FREMONT BANK

My wife & I were recently denied a refinance loan at this bank for $235,000.00.
They drew us in with a no cost 3.25% APR on a 15 year loan.
The application fee was $395.00 and the rate lock was $300.00. I told the rep everything up front. We are retired, intend to pay off the house in three to four years but until then, we wanted a lower rate so more of the payment goes to the principal. He said great, asked a lot of questions. Bottom line, he said everything looked great. He collected the money and off we went. The house appraised at more than 3 times the amount of the loan. Then we hit underwriting. They denied the loan based on our credit report and that we didn?t have enough Social Security income to make the payments. I got a copy of the credit report that they used. (By the way, I never heard of this reporting company). The credit report was spotless. Never late, not one negative mark. Our credit scores are both well above 800. As far as income, how do they think we have been making the monthly payments to GMAC for the last 8 years? Plus we always add an extra $100 to the monthly payment to reduce the principal. They would not consider any other assets other than Social Security. We are both old enough to draw from our IRA?s which have at least 4 or 5 times the amount required to pay off the loan. Plus, we have an internet bank account with a large amount of cash that we can draw on. We got the $300 Rate Lock fee back but they kept the $395 application fee. I have concluded that, they never intended to make this loan to anyone. What a scam, 1. Offer the loan with excellent terms 2. Collect the money 3. Deny the loan 4. Keep the money. I think Fremont Bank has figured out how to generate a new income stream. We just related this story to our investment rep at Fidelity and his comment was ?They turned you guys down for a loan? You have to be kidding!) He is part of Fidelity?s professional management services. I told him to never recommend Fremont Bank to anyone.

They have excellent customer service. They notify me when interest rates go down and offer me refinancing which is nice. There's a local branch here that I can go to and they're also very courteous.

Fremont Bank is staffed by unprofessional and uninformed staff. I will never do business, of any kind, with them again and I strongly suggest that no one else does either. Don't be fooled by the rates that they offer on their website. You can do a lot better on-line through other mortgage companies or through a good mortgage broker. Needless to say I am in the process of re-financing this loan with another company. See comments above - don't do business with Fremont Bank.

OUR EXPERIENCE WITH FREMONT BANK WAS EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED, INCLUDING THE AMOUNT OF TIME TO GET APPROVED WHICH WAS 6 WEEKS. OVERALL, THE EXPERIENCE WAS POSITIVE.