Mortgage Lender Ratings - Countrywide Ratings

Countrywide Mortgage Ratings

The following mortgage company reviews are submitted by actual users and do not represent the opinions or experiences of Mortgage-Ratings.com. Mortgage-Ratings.com is in no way affiliated with the brands, advertisers, merchants, or products discussed by its users. Consumer mortgage reviews and mortgage company ratings are informative for those wishing to use them, but they do not guarantee any level of performance by a merchant or other third party in any given transaction.

Countrywide is Slashing Jobs

August-2007 - If you're considering Countrywide as a lender, watch out as the future of this company is up in the air. Countrwide has just eliminated about 500 jobs as it tries to ride out problems from a credit crunch that has rocked the home loan industry.

Zero Stars

In the Sept. 27, 2007 mail, I received an offer from Countrywide Home Loans. The offer was for a 40-year mortgage. The hook was to save extra cash at the end of every month. Save $100 a month, add 20 extra years to my debt, and repay an extra $400,000? Additional years of financial servitude in exchange for dinner for two once a month? If that isn’t a deal with the devil, I don’t know what is. Sure, I’m 50 years old, and may not live to be 90. But, who wants a mortgage after they’re 50 or 60?

Who’s the idiot, Mozillo wasting marketing dollars or the types of borrowers he’s looking for to further the problems of the economy? This type of marketing evidences a bad lending practice, what policy makers and regulators complain about for the media coverage, but have done absolutely nothing thus far for the lending industry’s long term and consumer’s immediate benefit. How many billion did Countrywide get from the other major lenders, who in turn got the money from the Fed to bail Countrywide out?

The last lender bail out was Ameriquest’s CEO Arnall, who Bush sent oversees to be ambassador of the Netherlands . Had Arnall stayed in the U.S. , he probably would have been lynched by borrowers from every state in the U.S. and D.C who got burned. Mozillo and his management team have an account to pay with every borrower they mislead and with ever investor who bought Countrywide’s garbage-grade securities.

Mozilllo’s tenure at Countrywide should be foreclosed on, he should be evicted, and he should be personally held liable. The fiasco we now see did not happen by accident.

A definite recommendation

I was pretty impressed with the variety of options I found when looking for my mortgage. They are a Direct Lender who can offer you pretty much anything you need if you're buying your first home, or refinancing.

Although they didn't have the personalization as my last did, their customer service is still available by phone 24 hours a day, and they also have local branches that were neaby. I typicaaly had a quick turnaround time in response to my emails and phone calls. Again, I would hae liked to have a dedicated loan agent, but they were still pretty friendly.

Some of their products include Home Purchase Loans, Refinance Loans and Home Equity Lines of Credit. But they go also help with a wide variety of tools to help you decide which loan is the best to apply for. They keep their daily mortgage rates updated constantly and I found them to be about the same as a few of the other competitors I had tried to work with. Also, what helped a lot was that they were able to offer me a loan with my less than perfect credit.

Some of the options they advertised include Easy Rate Reduction, Online Pre Approval, Lock N' Shop Rate Protection and a quick closing timeline. We were a bit hesitant and almost ended up cancelling our paperwork, but decided not too last minute. I was shocked that they offered to refund our application fee!

Overall, I was also pretty happy with the Countrywide website. Clear, Conscise, and to the point.

Despite a lot of negative reviews of Countrywide, I would definitely use them again.

Never Again

I'm sure this is just a forum for venting but I will never use Countrywide again. I'm currently searching for another lender. My problem is that they have lost about a dozen of my payments mailed to them and any additional monies I specify for principal they place into escrow. Understand my escrow account is over the top already and I checked the postal service to make sure we were not making a mistake.. After I callied Countrywide they first went into a defensive posture and then said I needed to place myself on an automatic withdrawal plan with my bank which is an option. Talking with these clowns is similar to talking with junior high kids, they can do no wrong which I found to be absolute bullshit. I now have to monitor every transaction with these idiots to make sure they do it right.

A Happy Customer of Countrywide

My husband and have a course of construction loan with Countrywide. The local agent and her assistant have been Fabulous to work with and they promptly return all calls. Recently we just signed up for Life Insurance through Country Wide and Ing. I wish I could say this went as smooth as the loan; but it didn’t, they made several errors along the way, BUT all the agents have been very professional, apologized and corrected the errors. We would DEFINETLY use Country Wide again!

Countrywide...PASS

We re-fied our home loan through Countrywide 15 years ago. As soon as the prepay penalty period was over they sold our loan to someone else. During the time they held our loan we got a few days late once or twice and that seemed to get them started to call us a week before the payment was due asking us if we were going to pay on time this month. They didn't even wait for the grace period! Try someone else!

Rude

I am a Realtor and tried to process a Short Sale with Countrywide for one of my clients that had a loan with Countrywide. My clients had a drug problem and lost their children, job and all dignity. They were starting to put their lives together and attended rehab. They have decided to do a Short Sale to try and help Countrywide recoup as much as possible before the property went into foreclosure.

I was shocked to see that Countrywide negotiators speak to the Realtors as if they owed the bill and was not helpful at all! I think when a property owner decides to go through a Short Sale and not let the property go into full foreclosure Countrywide and all other banks should take that into consideration and work as a team with all parties and not a collection agency. If Countrywide continues to treat parties like this they will carry more properties from foreclosures and have too much inventory and will eventually go into bankruptcy.

I wonder if the CEO knows how the negotiators allow the homes to just go into foreclosure instead of trying to work with a professional agent representing the owners? They definitely need some training in this department.

Service of the loan is horrendous!

Countrywide’s service and response time is the worst I’ve seen! As a REALTOR I requested that the trustee of the loan sign off on a re-subdivision of a lot, in which the lot in question is acquiring, YES acquiring more land for FREE!!! This would INCREASE the value of their property. This was done so that the next door neighbor (giving the land) can sell his property where the fence lies. His bank (losing the land) the Trustee signed promptly OVERNIGHT! (All loans have a Trustee).

Countrywide on the other hand instructed me to leave a message and stated it would be TWO business days just to return my call (go ahead and try it 1-800-376-4140), followed by another 30 day minimum to review! (A Thirty Day extension is way too long when it comes to interest rates!) This has fouled up the neighbor’s deal with the buyers and taken up of owners’ much valued time, money and frustration! A Mr James Jackson at Countrywide stated that it is their guideline end of story, NO EXCEPTION, even if it is simple! THIRTY DAYS to look at a lot line and go okay??????? When I stated that this was totally unprofessional and would tell others about this service he hung up on me. NO CONCERN IN HIS VOICE.

I advise all to steer away from this company. There are many others you can use: First Horizon Home Loans, Navy Federal Credit Union, Wells Fargo, National City Mortgage, Chase, Bank of America, Wachovia… the list goes on!!! You do not need this stress!!!! Unfortunately, Towne Bank sold the loan to Countrywide, therefore also check to see if your loan company sells many loans. The terms of you loan doesn’t change HOWEVER the servicing of the loan definitely does!!! If you think that you have high interest rates being offered call at least one of these other banks for a competitive rate.

I'm a Countrywide Victim

I feel as if I am a victim of Countrywide. I fell behind on one single payment, made a repayment plan to pay $375.00 for three months, and then make a final payment of $362.00 to catch up. I have wasted hours on the phone with Countrywide customer service being transferred back and forth from rep to rep. Its like they don’t care about their customers at all. I would recommend just finding a local lender who puts service before their own financial gain. You might pay more in a few interest points, but it is definitely worth it.

Talk about shady business practices.

Thanks for this website - Mortgage Lender Reviews! I am not a Countrywide customer but my spouse has been working for Countrywide for the past few years. We’ve both been disappointed in the way they treat her and their customers. I think they are extremely deceptive and am guessing they make most of their money through large advertising campaigns and purchasing out other mortgage loans. I only hope that others will report their problems with Countrywide to save future potential customers from the nightmares that might come.

What am I getting myself into?

Right now, I am in the process of obtaining a home equity loan with Countywide. So far I can personally say that there Never return phone calls promptly and they seem to be an incompetent bunch. I have had to initiate every call and been told false information several times about extremely important documents and closing procedures. Every time I call, I feel like I’m annoying them and that pisses me off. After reading some of these reviews, I’m scared of what I have gotten myself into. Wish me luck.

Thank you

Thank you for your review site and Countrywide ratings. I have been thinking about getting a HELOC loan and was on the Countrywide website looking at some of their offers. I emailed them and actually spoke with a Countrwide customer service rep to get further information, but after reading some of the horror stories here and some other websites that were talking about a Countrywide class action law suit, I don’t think that I will be using them to refinance my adjustable mortgage. Thanks in advance!

They ruined my credit

After two years of dealing with these people I have resorted to selling my house. Countrwide has ruined my credit by selling my personal information to God knows how many companies and marketers. I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one who has had problems with Countrywide. From friends and relatives who have also used them, I can say that they harass and stalk their customers. I checked around with some laws and according to the Federal Fair Debs and Collection Act, you can send a written request that the creditor stop calling you unless you request contact or they are taking some sort of legal action and need to speak with you.

After going to court and having way too much stress over this lending disaster, Countrywide continues to call me. Apparantly, they can be fined upwards of a grand per phone call that they make against you. All of this started over 1 missed payment by the way. Its truly sad that it has come to this, but I’m left with no option.

Using Countrywide was a huge mistake.I’m in the real estate industry and can testify that countryside sucks. They constantly make errors and have made errors on every loan that my clients have taken from them. A girlfriend of mine used to work in one of their offices, and said that there was a lot of shadiness to their business practices. I have heard horror stories of damaged credit reports due to Countrywide. They also have a reputation of harassing people if they fall even the slightest bit behind.

Good rates / bad service

I’ve worked with other lending companies and I can’t tell you how much better most of them are when compared to Countrywide. I think a lot of people are suckered in by their massive advertising campaigns. Unfortunately, the typical consumer probably doesn’t know much better. I’ll admit that they do have decent rates, but I wouldn’t take an amazing rate over poor service. I suggest you review Countrywide and their practices before lending with them.

No problems here

I've never heard a negative thing about Countrywide other than a few minor complaints that were probably user generated.. They are one of the top thre lenders in the country. They offer all the mortgage products available. Prime, Alt-A, Subprime FHA & VA. They are a great place to start. I would also check with a local broker to see if they can offer you a similar rate

Not tooo bad

Although my experience with Countrwide has been okay with no major complaints or hassles, one thing you do need to be careful with is to watch out if you have auto deductions for your loan payment. I tend to misplace things and was tired of always trying to find Countrywide payment address, so I set my account to automatically deduct from my checking. 3 times now, they have overcharged my account 30 dollars.

It wouldn’t be that bad if I could just call them up and have them resolve the issue, but I swear it takes 3 or 4 phone calls each time to straighten things out. Be careful and watch your bank accounts closely. Luckily, my problems haven’t been too bad as the charges have been relatively small, but I’m sure they wouldn’t hesitate to charge me a huge late fee and take it directly from my bank account. This can be dangerous if you have bills to pay and can’t wait a month to have a charge reversed.

My loan agent was great

Whenever you finance or refinance, the overall service experience you usually depends on your own loan agent and not the company. If you’re lucky enough to find a loan agent that you like, you might as well stick with them (even if he or she moves to a new company) Most complaints online are usually due to the fault of an idiot loan agent and not the lender.

Anyway, in the mortgage business, most companies have their strengths and weaknesses. Countrywide works only because they have a ton of programs and various loans available. But on a side note, they don’t usually have the best rates.

Personally I have never had a problem with Countrwide, only because I personally know my loan agent who always takes care of me. I’ve hear horror stories, but again most of these are due to incompetent loan agents. Perhaps they should start some sort of employee monitoring system to make sure they’re all as on top of things as mine is.

Great service, but they're constantly trying to sell you more!

My current Mortgage is with Countrywide and I'm happy to report that I'm pleased with their service. I'm able to do all of the basic necesities like pay my bills online, have direct payments from my checking accounts, see my statements and bills online and I can adjust my montly payment online at any time.

The one thing I don't like about Countriwide Home Loan is that they CONSTANTLY try to upsell you on othe products and services. I swear they call me once a week and mail me 3 things a week to advertise other loan products. I've received HELOC offers, Credit Card Offers, Other Loan offers, etc. etc. I keep telling them to stop sending me marketing materials, but they won't listen!

Stay Clear of Countrywide

If you are looking for a mortgage, HELOC or are looking to refinance your home, don't go to Countrywide unless you like unexpected problems, bad customer service, and working with idiots.

I recently applied for a Home Equity Line of Credit with Countrywide. Turns out they lost our paperwork so we had to do the entire application process twice. Then when they sent us our disbursement check, they sent it to the wrong account. This extra process took a week to straighten out and they didn't offer to extend our payment at all, so we ended up having to pay early.

Had I known how much of pain in the a$$ countrwide was going to be, I would have never
If we had known the kind of problems that we were going to have when we applied to this company, we would have gone somewhere else.
So, based on our personal experience with Countrywide Home Mortgage, I would not recommend this company to anyone who wasn't ready to take the time and effort to make the repeated contacts to try and fix any mistakes made to your accounts.
Update: As of today's date, April 13, there is still no resolution to our problem. Our funds currently are "lost in the system" according to Countrywide. According to CS, we are expected to still make payments on money we have not received, and they have no idea when we will receive them. We are frustrated enough with this company that our next step will be with a lawyer, because we have tired of being given the runaround.

They're foreclosing on me on a PAID OFF loan!?!?!

I had a mortgage with countrywide. Two years ago I separated from my wife and put the house up for sale. I ended up buying a different place all while paying 2 loan payments. Unfortunately the first house took over 12 months to sell. I made all of the payments, but was about 2 weeks late. They told me that my wife was the only one on the account. I explained that the court ordered the property and existing debt in my name alone, but they still wouldn’t take my payment

After the Countrywide debt was paid in full after a few major hassles and the house transferred to the buyers (A week later) Countrywide filed foreclosure papers and a 3 day notice to reply. I gave them a call and was told that my account was paid in full and closed. So they sent me to their collections department and said that they couldn’t talk to me as I wasn’t on the account. Here we went again. So I’m being foreclosed on a property that I don’t even owe a penny on. I’m going to have to go to court, probably damage my credit for a judge to see that the balance has been paid in full and that Countrywide has NO CASE. Way to go idiots! See ya in court.

They messed up everything

I had the misfortune of working with Countrywide about a year ago due to the fact that my loan had been sold to them. They messed up everything from the beginning. Amounts weren’t transferred, they didn’t return phone calls in a timely manner, they messed up our tax documents, and the entire hassle took 4 months to straighten out! I would not recommend Countrywide to anyone. I’ve even gone the extra step and made sure that my new loan would not / could not be sold to Countrywide. They were a complete nightmare to work with.

It's been a good experience

I can personally say that I have had good experience with Countrywide. I was looking to refinance my adjustable mortgage and ended up speaking to Ameriquest, Nationpoint, Century 21 and some other "online" lenders before I contacted Countrywide. I noticed that they had local Countrywide branch office about an hour from my home and worked exclusively with them. The whole procedure was every smooth and I was even able to close about two weeks earier than expected.. Be sure to get a good title company. As with any loan..I promise that there will be a lot of paperwork. :)

They didn't seem to be that knowledgable

My last mortgage was with countrywide. I ended up selling my house and paid off the loan. When I went to purchase my second house, I had nothing but problems when I worked with countrywide. I think they are use to dealing with people with less than perfect credit.. The person I dealt with couldn't figure out how to help me get the loan, and I had to make suggestions to her in order for her to try and get me approved.

I ended up financing with a local broker. They sell all there loans and don't do in house funding. The mortgage eventually was sold to Wells Fargo and I have been very please with them. Since the countrywide loan was paid off, they send me junk mail and spam emails, but i just ignore them now.

No problems

I've been with Countrywide for about 3 years and am pretty pleased with their services

Lately, I feel that most companies customer service seems to be filled with morons or people that don't speak English, they were pretty well versed in their business.

I signed up with their automatic debit system for making a monthly loan payment and haven't had any problems. I know other people have complained about them not posting funds promptly. This is a free service and you can adjust the date so that it deducts whenever you're ready

Every month on the same day, I receive a letter from Countrwide customer service that oultines what portion of my payment was applied to principal, interest, and escrow (for taxes and insurance). I also found that my online account was easy to navigate and their website was very straight forward.

My only complaint is that I get additional sales calls from them. They sell other products, but I had to request 4 times that they stop soliciting me with other mortgage products. Finally, they seem to have gotten it right as the sales calls have ended. Overall, I'm pleased with Countrywide.

Scandalous business practices

I recently moved and was looking for a Mortgage. I had heard some mixed reviews about Countrywide, but ended up on their website and securing a loan through them. It has been a complete nightmare. They have misapplied payments, overdrawn payments, threatened my credit history all the while harrasing me with sales calls trying to sell me additional products when they can't even get my main account straightened out. I'd avoid working with them at all costs. They are scanadalous.

Their fees are ridiculous

For some reason, I ended up falling for Countrywide Loan commercials. I came up with the $290 application fee and paid the extra $50 bucks for the credit report fee and was told that everything looked great and that I should have no problems.

I have a great credit score (750+) so I was expecting my home line to go smoothly. I was talking to some people at my office who had used Countrywide and they warned me about their hidden fees.

I was getting worried about the fees so I called my loan agent to figure out the details who assured me not to worry. . Finally he called back and told me not to worry. I ended up getting all of the final paperwork for my loan and realized that there would be a total of about $20,000 in loan fees. I ended up canceling my application and left the deal on the table.

About a week later, they started calling every other day telling me that they would reduce their fees.

Because I felt a bit jaded by my original Countriwide Mortgage rep, I ended up finding a local broker who offered me the same loan for about $6000 in total lender fees.

My advice is to shop around your local places. They may not have the best names, but they often have competitive rates and personalized service that you don’t find with the larger lenders.

A solid recomendation

My wife use to work as a mortage broker until she became a stay at home mom. She tends to know her way around homeloans, and after doing some research on who had the best mortgage rates, she recommended that we use Countrywide.

This was our first mortgage and with out poor credit, we were expecting the inquisition when it came to applying for a Home Loan. Although we went through hours of paperwork and inquiries regarding our credit history, my wife assured me that most people go through similar lending experiences.

Countrywide had a very professional and knowledgeable staff. They truly took care of us to to make our loan work for us. They had a very hometown company feel and were extremely courteous. We found their rates to be better than the other competitors - and believe me, my wife shopped around! :) They also service most of their loans, so you don't have to worry about dealing with a lot of new companies or faces which is apparantly common in the mortgage business.
If you need to refinance your home, I would definitely recomen Countrywide.

Zero Stars for Countrywide

I would give them 0 stars if I could. I’ve dealt with several other lenders over the past 20 years, but was pretty disappointed in my Countrywide experience. They are pretty much rude, prone to mistakes, difficult to deal with, and careless about the details of my loan. They changed my guaranteed loan rate one day before closing, and when I tried to call them to address this, I was pretty much blown off – even by a supervisor. Due to the fact that I was so close to closing with them and had gone so far, I ended up signing with them. They really don’t seem to pay attention to you other than when you’re sending your bill. I’d look for a smaller name.

Decent Rates, Poor Customer Support Ratings

Countrywide bought out my loan a while ago and I had problems with them from the beginning. When the loan was transferred from my mortgage broker, they never applied my payment to their new owning of my account. Spent hours on the phone with people in customer service (sounded like I was dealing with some huge call center in India) just to straighten things out. There really is no personal touch when dealing with Countrywide. I’d rather deal with a local lender who knows me than calling in and just being some anonymous number. I won’t go into the full details of my experience since Countrywide bought out my loan, but take my word. Great rates, but if you’re looking for customer service…look elsewhere!

I got a high interest rate from them. Help.

I have recently applied to Countrywide for a mortgage loan because the Broker offered me a loan with 10% interest rate. My credit scores are TU632, EQ625 and EX661. I make $45,000 base salary and another $25000- $30000 in commision. I have 3 things left on my Equifax report disputed becasue they are not my credit card accounts that total $8000. They really aren't mine, I was only 15 when these accounts were supposedly opened. I applied with the Broker because I thought he would find the best deal without all the pulls to my credit but the best he could do was 10% interest. I have 2 credit cards but they are only 8 months old. The Broker says that's why my interest rate is so high, because I don't have a long credit history. Will Countrywide be more forgiving? I was hoping for a rate of 8%. Can anyone share any helpful or encouraging thoughts on this?

Started out Good, but Never Again

I have used Countrywide Home Loans twice before and was actually pleased with my past experiences. Actually I still had the second loan with Countrywide when I was applying for my HELOC. What irritated me the most is thaty they ended up merging both of my new loans which is NOT what I wanted. They sent me the wrong bills and invoices and took forever to clean up the mess. I even got a letter in the mail stating that I was going to be reported to a Collection agency, which all of was their fault.

They then sent me a random service fee invoice of $80 for some random charge. When I called them, they had no clue what the charge was or why I was being charged, yet they had no problems sending me the bill. After this whole experience, I really would not recommend Countrywide. I don't know what happend as they use to be on top of the ball with my other loans. It was like working with a whole new company who had no clue what they were doing. Give them a try if you want, but I can't say too many positive things about Countrywide Mortgages.

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