Consumer complaint received 2020-08-12
Company: BANK OF THE WEST
State: TN
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Getting a loan or lease
Sub-issue: Credit denial

Complaint:
I applied online at XXXX XXXX XXXX to refinance my XXXX XXXX, a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, on XX/XX/XXXX. I was assigned to XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ), it said from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX which later started to be referred to as Essex Credit in the emails and documents. I didn't hear anything after weeks, then a month. I called every XXXX  XXXX XXXX number, Essex Credit numbers and Bank of the West numbers I had or could find, but could not get a person in finance or loans. I emailed the lady assigned to my application, XXXX XXXX ( XXXX # XXXX ), several times and did not get a response. After sometime I received a letter indicating I was declined, for the first time in my XXXX year life. I have almost perfect credit ( XXXX ), with a XXXX Military XXXX retirement, VA XXXX and a full time senior XXXX 's paycheck. The only debt I carry from month to month is my home mortgage and my XXXX XXXX loan. Cars paid off and any and all credit cards auto pay full balance each month. There was apparently a comment on my XXXX credit report that said I was in a dispute or had a dispute with my credit union ( XXXX ) on a Visa credit card, that [ now ] Bank of the West indicated they could not fund the loan based on that. Called XXXX they confirmed my 30 year relationship with them was stellar, perfect payment record, and no record of any dispute or negative reports to the credit bureau. I finally got through to my representative and passed that on to XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ) who asked me to get a copy of my current statement that reflected payment in full with no outstanding balance, and I did, while she stayed on the line. XXXX XXXX ( XXXX # XXXX ) put me on hold, then said she contacted the underwriter and she had everything they needed to proceed with the loan. But I would need to reapply electronically since the closed the prior file and needed an active file to move the request along. XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ) said I would not have to resubmit all the supporting documents ( W2s, military retirement proof, VA XXXX entitlement, and pay stubs ) as she already had that and she would attach it to the new file, since she covers loans in my area. A month of silence, phone messages not returned and emails not responded to. I received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX indicating Essex Credit, Bank of the West, XXXX XXXX was " Unable to Verity Income, Financial Statements not Provided '' ... but I had emailed all that to XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ) and she confirmed she had all she needed to get it approved. So I called customer service number on the bottom of the notification ( XXXX ) and explained what had happened. The first customer service representative acted put out or bothered and put me on hold to look at my file, and I received a dial tone shortly. I called back, explained it all again. This representative told me that representative that my application was assigned to, XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ), was on Medical Leave and would not have been available to provide the information that she had, so the underwriters evaluated the application, without getting anything from XXXX XXXX ( NMLS # XXXX ). Not sure why that even sounds right, why would they have me send my stuff to a representative and then make a decision without getting the information or checking with the representative designated for me to send the information to. I asked what I could do to correct their error, the customer service representative said nothing, the file was closed. I asked if I could talk to a supervisor or manager ... and she said it would not do any good because all I would get was a recording. I asked again if there was any recourse, and the customer service representative said there is nothing you can do, the file is closed and your loan denied. I am extremely careful to ensure I don't have random and unnecessary credit requests on my credit report, and now this or these organizations cost me over 90 days of lost savings that I would have had with the refinance through them ( Bank of the West ) or others with similar rates and they pulled two credit reports one for each electronic submittal.

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