Citi Mortgage

We're a first home buyer- We're a long/royal customer with Citibank over 20+yrs, I also hold BoA for a long time as well. We reached out to both banks for pre-approval, we applied both over online and got assigned with loan specialists, We decided to go with Citi- Jordan who is in Texas, we live in NYC- We should have gone to the nearby branches or research local lenders- first mistake! He gave us a competitive rate, but with whooping 2points! (Yes, I didn't know about this well back then, nor he never explained us about points system-nor giving us less points options, while we were going over pre-approval process)

Fast forward, we found our home and started the actual loan process with him and that point I learned a lot about the loan as we shopped other lenders/more reserach/knowledge from friends- We realized how we're naive to proceed with the loan with huge points= upfront cost$$$. Also, we wanted to add a little more to down payment, so contacted him for this and appealed that we want to buy less points. At the point, we already worked with Chase & BoA as well which they offer us way less points without even asking. But we were already finished/paid the appraisal and concerning about the timeline (switching lender=time++). After several email attempts- also he was not the best to communicate- barely responsive & helpful, rather just pushing us to stay with buying 2 points!

Finally he offered us 5 different options of different rates/points, and we selected buying 1.25 points with little increased rates as final- we signed the disclosure with all updated details/locked the rate. Guess what, we got our final loan approved early this week, but the final loan approval document shows our points increased from 1.25 to 1.875!!! I asked people around, Google it, researching-  all saying the locked rate/points SHOULD NOT CHANGE. The whole reason why people locked the rate- no CHANGE, unless you floating down with them.

I immediately contacted him about it. His first answer was saying we reduced the loan amount, so points went up, which is not true! The amount changed from pre-approved, not the signed disclosure a month ago- which we all go through the updates together and signed- even his manager was being c.c. on it. I simply asked him to his answer is not true and irrelevant with the issue, asked to correct the points, it's not what we agreed/locked. He's not answering our calls, we left voice mail- no call backs. We emailed more again, no reply or acknowledged of fixing/effort to show to solve the issue- ZERO. I even asked our processor to help to reach out to sales to express our concerns about this wrongly changed points at their end.

We haven't heard back since Wednesday afternoon, he's not answering our calls/emails so far. Even our lawyer advised us it's unusual and recommend to contact his supervisor- which we already addressed to him as well on first day, who also NOT replied and now being out of office auto- reply. I even tried to contact Citi Mortgage Customer service, no answers. I even contact CITI social media to ask to get my issue to be addressed. This is very unprofessional and we're deeply regret that we ever had a business with Citi bank and chosen to do our first mortgage with CITI.

We're so frustrated and beyond upset at this point, how Citi bank treats its customer, and their employe who's not trying to solve the crucial issue, rather looks like ignoring/delaying its matter- totally taking advantage of our timeline situation with the closing. We don't even know how to solve this issues- again how the bank can change already locked rates/points at their own terms??! Pls, do not use the citi mortgage as the lender, take your business elsewhere.

There is documented evidence that Cenlar previously lost their accreditation with the BBB as a result of unresolved customer complaints. Not only that, this loan servicer has a history of doing a terrible job for consumers (whose loans are serviced by Cenlar). A quick review online will demonstrate the large number of complaints. And I certainly had my share of complaints with Cenlar before I refinanced my mortgage away from them. In a nutshell, incompetent customer service and hold times on the phone (by Cenlar) that are completely unacceptable.

I bring Citibank into this situation because they apparently continue to partner with Cenlar. This is not good! So anyone thinking about buying a home, or refinancing their home, with Citibank, consider the fact that your loan may ultimately be "farmed out" to Cenlar as your loan servicer. And I can tell you (from personal experience) that if you ever need Cenlar for anything, you may be in for a heap of trouble. Citibank - please rethink your partners and what you are doing! This is NOT good for your business.

Finally, we got tired of waiting for this loan to close and shopped around for other options. We were able to go with another company/product and they were able to close our refinance in 30 days! We locked in the same rate Citi offered and didn't have to pay points. We requested a refund of our upfront costs to Citi. It's been six weeks and we're waiting for that check to arrive..

I'm going to make some assumptions here. Citi Mortgage does not care to refinance your loan. Our mortgage was with them, handled by Cenlar. Paying less in interest does not make much business sense and all they really want to do is keep the consumer hanging, continuing to pay the monthly balances at a higher rate. We save over $500 a month after refinancing - Citi does not want to lose that money. We lost over $3000 paying a higher mortgage payment over the 6-7 months while Citi twiddled their thumbs. However, in seeing some of these reviews, Citi Mortgage is quite quick and attentive when handing new mortgage loans. Of course they want new business and will pour resources in that area. Possibly they could not handle the volume of refinance applications. Why advertise a discount on closing costs if you can't handle the load?

I'm sure my frustration is shared with many others and the only thing that's keeping things calm is cutting ties with this lender and being able to refinance elsewhere. There seriously needs to be a lawsuit filed against this company for the loss of time and money by its customers. My suggestion for anyone reading this is to stay away from this company entirely, whether it be for your first home loan and definitely for a refinance. Take your business elsewhere.