Consumer Direct Mortgage, A Divison of FirstBank in Delray Beach, FL

Horrible experience. I admit I got a got a good rate. I was working with another company and left them for Consumer Direct because of the rate. Worst mistake I've ever made. It actually cost me more in the long run due to extra fee's and delay's. I was promised to have my appraisal on time and was not. This ended up costing me $2000 as it breached my contract with the sellers time frame. Consumer Direct continued to delay process after process. I had to contact them several times just to keep them on track. I complained and got the run around. No one wanted to assume responsibility for their actions. They just blamed everyone else. If was considering a loan I would RUN RUN RUN FAR AWAY from Consumer Direct

We had submitted a request on a refinancing website. One senior Mortgage banker from Consumer Direct Mortgage, Mr. Alton Johnson sent an email on feb 14th after collecting our preliminary data that his quote is 2.75% for 15 years Fixed interest rate. After , collecting all confidential information and running credit check, this SENIOR broker says it was typo and he meant 3.25%. When will the businesses learn to stand behind their quotes and written promises from there SENIOR Brokers who callously take the consumers. Stay Away from this company and help yourself.

Tale of 2 experiences. I originated my mortgage in late 2016 and everything went smoothly. I received a very competitive rate and the service was good. Even my local title company was impressed. Then over 2 months later, AFTER FirstBank had sold my mortgage, I received a noticed that both my wife and I had experienced a hard check on our credit. The hard check lowered both our scores by 20-30 points. After doing some research, I learned that FirstBank had facilitated the hard check without our knowledge or approval. I called FirstBank and learned that to resolve this issue, I had to fax them to request a "Letter of Deletion" to get them to remove the inquiry and fix their mistake. I begrudgingly did so. About 2 weeks later I received a letter from FirstBank telling me that to process the removal, I had to send them A COPY OF MY CREDIT REPORT. At this point, I was incredibly frustrated and called to speak to a supervisor. That person was no help and even though he promised to call me back, he never did. There was no way I was going to send them a copy of my own credit report, which they erroneously (illegally?) ran themselves so I could prove my own innocence. I finally called Credco, the 3rd party with whom FirstBank contracted to run my credit. Their helpful agent promised to submit a "Permissible Purpose Audit" on the inquiry. Within 10 days, the credit inquiries had been removed. In summary, my initial experience was a positive one. However, thanks to a problem 100% of their own making, my overall experience ended with me being incredibly frustrated.

If it were possible give a 0 star rating, that is what I would do. I applied for a refinance in September 2016 and was quickly impressed with the low rate and low cost. During the process however I began to realize this company can offer a slightly better deal than other lenders because they cut costs and corners in other areas such as customer service. When speaking with our loan officer, Scott Cobb, about locking our rate he failed to mention that if we lowered our loan amount slightly to get our loan to value at 75% it had a big impact on our rate. Literally if we lowered our loan amount by a tiny amount our rate would be significantly lower. I discovered this by asking questions and of course chose the better rate option with no help of our loan officer. Scott was focused on getting us a loan, and gave no effort or time to look at the situation and give us options for "the right loan". What kind of company has a better option for its customers but doesn't present the offer to them? Against my better judgment I continued the loan process. We closed in mid November and out tax amount collected at closing was incorrect(they used the previous years tax bill and added a percentage upcharge to estimate for an increase, however the current tax bill was available) and I had to bring this up to them and fight for my almost $ 500 I was being over charged for. (Another corner cut at the customers expense ) THEN 2 months after closing they completed a hard pull on my credit which added an inquiry on my report and caused my credit score to drop. I contacted Consumer Direct several times about this and not one single person could explain why a hard pull was conducted VS a soft pull which does not effect credit scores (which is what they said is supposed to be done) I was told that it was for audit purposes and that they actually didn't pull my credit but their 3rd party vendor did and that I should call them to find out why.... I did actually call their vendor, although technically consumer direct should have done this, and never received a call back. No explanation was ever given and no resolution or remedy was ever proposed by consumer direct, they provided no help at all, they actually pointed a finger at a company they hired to do their audits and told me to take it up with them! Lastly I just recieved a letter in the mail yesterday stating they were going to force place homeowners insurance on my loan because I failed to provide insurance which is required.... my insurance is paid in full till September 2017, in November when I closed the loan they obtained this information AND my loan is escrowed for insurance through them! At this point I am going to make several formal complaints with the CFPB and I highly suggest anyone else who has had an issue do the same. Clearly this company has no regard for customer service and it would be no surprise if they were violating several regulations and consumer protection laws. (How is it legal to complete a hard pull on my credit months after closing and 2 weeks after selling the loan to Fannie Mae, how is it legal to bury some vague verbiage in a document and say that allows them to pull credit several months after a loan closed). Consumer Direct has provided the worst mortgage experience I have ever encountered. It was so bad, it has me questing their moral, ethical, and legal integrity. Please do not obtain a loan through this company, it is in your best interest to look elsewhere.

Consumer Direct offered the best rates and the highest lender credit on my refinance. The staff at the company were extremely accommodating; I was reviewing numbers with Rod Davis 'till close to 10:00PM because I needed to work with someone after my workday and he was helpful and happy to answer all my questions. Him and his staff worked hard to respond almost immediately via email or phone call to all my questions. Awesome experience. To illustrate the difference between them and my original lender; about the time I was setting up closing with Consumer Direct my original lender decided to contact me back regarding refinancing to try to set up an appointment to discuss rates in person, they didn't want to email it.