ING Direct High Fees, Unfair Practices, Poor Customer Service, Internet

ING Customer Service

Although ING has very competitive rates, they should not be used for mortgages.  They set a variety of tricks and traps for unwary consumers to capture bogus fees.  Many comments on this website will attest to this problem. I will describe our issue.

We refinanced our home, starting in October 2010.  It took nearly five months to complete the refinancing, which was irritating, but not the focus of this note. In May of 2011 we decided to move for reasons unrelated to the mortgage. I knew that we had agreed to a 1% pre-payment penalty, but asked, and was told, that this penalty would be waived if we financed the new purchase with ING.

We got contract on a new house prior to selling our first property.  When we went to finance our new purchase with ING, we were rejected.  The reason given was that we were attempting to hold two primary residences. ING insisted that this was our intention even though we had contracted with a realtor to list the home, and the homes were approximately five miles apart. ING would not accept that we were trying to sell the house. When we asked for a waiver of prepayment penalty, since we had attempted to purchase the new home from ING they refused, again claiming that we were trying to own two primary residences. When we pointed out that if we wanted to hold both homes, we wouldnt care about prepayment they sent the following message:

Hi XXXX,

We will review the 1% penalty if/when you decide to sell your current home. If you have additional questions, please give us a call at 1-877-464-2151.

Thanks,
Justen
ING DIRECT USA
Member FDIC
Equal Housing Lender

Less than a month later, we received an offer on our existing home (the one financed by ING).  At this time, we had already gone through financing with another institution, one that realized that we probably werent trying to own two primary residences in the same city.

However, when I called to check on the waiver of the prepayment penalty I was refused. Crystal (Employee number 701590) told me that regardless of what I had been told, or what had been written previously, they would not waive the prepayment penalty.  She instructed me to apply again.  When I told her that ING was not trustworthy enough for me to reapply, and that we had furthermore already paid some fees to arrange our new mortgage, she told me that ING would enforce the penalties.  She did promise that Justen would get a slap on the wrist for what he had written us, Im not sure how that will help me.

$1800 is certainly not enough for me to ever trust ING again. They are a very poorly run operation. Hold times for any discussion or decision are eternal.  In our case, instead of financing our new purchase, they decided to grab our money and run with it.  This bank neither wants nor deserves new customers.  Do not be fooled by their rates.  Do not finance you loan with ING.  I have learned my lesson.