserves in it but I had the money in my account at the time we were talking because my wife received her first full time pay check at the end of September, but my checking and savings statement is taken from 17th of the month to 17th of the month.  So July and August’s statements did not reflect our new income.  Ricky assured me that if I could get a 60 day certified statement from my bank then everything would be kosher.  Jumped that hurdle and got it in, but then came the next hurdle my income.  I make $30 an hour, which grosses to 2400 bi-weekly.  In January and February I took time off and worked with a friend at Le Tourneau University in Longview, Texas.  My pay stubs reflected these weeks off so the awesome underwriting team readjusted my monthly income to reflect that 6 week absences.  Uhoh!  Now I don’t make enough to qualify for the loan because we can’t count the $5000 I made while working for the university, since I hadn’t been employed with  them for 2 yrs.  Great.  So we decided to write a letter saying I took an extended vacation and that was why my income was different.  Wrote it, sent it, we were good to go and then the next hurdle my debt ratio is too high.   With Ricky’s advice I was told to defer my student loan payment for a year and that would bring my debt ratio down to acceptable.  We are at the end of October now, so I quickly contact my student loan provider and get my loan deferred.  As soon as I get the email, I forward it on to Ricky, loan officer and all is good again.  Of course until the next hurdle, the appraisal.  County has me appraised at $159000, you appraise me at $145000 and I owe you $114700 for my  current loan with you, BOA.  You know what that means right?  I’m above the 80% loan to value and that requires me to give you, BOA, an additional $50 for PMI each month on this new mortgage.  No problem, except now my debt ratio is too high and the underwriter is adjusting my income to reflect the absence of pay in my pay stubs.  Which means I don’t qualify for the loan.  Now it is December and I ask Ricky to try for a 30 yr. fixed rate refi., but he persuades me to give him another shot and let him try and push it through again.  He tries, but to no avail.  The underwriter is not on my side.  Now we are at New Years week and Ricky tells me unless I have proof of $2600 in my accounts for 60 days there is no way I will get a refinance of any kind through BOA.  Awesome, I think.  I just helped stimulate the economy and don’t even own the appraisal I paid for.  So thank you BOA.  Thank you for teaching me that I cannot refinance to a lower rate on a loan when I already pay you at a much higher interest rate.  It makes sense.  Why take less money from someone if you can keep getting more out of them.  Thank you for teaching me about customer loyalty.  It lets me know that all my on time, never late, often early payments on both the loans I have with you, has not gone unnoticed and is appreciated.  Thank you for also teaching me how to take a clients money 1st before calculating debt ratio’s and income so I can squeeze whatever I can out of them before I turn them down.  Thank you for the most awesome, unstressful process possible and dragging it on for over 3 months.  Thank you for making sure that I missed out on the low interest rates that were present when I locked my rate.   Thank you.
In all honesty this is unacceptable business practice and I want to know how you are going to make it right with me?  I will forward this on to every person at BOA whose e-mail I can find.  I will do this daily until I am a satisfied customer.  
Sincerely,
B.S.

* this reviewer has be with this bank for 3 - 10 years
* this reviewer had 3 - 5 banks before.
* this review was made on Bank of America, Desoto-Beltline at Desoto, TX
26 of 27 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes, No   Report Abuse

0 comment. Add a comment