N@N

JP Morgan Chase: My refi fiasco with a bank that's obviously way too big!

This may come as no surprise for anyone that's dealt with a bank the size of JP Morgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), you tend to get lost in the shuffle but I think you'll find my JP Morgan Chase experience to be beyond ridiculous.

It all start in November after I called Chase for a simple mortgage refi. Let me first paint the scenario. Our loan has been with Chase for ~5 years, never missed a payment. My wife and I almost have 800 credit scores and >$60k in cash, in the bank and excellent cash flow which includes almost 6 figures income. On top of that, our loan is a Fannae Mae guaranteed loan so we just have to qualify by their standards.

So after some conversation with the Chase (NYSE:JPM) representative Michelle Minnoch, we did a rate lock at 4.75% under a program that Fannae Mae had just started. I thought "score", finally we are taken care of for doing the right thing....and here we go;

I spent the next 2 weeks gathering paperwork, 150+ pages of it. Once gathered, I sent the paperwork over to Michelle and Brenda Valenzuela (brenda.x.valenzuela@chase.com 602-627-8188) via FAX, and got confirmation of receipt via email on 12/7/2010. After about a week, I email and ask what's happening and get a response that the paperwork was assembled and sent to underwriting for approval. I'm thinking "excellent, this is a stream lined process".

Another week goes by and on 12/21/2010, I ask what's going on with the file and get a response back stating that a couple documents weren't clear in the FAX and to please resend them. Shouldn't that have been noticed before the docs even went to underwriting? Fair enough, I resent them that day but didn't receive a confirmation from them which I noted in the next Chase correspondence I sent on 12/27/2010, requesting confirmation and an update.

On 12/29/2010, I receive an email from Brenda saying that she's waiting for the underwriter to send the packet back to go over the approval. I'm thinking, "great, go over the approval sounds fun"....I then hear nothing until January 5th (that's another week) at which time Brenda and Mandy state that they are missing half the documentation I sent in December. 5 items in fact, including an entire tax return....2 days later, Jan 7th, I send the "missing" documentation via PDF to Brenda, and CC'd Michelle. I receive confirmation at 10:44a that day, and was advised that the file went back to underwriting for final approval. Fair enough, mistakes happen, right?

Here's where it starts going totally haywire. 12 days go by and I finally contact Brenda again, and ask about the file. Her response,

"Hi, There are a few things still needed:

     2009 complete business tax returns and k-1 for 2009
     2009 personal returns plus P&L statement for 2010"

Those were the exact docs. I sent via PDF 12 days earlier, and got confirmation of receipt for, and FAXed with the original docs., also receiveing a confirm. Mandy Cantania (mandy.m.catania@chase.com 602-627-0555) interjected that they are also missing W2's, which was in the original, and second responses as well. So 12 days slipped by (at another ~$160 out of my pocket because that's 12 more days I have to pay the current rate), Chase made zero effort to contact me and when I finally ask, they come back requesting the same docs. that were already sent and confirmed, twice. Obviously, now I'm getting angry. Our social security number, and all of our personal data seems to be going into a void, also known as underwriting.

So needless to say, I point out the multiple confirmations of receipt the last 2 times I sent the docs. they were "missing" and get a response back from a Courtney O'dell with a Laura Reyes (laura.a.reyes@chase.com 877-483-3528 x79225) included, apologizing for the multiple errors and stating that they are currently reviewing the file. Silence for 2 days and I write again, asking the status only to get auto replies from my new contacts, that they are out of the office. I forward the email to my older contacts to see what was being done, and if they needed anything, and got a response that once again, underwriting can't find the 5 requested items. Are you kidding me? You receive and confirm the docs. twice, and underwriting still doesn't have them? So, I send them one last time that day, and got confirmation from Mandy Cantania saying this;

"Thank you for the docs and information, I will print review and get back to you. Again thank you and I hope to get this expedited asap!"

I'm thinking, "okay, finally, they have everything they need". I hear nothing for a couple days and have to ask about the rate lock because this was dragging on and got confirmation the lock was extended. 4 more days go by during which I make a couple polite requests for an update with no responses, only to finally write this email on 1/28/2011;

"I didn't get responses to my 2 inquiries earlier this week so I'm touching base again, is there anything you need? Might I get an update on the this loan please???"

...their response was this from Brenda;

"Mr.,

     I am still waiting on the underwriter to review the documents that you send over to me.
     As soon as we heard from him I will let you know.
     As right now I don't need anything else.

Thank you"

Okay, so they've finally gotten everything and away we go........eh, wrong again. Silence for another week and a half only to force me to call HOPE, Fannae Mae and Chase' executive offices at 888-310-7995 (for anyone that needs it), to find out what is going on. I was told that the local underwriters could only find $7k of income in 09' from my standard tax returns (are you kidding me, we couldn't survive on $7k) and the file had been escalated to the underwriters in Ohio and that they found the numbers and everything looked good last week, we were just waiting for docs. coming back. Just for the record, my 09' corp. income was $73k, not including other monies earned. So another week of silence and here we are today (2/24/2011), I finally get a hold of someone after trying all of Chase' phone numbers (I have 8 of them), and let him know what is happening....I was pissed and ranted for a couple minutes because every month this drug on was costing us $350, for errors introduced entirely by Chase.

Then I began to realize, why would it be in Chase' interest to process my refi? My loan is already with them, and my refi was going to save me $350 a month. It was absolutely in Chase' own interest to jerk me around as long as they could, and deny the mortgage after rates had climbed. I told them today I needed this wrapped up or I wanted my money back and within 2 minutes, my application was simply denied on criteria that had not been defined or even mentioned when I started the whole process.

Mine might be a unique fiasco, it may not, but I will tell you that I deal with banks on a regular basis and never have I been mistreated so badly. My experience with JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) has been horrible and in retrospect, I now think they really had no intention of doing a refi, they just wanted to take my $395, drag out the process until I was just done, then the day I say I'm done and this needs to wrap up, nay, almost to the minute I say that, my application gets declined. I think Laura pulled the trigger on that given it was right after I got off the phone with "customer service" whom was communicating with Laura internally, even though it was Brenda that delivered the news. I hung up with customer service and immediately got a call from Brenda.

I hope this and my subsequent releases saves anyone that reads it from the nightmare I experienced. If you have a Fannie or Freddie loan and are looking to refi, I strongly suggest moving the loan to another lender. It is not in Chase' best interest to refi you, it costs them a lot of money in the long haul. There are a lot of banks out there, start by finding out if you are a Fannae loan, and shop a little. Also, I'd recommend locking with 2 banks, not just one. Chase had me by the balls the whole way and now that rates have increased, I'm screwed.

http://www.fanniemae.com/kb/index?page=home&c=homeowners_refinanceormodify