Ameriquest Mortgage Company Refinance - Unconscionable Terms, Misrepresentations and Failure to Disclose Prepayment Penalty Orange California

Your complaint said to respond if people were having the same issues with Ameriquest Mortgage Co. as your client. I have a mortgage through Ameriquest Mortgage and have had nothing but problems with them since day one. When they sent their "lawyer" out to my house to sign the paperwork, I was rushed through the process, and didn't get to read any of the documents first. If I am a week late on my payment, they call my house as many as ten times a day, and have called my workplace at times looking for me. They still owe me over 600 dollars for my insurance company (which I have yet to see) so my insurance was cancelled on my house and Ameriquest took the liberty of putting their own insurance on my house which is costing me over 800 dollars a year for just enough insurance to cover the loan amount. The insurance company that I had on my own was only around 400 dollars a year and it covered EVERYTHING and some!

If you feel like getting in touch with me, I can go over everything that they have done to me, and hopefully that will help you out some. Maybe people will actually read this stuff and decided AGAINST Ameriquest Mortgage Co.
Thank-you,

We are due to close next week, we have recieved assurances that we can refinance in 3 years with a lower rate. WE have not signed any papers yet and can not afford to hire an attorney at the closing, I would like to know what I am getting into before I get screwed like so many others.

I am also in a court battle with Ameriquest. Everything that you are saying happened to you. Also happened to me. To give you a heads up. We were supposed to go to court the first part of this week. But they filed a motion. Now we are trying to help locate more information for our lawyer. We could and would appreciate the chance to exchange information. You may contact us using the information provided.

I have a mortgage with Ameiquest and I to was lied to about the interest that I was goingto be charged. Once at the closing I was rushed to sign the closing docs. It wasn't until later while reading thru the docs I noticed that the interest rate had been changed. They also added my divorced husband name on my mortgage (how could they do this?) They have taken money that does not belong to them and will not account for it. How could they do this to consumers.

I work for Ameriquest Mortgage Company in the Lancaster Office. I can tell you what I know first hand about our company and myself. I never lie to anyone about the mortgages I refinance.

The customer knows up front, if there are any changes, they know about it before closing. This happens with all mortgage companies, when I closed on my property 5 years ago with a mortgage broker, I learned last minute at the table I needed $1600.00 dollars more or could not close, also my taxes were not escrowed like they should have been. This is all companies, anyone who has purchased a property or refinanced should know this.

Things do change sometimes, but the customer always knows. I have personally worked up a rate and quote for someone, only to actually submit it to underwriting and find that maybe the customer did not pay his last mortgage payment, and any 30 or 60 day late will up the rate because they do not qualify for the same rate with lates. I have had the payment change because the customer tells me his taxes are $1600 for the year, but the tax search comes back with total taxes being $2000 which changes the escrow amount, which changes the payment. My customers always know this!!!

Our customers are never rushed through the closing process, or told not to have an attorney present. The state of Pa give you a 3 day recision period, Ameriquest gives the customer a full 7 days. The customer has 7 day to review the paper work, it doesn't take that long to find the rate or amount of payment!

I have helped many customers who have come back to me, have referred others to me. I can not vouch for every person if every office, there are bad eggs everywhere and in every proffession from Doctors, to Lawyers to Judges to mortgage officers, there are always dishonest ones.

If Ameriquest finds an employee that stoops to these levels, they are terminated. As with any mortgage company customers need to read the paperwork, and Ameriquest gives you a full 7 days to do it, you have 7 days to take to an attorney, and make sure you get an honest one!

We also would never show up at peoples doors! I also can not tell you how many customers I have refinanced that love our company, how quick we are, how we do not charge at the door for appraisals only to later be turned down from another company after they are out $350.00, or how all of the sudden after the appraisal there rate changes, this happens everywhere, but not at Ameriquest, we foot the bill until we close.

If we order an appraisal, and it comes back low, the customer never sees that bill, there are many great things about Ameriquest. As with most people that I am reading about, I think there are other issues that are being left out, and if there is a dishonest loan officer, they need to be reported!

Tina, your branch is rare then. Go back and read what the ex-employees have said. I know people who currently work there and they would be the first to say that the company is dishonest and screws people, and a lot of them are looking for a way out, but are scared to leave because they won't get paid for their loans. I wouldn't advise my worst enemy to go to Ameriquest. Our branch paid appraisers to bring value in higher. I refinance a lot of my Ameriquest borrowers and the credit reports show all of their old debt as though it wasn't paid when I did their loan for them last year.

I just wanted to set the record straight. The loan officers at the branch locations are not the ones responsible for the absolutely horrible and dishonest loans that the company is famous for. The loan officers are pressured to sign loans that they know are not good loans for people. They sign loans on what is called a "stated" program. That means the customer writes on a blank sheet of paper how much money they make. The payment is based off of 50% of that number. I have done loans and seen loans done by others that gives the customer a higher payment than they actually make per month. The branch manager is more than aware of these type of loans. There is no way for any underwriter to know how much the customers actually makes because it isn't writen anywhere. The loan officers are pressured to sign the loans with threats of losing there job and giving the loan to somebody else in the office to sign. And I won't even get started on all the fraud that is commited every day in the entire company. And if any manager says they don't know about it, that is an outright lie. I have left Ameriquest in the last 3 months and started working for a broker. And for the employee who says that stuff happens everywhere; Wake Up!

Yes, I too have been taken for a ride, by Ameriquest/Town and Country. Funny how all our stories sound the same! How can we stop these monsters?

How can anyone make this promise? Nobody knows what is going to happen with the market after 3 years. Another case of Ameriquest employees making false statements!!!!

Last August, I was already frazzled, tired and frustrated after spending 6 mos. being hookwinked by 2 different mortgage companies, who promised a great refinance rate with 0 points paid. First company wanted to fudge information on my application, so I cancelled them out. Second mortgage company made kept stalling to approve because they couldn't deliver their promise to refinance my mortgage with the rate and 0 point factor.

They were hoping I would go away. So by that time I was frazzled, tired, disappointed and exhausted from all the runaround.

I was informed when an Ameriquest employee called me looking for my business and assurered me that the company could match any lower rates with 0 points even with cash out to pay debts to refinance.

I went forward with the loan application. Just when I was ready to close, the Ameriquest employee who processed my loan informed me that due to a large cash out distribution, they would have to charge me 2 points in addition to closing fees. When I was signing at the closing, I noticed that they had charged me 3.62 points plus all closing costs which amounted to over $15,000.00 I flipped out and now am so sorry to say that I should have ripped up the papers.

I was told on the phone prior to closing that I would not be able to find a mortgage anywhere due to the refinancing of all my debts into the mortgage.

I now have found out during the past month, that Ameriquest Mortgage Co. is designed for people with less than perfect credit and not for people like myself who have great credit scores.

Within the past month Ameriquest Mortgage Co. based in California has had their sales reps call me looking to refinance with them again. They promise over the phone to charge me only $3800 in closing fees and no points. However, I received paperwork in the mail, one with a fixed rate and another with an ARM rate. Both indicate at least $10,000 to $12,000 potential closing fees. I called the sales rep and he told me to ignore these forms. What a joke!!!!!!

I, for one, know the feeling of being lied to. When I told the sales rep that I was not going to refinance again with Ameriquest Mtge. Co., he yelled at me, insulted me, told me to have a nice life and then hung up on me.

His Manager then called me back and left a message on my answering machine to call him. I did not like his tone of voice on that message machine.

My daughter, who works in a well known bank proceeded to call him and received nothing but backlashing comments, dimeaned my daughter's position, as well as her knowledge of true customer service procedures and basically threatened her with the fact that when she files bankruptcy, she, as well as I will be begging them to mortgage our payments in the future.

For anyone who needs a mortgage, seek a company in your area and do your homework on their credentials.

Responding to Christina Shewsbury, New Jersey

I am an ex-employee of Ameriquest, I worked as a processor for 4 yrs. I have seen a lot of unethical things done. Loan Officers are trained to make sure a sign gets signed to doesn't matter if you have to lie to the customer. They are often told to tell the customer that their credit is so bad they cannot get a loan any where else. In most cases that person could go somewhere else and get a better rate. They will also tell customer because their credit is so bad they have to charge them a higher rate but if they make their payment on time for about a year, they will redo their loan at a lower rate and will not charge them any fee the second time around. Most loan are rush they will have customer sign loan without title, appraisal, payoff and income document.

As a processor sometime a file is brought to me and I am told its closing in a few hours. Yes Ameriquest gives a customer 7 days to cancel their loan while other companies gives only 3 days, but what difference does it make when the customer does not understand what they are reading.

In the 4 years that I was their I have never seen a customer had a lawyer look over the closing documents and the lawyer advise the customer that the loan was in their best interest. The truth is they are not trained to look after the customer best interest all they care about how can I rip this person off to make my commission check bigger.

Loan officer that care about their customer will not stay there because they have to charge customer 2-4 points to make money. It was common practice for loan officer to forge customer signiture.

Another practice that use to disgust me is, loan officer will quote customer payment without escrow.

Most time customer will have escrow with their previous company loan officer will delibrate tell customer not to escrow so the payment with Ameriquest will seem lower.

Customer do not realize that once the escrow is added their payment will be way higher that what they were paying. Customer most often are not quoted their rate or closing cost until they are at the table.

When they are quoted rate and cost of course something always comes up why it is higher than they were previous quoted.

Ameriquest Mortgage Company is a predator, they prey on people that are uneducated in the mortgage industry. I cannot speak for every branch but the branch that I work for my manager, and area manager was best friend with the owner of the title company, which means most time document are not explained to customer correctly.

I have seen the Manager chewed out title rep that tried to explain documents to customer. The title reps are told to have customer sign if the customer have any question have them call their loan officer who will just fill their head with a bunch of lies.

I have never refered anyone to do a loan with Ameriquest. When people that I know would ask me to do loans for them I would refer them to reputable company. I would never do a loan for someone I would never be able to look them in the eye, not in this life or the one to come. Yes I worked for Ameriquest for 4 years but their were many days that I walked out of their feeling very bad.

A person may ask why did you stay their so long. The way I justify it, I was not the one lying and cheating customer. After reading this web-site I realize that I was just as guilty. While I was there I would not forge anyone signiture or anything like that, but I was asked to do other unethical things.

One day I look in the mirror and I did not like what I say and I decided that I did want to work at that place. Working for Ameiquest is like selling your soul one limb at a time. One day I sat there and I decided that I had to get out of there. I told them I was sick and never looked back. I hope your client finds the justice she deserve. I wish that there were more people like you out there that will fight for people that have been rip off by companies like Ameriquest.

We too have been duped by Ameriquest Mortgage. The same story... No mention of the prepayment penalty either. Rate change not brought up also. Never recieved our appraisal report after promises to do so. Whisked through the signing process and after my husband and I talked about it later, we realized also that we were interrupted alot during signing time. We had specifically asked to have our taxes taken with our monthly payment but noooooooooo, we have a $3,000 tax bill unpaid as of now. And, now this is the killer part - I decided to make payments through their website for convenience and because they gave me a wrong password I could not get in right away. (By the way, their website doesn't work worth a squat) So, after many calls working with their customer service people on the phone, and a few retries I finally managed to pay it online (never again though) all the while getting reassurances that our credit was okay. They must of flat out lied!! It was nearly impeccable before. Just recently I did not make my payments because I was doing business with a man from Ameriquest in their refinance dept who assured me he would give us a refinance and reverse the latest bad credit mark and discuss the older one with some higher ups. Well, haven't heard from him since (approx 2 weeks ago) Three days ago we recieved some docs for a refy with our BAD MARKS (caused by them) still in the credit system and this was our offer: Because of low credit scoring he would give us 8.9% on blah, blah, blah for blah, blah, blah!! We were at 6.5% and were due a lowered interest rate from them by this time. Talk about shocked and angry!! Tried to get in touch with the woman who I dealt with in the beginning to no avail. She just doesn't answer the phone! I thought she was great and really on our team. Well, don't we look the fools! Anytime anybody is ready for a fight I'm game!

My husband and I were very rushed through our closing with Ameriquest at our 2003 closing in the Daytona Beach, Florida office. Certain documents (we later found out)that are required did not show up until after we signed at closing which changed our rate and caused us not to get the cash out we were promised. We were also told that we could refi in 1 year and get a lower rate, so when we tried to refi in late June 2004, we were turned down because of a 30 day late and not enough income to debt ratio. They sent out their own appraiser who jacked up our appraisal so high now we are having trouble getting refi'd anywhere because of that appraisal. My son fractured his back this summer and as a result of the high medical bills we got behind 1 month on our payments and they will not work with me in any way, shape or form. I even had one collection rep call me at work and call me a few expletives after I began to cry because he threatened foreclosure. He told me I needed to borrow money from a friend or relative to catch up my payment and if I did not do so by a certain date he said he would make my file show "a few extra 30 day lates so that no other other mortgage company would touch me". What do honest hard working people do in this situation. I am still with them currently and in the process of trying to refi with another company. Now I am being told that I am being slapped with a large prepayment penalty which I was not told about at closing last year. I hope for all of our sakes that there is justice out there to help us, unfortunetly I cannot afford an attorney because my mortgage payment is so high. HELP

I have no idea how to reach anyone who is willing to guide me with this contract that Ameriquest did not honor.

I always thought a contract was legal. So why is it that Ameriquest hasn't followed the conditions of mine, which is now costing me my home.

When I ask other lawyers about it no one seems interested. They seem to just brush it off. as an oh well...

Susan,

My first suggestion would be to contact Ameriquest corporate - in CA - and request your entire file. Application, appraisal, all legal documents, HUD-1 Settlement statement, etc... The documents you have from closing could be very different from what they have on file. Look over everything with great care.

Next, if you can't find an attorney to represent you, and Ameriquest won't fix what they did wrong call the following: Your state banking commission, attorney general's office and/or ACORN. ACORN is a national consumer advocacy group. Make certain you tell them your issue is with Ameriquest and you need immediate assistance.

Don't bank on finding an attorney to represent you. There are some out there who will work pro-bono, however, most will not. It may end up costing you more than it is worth.

Finally, don't give up the fight. This company has done harm to many of us and we all need to be steadfast and strong. I wish you well in your search for justice.

Hello,

I just wanted to respond to these comments and let you know that, yes, companies like this DO rip consumers off.

I was a loan officer for one of Ameriquest's competitors when I was first starting out in the industry. The horror stories I heard from Ameriquest customers was frightening. I can't tell you how many loans I lost, due to the fact that Ameriquest would call them up while we were in process promising them the moon. By the timer the borrower's were so far along with Ameriquest, they were desperately in need of the loan and willing to sign anything.

If you're looking to refinance and are in the process with Ameriquest and want to "really know" how the mortgage industry works so that you're fully informed, give me a call. Yes, I'll make money on your loan...Yes it won't be free...but I'll tell you EVERYTHING about how it works and EXACTLY how and what we're getting paid, in addition to third parties who are (always are) involved in the process.

Can call me at eight five eight, three five six, two six nine eight.

The worst thing you can do in this industry is take the first offer given to you...whether it's with me or anyone else. Good Faith Estimates don't mean a thing...we can print them up with 0 points and a 1.2% interest rate all day long. You're best off finding someone in the industry you can trust...talk to friends/family that are in the industry first to see if they can help you out. If that doesn't work...post your questions below.

THIS IS IN RESPONSE TO THE ORIGINAL COMPLAINT BY THE LAWYER. I WOULD TESTIFY IN REGARDS TO AMERIQUEST RIPPING PEOPLE OFF. THEY INFLATED OUR APPRAISAL, THEY DID NOT TELL US ABOUT A PREPAYMENT PENALTY, THEY SWITCHED INCOMES AND LIED ABOUT MY HUSBANDS EMPLOYMENT, ETC. PLEASE...IF YOU CAN US WE WOULD BE SO GREATFUL. WE ARE INPRISONED IN OUR CURRENT MORTGAGE WITH THEM AND OUR CREDIT SCORES HAVE DWINDLED TO NOTHING!

I was just about to sign on with Ameriquest

Mortgage but thought I'd do a bit of checking-

up. All I can say is Thank You!- Even if only

25% of these comments are legitimate (& I hope

100% are)- then you have asved me from mortgage

hell.... WHEW! Now if I could only find a

reputable company who wii refinance somone with

fair credit & debts to pay off- Any suggestions?

TO: Christina

Shrewsbury, New Jersey

U.S.A.

Christina,
I am willing to help.This is my story.
We took out a 2 YR. loan, with promise of paying off at end of 2 years or refinacing at a lower rate.
The 2 yeras were up in Sept. 2004.
Ameriquest did not want to lower our rates so we contacted another company.
Ameriquest suddenly wanted to lower our interest rate, days before closing loan w/new company.
New lender say they are getting notice of almost $5,000.00 pre-pay penalty from Ameriquest.
When I requested documentation from Ameriquest, I am told it is item #5 on the Borrower's Promise to Pay page of my loan documents.
I have no such document.
I have requested (in writing) copy of Sined documnet.
I am further embarrased to admit the following.
At the closing (in our home), the Ameriquest loan officer asked us to sign paper after paer.
The last paper was a Blank peice of paper.
My normally intelligent spouse told me if we don't sign, we will not be able to buy the house we were then living in!
I refused, until the agent convienced me all was lost if we did not sign the paper.
My husband signed as normal. I signed with Extra large lettering at an angel accross my husband's signature.
I feel like an idot for even signing at all.
My point, what legitament company would ask anyone to sign a blank peice of paper?
Better yet, what kind of Fool would sign.
Singed,
The fool

Tobi,

I work for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage and specialize in non-prime loans. Wells Fargo practices "Fair Lending" which means everyone in your situation is treated the same with regards to rates, LTV's etc. My office is in Newark, NJ. If you call information they will give you the number and we can discuss your situation. We are the BANK, not a broker. If I can help I will and If I can't I will let you know immediately. I also specialize in credit repair, done at the agency levels. No Charge for this servie either.

I was refinanced by Ameriquest back in 1999. We were told at the time that we would be financed at a better rate in 2 years. We were rushed thought closing "because it was the end of the year". We did not recieve our copies of the paper we signed, because they said they were waiting for the written appraisal to come thru. But not even 2 months in to the loan they sold it to another company. I discovered early this year that I didn't have a copy of my papers. I was trying to refinance at a lower rate. I sent 3 registered letters and threaten them with a law suit before I recieved them. When I finally recieved all my copies, much to my surprise I found out that my home was appraised at 160% more than what it is worth. I fell in to so hard time 2 years ago, and have been struggling to make ends meet. I can not get my home refinanced because it is not worth $165,000, but only worth $135,000 so no one will touch me. I hope that they get theirs in the end. If I could afford an attorney I would consider a filing a lawsuit against them. I hope you all the luck, and get what you can.

Christina,

Please review my original report in this section dated 3-7-2003 (White Lake MI). It has information that may be of interest to you regarding failure to acknowledge pre-payment penalties.

I am willing to speak with you if you are looking for more information on customer experiences with Ameriquest's mortgage practices.

Good luck to you and your client - these people are dangerous.