If you’re considering refinancing your home mortgage loan with Bank of America and are searching for a review of their services there are several things you’ll want to know before taking out a mortgage with B of A. Mortgage refinancing with a bank has its advantages and disadvantages plus there are several things you need to know about the way Bank of America conducts its business. Here is a Bank of America Mortgage Review to help you make an informed decision before refinancing your home loan.
Bank of America Mortgage Loans
Bank of America Mortgage is part of the national banking giant Bank of America Corporation. (NYSE:BAC) There are 15 phone numbers available online and various homeowner complaints found on the Internet. From time to time Bank of America dusts off their marketing campaign offering “no fee” or “zero cost” mortgage loans. If you dig deep enough into these offers and compare the mortgage rates Bank of America is offering to wholesale mortgage rates offered by independent up-front mortgage brokers you’ll see that Bank of America covers the costs of your “no fee” mortgage by marking up their mortgage rates. There is no free lunch when it comes to mortgage loans and this is especially true when it comes to Bank of America.
Bank of America Contact Information
Need to contact Bank of America? Here are the business phone numbers I was able to locate. The main numbers at the time of this article is listed as 1-800-763-1255 and 1-800-669-6093. Their website can be found at http://www.bankofamerica.com.
There are several other numbers listed for Bank of America:
1-800-990-6248
1-800-424-7787
1-800-622-5070
1-800-527-3621
1-800-250-6628
1-800-457-3721
1-800-346-3178
1-800-450-8645
1-800-414-6643
1-800-441-7048
1-800-421-2110
Bank of America Corporate Address: 100 North Tryon Street Charlotte, NC 28255
Bank of America Home Loans: 400 Countrywide Way SV-314 Simi Valley, CA 93065
Bank of America Complaints
Bank of America is the country’s largest mortgage lender followed closely by Wells Fargo Mortgage. Any large company is going to have unhappy customers and Bank of America is no exception. Bank of America has an extensive advertising budget and an enormous customer base. Bank of America is also one of the largest mortgage servicing companies in the country. Mortgage servicing companies take care of all of the billing and customer service associated with your home loan.
As for complaints, there are currently 1,870,000 results listed in Google’s index for Bank of America Complaints. That’s a lot of unhappy customers. Not to mention Bank of America was one of the largest recipients of government bailout money. No doubt you’ve heard in the news how big banks squandered our tax dollars in corporate bonuses and other frivolous expenses. Whether you choose to do business with a company that took government bailout money is up to you.
The Better Business Bureau has ranked Bank of America with a rating of A+ and Bank of America Home Loans has a rating of A. The BBB rates business on a scale of F- to A+. During the past 36 months there have been 8,066 complaints against Bank of America and an additional 2,867 against Bank of America Home Loans.
Should You Refinance With Bank of America?
Customer complaints aside, there is one glaring problem with taking out a mortgage from any bank, not just Bank of America. (It’s a deal breaker as far as I’m concerned) The problem I’m talking about comes from the fact that banks, including Bank of America, are exempt from the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act or RESPA. In the early 90s the Banking Lobby spent millions of dollars so that banks don’t have to play by the same rules as other mortgage lenders. Because of this loophole banks are not required to disclose any of their markup or profit margin on your home loan. Should you take out a mortgage from any company that doesn’t have to play by the same rules as other lenders?
Banks make most of their profit from your home loan with a little known fee called Service Release Premium. This is the profit your bank realizes when they sell your home loan to investors on the secondary market. The higher your mortgage rate the more Service Release Premium the bank collects. Your bank makes a premium profit by selling home loans with higher than market mortgage rates on the secondary market. You’ll never get the lowest rate refinancing your home with a bank because of Service Release Premium. You can see this for yourself by comparing wholesale mortgage rates to those offered by your Bank of America Mortgage banker. While they don’t have to disclose their markup or profit margin there’s nothing they can do to hide it from a savvy mortgage shopper.
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Check out my free Underground Mortgage Refinancing Videos and you’ll discover how easy it is to save thousands of dollars getting the best refinance rates without paying unnecessary markup or lender junk fees.
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My name is Rob Regehr and I’m a personal finance writer with a chip on my shoulder for banks and brokers that take advantage of my friends and neighbors.
