Consumer complaint received 2022-03-22
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: GA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage

Complaint:
Hi : ) I refinanced my mortgage with Naval Federal credit Union in XX/XX/2021. In XX/XX/2021 I applied for a home equity loan to gain access to {$100000.00} worth of equity in my home ; to be used for real estate investing. The loan was denied in XXXX. I requested information and further explanation on the denial but could not get in contact with the loan officer responsible for the decision ; as he never returned my calls or emails. ( I have a record of these attempted communications ). The emails were kicked back to my inbox stating that " The message couldn't be sent ''. And till this day I have never been able to speak with him. ( If this is a fair process why am I not able to consult with the individual who is processing my loan application? ) I then called NFCU customer support and spoke with 6 customer advisors with Naval Federal credit Union before anyone could advise me as to how to best address the concerns around my misunderstanding as to the reason for my denial. Four of the customer service advisors were very rude, gave me false contradicting information and in my opinion did not provide sufficient insight and advice to best address my concerns. 

Two of the customer service advisors were very helpful in advising me of what my next steps could be. I could tell through conversation that these two advisers were African-American and the other four were Non XXXX Americans. The final XXXX-American customer service advisor listen to my grievance then forwarded me to a manager who then called me and advised that I could file an appeal. ( I recorded these conversations and left time stamps to help identify the issues i referenced. ) After filing an appeal in XXXX I received a letter late XXXX confirming that the appeal was denied due " my overall credit profile not meeting NFCU 's guidelines for approval. My credit score is currently around XXXX and to be clear I was approved for my home refinance loan a year prior. I'm an XXXX male making over 6 figures per year with a combined household income of over $ XXXX. I have been sure to keep my credit spotless in paying all of my bills on time outside of a Medical bill that popped up on my credit report after a Medical billing associate advised me that I didn't owe a balance. I feel like I'm being railroaded and set up for failure. The only things questionable in this sequence of events are why I couldnt get in contact with my loan officer to get insight on my denial, why I was approved for the home loan just a few months prior but denied on the Home equity loan and why the only customer advisors that expressed empathy and were willing to provide meaningful assistance were XXXXAmericans. 

Recently there have been several articles that have surfaced revealing how XXXX-Americans are disproportionately discriminated against in the Home real estate market ( See links on document attached ). I don't want to pull the race card but something isnt adding up here. I truly feel that if I was dealing with a loan officer or a review board that was either more diverse or had diversity training that this application process would have been much smoother and my application would have likely been approved. This has been a long draining experience and Ive heard from 1 other XXXX-American family that their application process was drawn out and they felt as if the loan officers were not doing the best they could to communicate & process their applications in a timely considerable manner. 

This issue with Naval Federal credit Union has to be addressed as I think their staff needs diversity training as well as diversity hires to avoid future incidents like this. Because of this loan denial I dont have access to additional tools that could allow me to build wealth. I could write this off as either a small coincidence ; but recent reports proving that racism exist in the real estate market speaks to why these white associates gave me a hard time and two XXXX associates were willing to helped me.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation