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BORROWER BEWARE. Worst experience with a lender I have ever had. If this is not enough to convince you look elsewhere, then keep reading.
They pulled a bait & switch on me when I went to close. I did not even see my final closing docs until I arrived at my attorney's office and had 2 hours to close. The loan officer had included points on my rate which we had not agreed on before. Spoke to a VP and was able to get it adjusted back to the rate we had agreed upon. However, overlooked that they had included an escrow account in the closing docs to pay property taxes which I had explicitly told my loan officer I did not want or need. Then, because my property is a condo in a brand new building, they incorrectly forecasted the taxes I owed to be what the entire building was assessed at for the prior year rather than my individual unit's assessment. Imagine my surprise when I got a letter saying my monthly mortgage was doubling in order to right-size my escrow account based on their incorrect tax forecast. I decided to just close the escrow account and pay my taxes directly, which is what I planned on doing in the first place before my loan officer had slipped the escrow into my closing docs. I spent over an hour on the phone with them in an attempt to do this, and they said they would send me a package in the mail with the instructions on how to close the account. Imagine my surprise (again!) when I found out they wanted over $2k to close the escrow account. Spent another hour on the phone with a supervisor this time, only to be denied the ability to close the escrow I never wanted without paying the fee. Forced into using the escrow for my property tax payments, I then had to spend another 1.5 hours being circulated around various departments and at least 5 other (!!!) customer service reps before I finally got a competent representative in the tax department who acknowledged that their predicted tax amounts were incorrect and agreed to put in a request to resolve the issue (which takes 11 business days to resolve). Then after the 11 biz days I have to request an updated monthly payment from the escrow department, which takes another 3-5 days. Meanwhile, I ended up having to make the payment for double my mortgage and I may have to make another double mortgage payment next month if this business is not resolved. Bottom line is, DO NOT be blinded by the low rates Citizens offers as I was - they employ poor, untrustworthy business practices and make it nearly impossible to resolve their errors. Look elsewhere.
They pulled a bait & switch on me when I went to close. I did not even see my final closing docs until I arrived at my attorney's office and had 2 hours to close. The loan officer had included points on my rate which we had not agreed on before. Spoke to a VP and was able to get it adjusted back to the rate we had agreed upon. However, overlooked that they had included an escrow account in the closing docs to pay property taxes which I had explicitly told my loan officer I did not want or need. Then, because my property is a condo in a brand new building, they incorrectly forecasted the taxes I owed to be what the entire building was assessed at for the prior year rather than my individual unit's assessment. Imagine my surprise when I got a letter saying my monthly mortgage was doubling in order to right-size my escrow account based on their incorrect tax forecast. I decided to just close the escrow account and pay my taxes directly, which is what I planned on doing in the first place before my loan officer had slipped the escrow into my closing docs. I spent over an hour on the phone with them in an attempt to do this, and they said they would send me a package in the mail with the instructions on how to close the account. Imagine my surprise (again!) when I found out they wanted over $2k to close the escrow account. Spent another hour on the phone with a supervisor this time, only to be denied the ability to close the escrow I never wanted without paying the fee. Forced into using the escrow for my property tax payments, I then had to spend another 1.5 hours being circulated around various departments and at least 5 other (!!!) customer service reps before I finally got a competent representative in the tax department who acknowledged that their predicted tax amounts were incorrect and agreed to put in a request to resolve the issue (which takes 11 business days to resolve). Then after the 11 biz days I have to request an updated monthly payment from the escrow department, which takes another 3-5 days. Meanwhile, I ended up having to make the payment for double my mortgage and I may have to make another double mortgage payment next month if this business is not resolved. Bottom line is, DO NOT be blinded by the low rates Citizens offers as I was - they employ poor, untrustworthy business practices and make it nearly impossible to resolve their errors. Look elsewhere.
Product: Citizens Bank Mortgages
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