Gateway First Bank

I was looking for a new home and what I found was an unfinished one. Gateway Mortgage was one of the very few lenders that would loan on something like that, so I went with them. I worked with their rep named Shana and she was very awesome. It was the second mortgage like this in the area at that point, so we had some difficulties through the way. But it was never with the mortgage company. It was because my house was almost classified as duplex instead of a full family home. It has two stories and the staircase was on the outside. But we talked with the assessor and the group, and we found a solution for that. We had to have it re-assessed after that point, so the process took a little longer than it should have, mainly because I had to have the assessor go out there twice.

Gateway Mortgage was recommended by my realtor. So, I applied with them and everything was pretty much online. Their website was user-friendly, really easy to use, and very clear. And they showed documents back to us for signing. Also, the rep I worked with was good. She responded quickly and accurately to most things. But there was one instance where we had some confusion on an issue. When we were trying to get closed on a certain timeframe, there was some information that wasn't conveyed to us that delayed the closing. Some things are inevitable, but not having that communicated to us was a little disappointing. Still, my overall experience was really positive with her. This loan was for a new home and from what we can see, the terms and rates that we got were all very competitive as well. We're satisfied with them.

I got tired of paying rent, ultimately, and so I got a USDA Rural Development loan program. The realtors that I got involved with were in the same building as Gateway, so they're who I went with. Gateway did their job very well, however, I had some issues with the process because I underestimated the entire home buying process. There were things that I didn’t take into consideration, including how extensive it was dealing with an unethical seller. So, I had a hard time with the process a couple of times and there were some times where I just wanna pull my hair out, but it had nothing to do with Gateway as they did everything that they were required and asked to do. They went through all the procedures and processes.

I applied for a mortgage to get the most of my investment on a new home so I didn't have to buy with cash. With the rates nowadays, I thought that would be a good financial decision. I met one of Gateway’s executives and I thought that he was extremely competent and he was very eloquent selling his product. So, I felt very comfortable going with Gateway.

Lori ** is my loan officer, and she was exactly the type of person I needed on the other end of the line -- patient to explain everything, reassuring when I was at my most stressed, and persistent when I needed a push to meet a deadline. This was especially important because I had one offer fall through, and the next one needed to turnaround very quickly for me to have a new place to live in time. She was able to help me close in 3 weeks from the offer acceptance! At the beginning of our conversations, Lori basically let me name my desired monthly mortgage payment, then worked backwards from there to determine what kind of offer I could afford to make, and how much downpayment I would need. She was thorough in anticipating my costs, so there were no big surprises at closing. I am really impressed at how accessible she was throughout the whole process -- she's a really hard worker and gets the job done.

My homeowner's ins. is paid by Gateway Mortgage. It was cancelled 3 times for not being paid on time. Got it started back up and they paid it 3 times in a 4 month period . Gateway says not their fault, ins fault. Ins. says Gateways fault. Both tell me to fix it. I had nothing to do with this, but Gateway has raised my payment by $130.00 a month so they can get the money back that they (not me) overpaid. I put my home up for sale to get away from them. I would never tell anyone to do business with them. I was never allowed to talk to anyone but the person who answered the phone. C S in Warsaw Mo.

DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH GATEWAY! Horrible experience! My wife and I called Jeff **'s team to do a refi as we were with Gateway for our original mortgage. In between our refinance Jeff quit the company and went to Loan Depot, still kept us on as clients just never told us he left Gateway. We didn't find out until the middle of the refinance. He advised us to not make our July payment and request a payoff for the end of month. End of July comes and Jeff is no longer in the picture as he went back to Gateway Mortgage and we had to start all over.

Our experience with Gateway has been miserable. They have been horribly unprofessional and unreasonable with us concerning a payment discrepancy. We had a FICO score over 800 before Gateway implemented a change in our mortgage payment without ever providing so much as an email to inform us of the payment change. We had never, ever been late on a payment. Gateway provide NO proof of service that our payment was changing. Our automatic payment was submitted as scheduled, well in advance of the due date and Gateway did not credit the payment because it was not the full amount. When we contacted them to address the issue they were rude, disrespectful and flippant about the entire matter. After a year there has been no resolution. I would not recommend Gateway under any circumstance.

The company kept on charging PMI even after the 80% of value met. The insurance department did not drop the automatic deduction. Efforts to have them credit/refund the excess amount were fruitless. Appointment to talk to anyone was like an appointment to the moon. Pocketing un-earned money is not fair and I hope to get another mortgage company and stop doing business with a company which is not sincere and transparent. If they called, then it was "ExACTLY WHEN I HAD INFORMED THEM THAT I WAS AT WORK AND CANT TALK ABOUT MY PERSONAL MATTERS". I had a very dry customer service experience and counted as just a number to them.

To whom it may concern,