Consumer complaint received 2020-06-17
Company: AMERISAVE MORTGAGE CORPORATION
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I called the AmeriSave Mortgage Corporation to check their 30 year conventional rates. A loan officer responded and ran some numbers verbally. He strongly recommended, because I have a lot of credit card debt, I should refinance with a cash-out. He said first do the cash-out with them to pay off credit cards and my solar panel loan and then do another 30 year refinance 6 months later with very low interest rate with them. The cash out amount was very high and enough to pay off my solar panel and also 90 % of my credit cards. I was interested but I wanted to see the numbers on the paper. He took me to their online application site and told me to e-sign some documents but I couldn't because of the wrong information on the document - my ssn was different. He said he fixed it but we couldn't go any further with e-signing any documents. I was looking for the good faith estimate that shows a rough estimate but he didn't show me. Until then I thought that I will probably see it in the next screen but he took me to the credit card intake page and asked to enter my credit card information for {$500.00}. I asked him why it says {$500.00} and not refundable. He said " it's refundable and our conversation was being recorded. '' I asked if AmeriSave is a legit company. He said his company is rated A+ at XXXX. But that was my mistake I trusted him and provided my credit card. He then finished application process and scheduled an appraisal. I got an email from him with a link to the application. I checked the link but still no GFE and the early disclosure documents I needed to sign were not visible. Because of the high cash out amount, I wanted to check numbers first, but nothing about the cash out amount or costs were showing nowhere in the application. So I worried about being scammed and decided to cancel it. The application does not have a cancel option so I sent him an email right away on XXXX that I wish to cancel the application like within an hour or two. I received no response. I called their customer service but no response. I chatted through their online chat service but it was not working. I didn't know they already charged my credit card at that time but I found out they did so I contacted their customer service again but at a different phone number found online but told me to contact the loan officer. I sent another email to him and CC 'd to the AmeriSave customer support. He responded back to me via email and he called me and he was very upset that I canceled and he can not refund the money. He will talk to his manager and get back to me on XX/XX/XXXX Thursday. He called me back on XX/XX/XXXX Friday and told me that his manager can not refund my money. My English is not good so they were able to trick me into providing my credit card information online. I couldn't esign any initial documents because of their system glitches and incorrect information displayed on their documents. Their cash out amount was so high and attractive and promised that he would do non cash-out after 6 months with a very low rate. As the actual cash out amount depends on the appraisal results i wanted to see the GFE first but they never provided. They also told me that if I close the cash out loan with them, they can lock with a very low rate when I do my 30 year refi loan with them again after 6 months. And that will save a lot of money. I really wanted to see all the details of what he was saying on a document but they never provided and felt that it was not safe to do business with them so I canceled it right away. They didn't start the loan process so I am little confused how they can charge my credit card. I feel like I am scammed. I feel like this company is preying on people for {$500.00} especially on people who don't speak perfect English.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation