Charter One Reviews

We have been customers of CCO for the past 9 yrs. A Mortgage and a home loan. We paid both in full and are in the process of a new home and new mortgage. 7 Days before the closing on our 4th loan processor ( Current one is very helpful ) They, CCO still don't know if we are getting a loan????
We have given them a paper trail from the beginning of time, still not good enough. We are putting down 48% cash for a down payment and we have enough in savings for the amount we are borrowing TIMES 2!!. I am going to eat a $2,700.00 fee they collected up from for 6 month rate lock for New Construction loan. My credit union will get my business. Unfortunately at the time they could not lock out 6 months and I had a commitment to the builder for a commitment letter. Tommorrow Morning I am off to my credit Union!!!!!!!!!!

Hello. This review is about my and my wife's experiences with CCO Mortgage. What a nightmare. We originally had a first mortgage and HELOC with Countrywide. When Countrywide went bankrupt, Bank of America bought our loans. And, everything continued without a hitch. Then, for some reason, BofA sold our HELOC to CCO Mortgage, but kept the first mortgage -- that's when the nightmare began. I received a call from CCO Mortgage asking where the September payment was . . . I advised them the payment was made on time and would fax a copy of the cancelled check as documentation. A week later, I received a call from CCO Mortgage asking where the August payment was and was advised the account was in collections . . . I advised them the payment was made on time and would fax a copy of the cancelled check as documentation. Then received subsecquent phone calls about October, November, December, January and February. I provided payment verification for each month by faxing a copy of the cancelled check. All the while, the account remained in collections and our other creditors reduced our available credit lines. I was then informed that since CCO Mortgage couldn't confirm the September payment from Bank of America to CCO Mortgage the account would remain in collection until BofA paid CCO Mortgage. (Why is this my problem? I paid the bill. I can't help it if one institution doesn't forward funds to another.) After six months of phone calls (sometimes 2-3 calls a week), having to tell the same story repeatedly to different collection supervisors, and the anxiety, and the frustration and the hit to our credit score, CCO Mortgage finally informed us our account was up to date. This isn't even a fraction of the story but, it hopefully gives you glimpse of the complete and utter incompetency and rudeness of CCO Mortgage. These people should be barred from the business -- forever. They are the worst!

Our story starts very similar to the previous review. We were already custumers of CCO Mortgage and we have been their customers for 7 years. So, we thought it made sense to go with a bank that we already had a long history and due to our good credit. BTW, we never missed a payment in 7 years.

So, we start talking the a CCO Mortgage representative over the phone and stablish started the process we send all requested documentation via FedEx about a month before the schedule closing.

We did not hear much about them, just that everything look OK and that we should be fine for the scheduled closing date.

So, 3 days before closing I start getting call asking us for more documentation. We are suppose to close tomorrow and they are still calling me asking me for more documents... So, they did NOTHING during 3 weeks and waited until the last minute to review our file????
Believe me if I could I would just end this game...
This company and the employees I have talked to are a JOKE. Advise: KEEP AWAY!!!!

My husband and I have bought and sold several homes so we are not new to the mortgage market. We purchased our current home in 2006 and received a loan from CCO Mortgage, which we obtained through our bank, Charter One.

We had used CCO Mortgage on our previous home with no problems, so when their rates were competitive with other banks, we decided to use them again.

We thought that all was well until one year after we closed on our mortgage loan. We received a letter stating that our escrow account was short by almost $6,000!!!! As if that wasn't bad enough, if we chose to pay our escrow shortage IN FULL, our monthly payment would "only" INCREASE by $365 PER MONTH!

We did not understand how such a huge mistake could have happened so the phone calls (and problems) began. After getting minimal assistance from the customer service department, we contacted the person who help us obtain our mortgage. He had since left the company and told us that the local bank branches of Charter One no longer had mortgage representatives to help customers. We were stuck using the national so-called customer service representatives to help us sort out this mess.

After several phone calls, the best that we could do was to increase our monthly payment by over $600 PER MONTH since we were a bit shy of having almost $6000 to fork over to remove the escrow shortage. To say that we were livid is an understatement.

Flash forward to one year from that fiasco, and we are still stuck with CCO Mortgage. We managed to get our monthly payment lowered by $200 per month, but are still extremely unhappy. We have checked into various refinancing options with other mortgage companies, but the closing costs do not make it worth switching providers at this time.

If you are considering a loan with CCO Mortgage, I stand by my advice to run, don't walk, as far away from them as you can.