First Direct Lending LLC

In November of 2015, I refinanced my house with FDL and had a positive experience In November of 2016, I received a call from FDL saying I qualified for a "free" refinance I spoke with Justin K and gave him all the required information he asked for He stated he is able to help me, all was good, that the only process we had left was to reappraise the house I questioned this because it was done less than a year ago and he said yes, we needed to He did indicate anything else on the appraisal issue After I submitted the information Justin requested, my current employer was basically "harassed" to get my income information After my employer submitted the required information, my employer was still constantly asked for information they had already submitted and was contacted AGAIN by a DIFFERENT representative! My employer stated that this made them weary and suggested I may not want to refinance with FDL Because of my first experience, I decided to do nothing because Justin stated I was ready to go After all this, I get a notice my application was denied I immediately tried contacting Justin and it took days to get a response He stated it didnt get approved because the appraisal was not enough I stated it was a refinance what was he talking about? He stated it needed to be at 248,000! I was incredulous! How can a house that appraised for $205,less than a year ago, go UP in value by $45,000!!!!!!!! He had no answer! I submitted a complaint to Stephanie M and her response did not show any acknowledgement of how this was handled When I told her I was unhappy with her response and would go to Revdex.com, she stopped communication right then and there I have no idea how ANYONE can conduct business this way! It's wrong and they really need to look into how things are handled and be more diligent in their response to complaints

First Direct has reason to believe that the email address associated with this complaint does not belong to the consumer, but to her neighbor who is not a party to this transaction For purposes of this response, First Direct will use "consumer" in reference to Ms [redacted] and "complainant" in reference to the individual associated with the email address.First Direct regrets that it was unable to assist this consumer with her financing needs, but stands by its claim that the competing offer the complainant refers to was not a better loan Although First Direct charged higher fees, the consumer would have saved more money by closing her loan with First Direct This fact is clearly reflected in the attached document showing the Comparison sections from the Loan Estimates provided by the two companies This sections is specifically designed to allow consumers to compare loan programs to each other when the rates and terms do not necessarily align Unfortunately, the complainant is focused solely on initial fees instead of recognizing the fact that within years, the consumer would have paid nearly $1,more towards interest and saved over $2,in total payments

Revdex.com: I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.I do not consider this resolved and not to my satisfaction You cannot expect someone to answer so quickly They did not respond with adequate reimbursement and have been rude with previous callsI will further my complaint with financial institutions that hold business es accountable for their actions Regards, [redacted]

I received a piece of mail promoting First Direct Lending and telling me I was "Pre-Approved" for a refinance of my mortgageI moved past my hesitation on being "sold" stuff through the mail and looked up FDL online to read reviewsMostly they were positive, there were a few about having their applications denied and what not but I assumed most of those people probably just didn't qualify so no big deal
I called and spoke with representative Ross S who was friendly enough, not very eloquent but seemed to have good customer serviceI told him what I was looking for, a debt consolidation with cash out option on a refinance of our houseI was up front with the level of debt that we were carrying and why I wanted to use the equity in my house to help sort some of this outAfter getting all of my information, pay, accounts, etcHe informed me that we qualified based on closing out some of our open accounts with the refinance and after months or so of rebuilding credit we'd be able to lock into a year mortgage, which is something I really wanted to do
On top of all this we'd be able to take some cash out to put into upgrading our houseAll good thingsThe main key was our appraisal, the only cash out of pocket portion of this dealI asked Ross what our house needed to appraise for in order to qualify for the loan, $200k was what he told meI figured our house was in the $- 235K range so I thought this was doableThe appraiser came out and did his thing and about days later I received our appraisal and we landed at $215kPerfect
After a few more weeks I hadn't heard anything from FDL so I called and emailed several times with no replyThen a day later I received an auto generated letter saying that our application was denied due to outstanding credit balances (we talked about this) and the fact the value of collateral (home value)I have called several times since and have emailed but I get no reply at all
The fear that this was one big con came trueGood business practice would have told me that my DTI wasn't good enough to qualify up front and not put me through thisTell me that I need to sort some stuff out and come back in 6-months, no problem, I'd totally understandDON'T tell me that I DEFINITELY qualify and then send me a document that says I don't and I would expect a follow up phone call at the least to talk me through options of what's nextThis was a disappointing experience and I would hope that others would take cautionNow I'm out $with no other options
I WILL NOT RECOMMEND ANYONE TO WORK WITH FDLIf it seems too good to be true, it probably is

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
First Direct Lending is not being honest in their responseIn their response they are referring to their loan that does not have the same loan amount and cash out amount to borrower or interest rateIf they would give you an honost comparison of loans "apples to apples" then First Direct Lending would not be saving us money but costing us more moneyFirst Direct Lending needs to show you a loan comparison that is the same in regards to interest rate and loan amount and cash out to borrowerThey are not making a honest comparison when comparing the two loans and we could not get them to match or better the loan we got from *** FinancialMatch or better the loan is what their signature guarantee saysThey would not do eitherMy goal for my refinance, that was given to ALL financial lenders that I applied with, was to pull out as much equity as I possibly could to recover my costs associated with improving the property when I purchased itThat is what *** Financial did for us and what First Direct Lending would not do. See loan comparison document that I have attachedHow can First Direct Lending say that their loan is the better loan? The only way First Direct Lending can say this is because they are comparing their loan and the loan amount is less and their interest rate is lower so of course it is saving me money over timeI WOULD HAVE BORROWED LESS MONEY AND AT A LOWER INTEREST RATE ! If they would match *** Financial's Loan (loan amount, cash to borrower and interest rate) it would show that they aren't the better loan due to their extremely high loan fees and costsPlus they were not going to honor their "CLOSE IN DAY" signature guarantee either, which is another reason I had to find another lenderBecause they were not doing any of the things they had promised in their advertisement and sales pitch to us in their SIGNATURE GUARANTEES. They are being dishonest in their advertising and using bait and switch tactics to try and get you to agree to a loan with their companyI have all the emails and phone regards proving they would not honor their "Close in days" guaranteeI have all the emails and phone regards showing they would not honor their "Match or Better any loan out there" guaranteeThey are refusing to honor any of the things they advertise in their "Signature Guarantees" and they should honor what they advertise. Let me know if you would like to see any other correspondence or information regarding my claims mentioned aboveI just want them to do what they say they will do and not be dishonest about it in order to deny consumers the money they promised in their advertising.
Regards,
*** ***

We have confirmed the borrower was charged $on 7/25. A refund was issued on 8/ Funds should be returned to borrowershortly, if not already The refund was in the process which caused the delay in my response
Thank you!
*** ***

I called First Direct Lending and got immediate assistance with *** ***He assisted me through out my entire re-financeEveryone who handled my loan were very efficientI couldn't be more happier with the entire experienceThank you!!

In response to complaint number ***.Mrand Mrs***'s loan was funded on November 30, During the loan process, conditions were added due to the number of debts the ***'s possessed A total of nine debts were paid off including the mortgage and a debt to a former
spouse of $11, The other seven were various debts reporting on the credit reports The final CD indicates $back to the borrowers See line ($359.09) There is no indication of $that the borrowers state There are no further funds due to the borrowers

I would like First Direct Lending to refund my $It's clear to me that this was a ploy to make a few hundred dollarsThere is no chance that the value of my home declined in two years by $10,with the market value
in the area rising by over 3.5% and over $20,in upgrades to the structure.
Mr***'s alleged complaint is above Mr*** received an independent third party appraisal for the amount of $ The amount of the appraisal paid directly to the third party is $ Mr***'s complain that it appears to be "A ploy to make a few hundred dollars" is incorrect In factFirst Direct Lending is responsible for paying the remainder of the full appraisal fee to the third party appraisal management company In essence, it lost money on this one and others like it when the appraisal values come in lower than expected WE can't speak to the "chance the the value of [the] home declined in two years..." That is the responsibility of the independent appraisers and required by Federal Law

To the Revdex.com: Ms*** was refunded her $fee for the required appraisal today. Although it is not current First Direct Lending, LLC policy to refund appraisal fees for loans that are denied in the underwriting stage, First Direct Lending, LLC decided to do so in
this instance. Ms ***'s other claims: "guaranteed to get my money back", and "his voicemail is shut off" are incorrectMs*** also complained that "he waited five days before saying loan was denied"this is actually a relatively short time for an underwriting decision.Thank you for your time and efforts regarding this complaint. Please let me know if you have any questions prior to closing out this complaint.Regards, *** ***Director of Compliance

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear
The rep that we were dealing with from your company informed us directly after we paid for the appraisal fee that he had realized that we did not in fact qualify for a refinance due to a late payment for the month of AprilHe stated to me that he would cancel the appraisal as we did not qualify and that we would get a refund of the appraisal feeWe NEVER received a copy of the appraisal nor any further communication from the loan officer *** after thatWe emailed and called and left messages on multiple occasions for weeks after only to finally get through to someone else who informed us that the loan officer we had been dealing with was suddenly no longer with the company and he gave no further explanationSo we tried to our best effort to reach the person we had been dealing with to find out the status and were unsuccessfulWe had to go above and beyond to seek out an explanation or answer and still never received one other than telling us he was gone and that was itWe never received a copy of any appraisal nor did we receive the refund for the appraisal that NEVER should of been done in the first place since "***" your loan officer at the time was aware that we did not qualifyThat is very deceitful business practices and should not be acceptable.
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com, this is in response to Ms***'s (the borrower) recent complaint The borrower approved a partial appraisal fee charge to her credit card on July 22, She was charged half of the appraisal fee - $ Soon thereafter, the borrower informed
the First Direct Lending ("FDL") employee that her July payment would be more than days late The FDL employee advised that the payment must be made on time in order to continue with the transaction Agency guidelines do not allow us to proceed if the borrower has a 30+ late payment on a current mortgage
On August 2nd, the borrower contacted the FDL employee via email stating that the July mortgage payment was late; that she "...would like to proceed..."; that she "regrettably cannot continue..." and that "perhaps we can continue at later time." The borrower withdrew her application and the federally required advere action notice was sent to her
I am unclear how she is unaware of the status of the application
As for the appraisal fee, the borrower was charged only half and FDL paid the other half She received a copy of the full and valid appraisal

Thank you for sharing the response First Direct Lending, LLC is not in the business of being unethical Ms***'s claims are untrue as demonstrated by the proof we submitted in the initial complaint response

In response to complaint number ***Mrand Mrs***'s loan was funded on November 30, During the loan process, conditions were added due to the number of debts the ***'s possessed A total of nine debts were paid off including the mortgage and a
debt to a former spouse of $11, The other seven were various debts reporting on the credit reports
The final CD indicates $back to the borrowers See line ($359.09) There is no indication of $that the borrowers state There are no further funds due to the borrowers

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Regards,
*** ***
I was and am still very angry with this company. After six weeks the a new agent called and said that My worker, ***, was not working with me anymore. Someone else would take over. This company wanted so much information that I could not keep up with them. They wanted me to have a three way call with the IRS after having been sent my tax forms for several yearsI informed them when the loan was first in place that the IRS had found a case of Stolen identity and that they were trying to solve this. It did not reflect anything I had done wrong. I called The IRS and they could not tell me anything until thecase was settled. It is still not settledI will not and should not being treated like this. This *** that I worked with was crazy. He constantly harassed meI think he did this to others is why he was dismissedThis place is terrible and not be allowed to carry a business where these things are allowed. If they has looked at my IRS papers that would have found I paid my total bill each year

The borrower was informed that the program that they were referring to was not applicable to them, due to its requirements to qualifyFDL prides itself on relaying proper information to the borrower.Although this program had been discontinued prior to their application date, FDL would have honored
it if they had qualified for it. Specifically, one of the requirements to qualify for the $1,day closing guarantee was to provide all documents when requested. At the origination of the loan, the customers did not provide items requested on 2/(signed and mortgage statement) until after 2/when it was requested again. This alone would make them in eligible for the Guarantee. Our Sales Manager spoke with Mrs*** and explained the reasons. Mrs*** let the Sales Manager know that she was satisfied and that she would have her husband remove the request a couple of days ago. Not that we better understand the process, we are hoping that the ***’s will be satisfied with our service (the loan funded) and accept our response and resolution. Again, thanks for your time. It is appreciatedPlease let me know if there is anything additional responses needed. Most kindly, *** ***Director of Compliance*** ***x*** | Fax: *** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved
Regards,
* ***

The borrower was informed that the program that they were referring to was not applicable to them, due to its requirements to qualifyFDL
prides itself on relaying proper information to the borrowerAlthough this program had been discontinued prior to their application date, FDL would have honored it if they had qualified for it
Specifically, one of the requirements to qualify for the $1,day closing guarantee was to provide all documents when requested. At the origination of the loan, the customers did not provide items requested on 2/(signed and mortgage statement) until after 2/when it was requested again. This alone would make them in eligible for the Guarantee
Our Sales Manager spoke with Mrs*** and explained the reasons.
Mrs*** let the Sales Manager know that she was satisfied and that she would have her husband remove the request a couple of days ago. Not that we better understand the process, we are hoping that the ***’s will be satisfied with our service (the loan funded) and accept our response and resolution
Again, thanks for your time. It is appreciatedPlease let me know if there is anything additional responses needed.
Most kindly,
*** ***
Director of Compliance*** ***x*** | Fax: *** ***

My full name is *** ***, is this the additional information you're requesting?

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved
Regards,
*** ***