Consumer complaint received 2022-08-26
Product: Mortgage — Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Applying for a mortgage or refinancing an existing mortgage — 
Company: Brightfunders, LLC (LA)

On XX/XX/2022, I successfully submitted a Home Equity Line of Credit Application to Lower.com, an online mortgage lender. The following day, XX/XX/2022, I met via phone with my assigned loan officer, XXXX XXXX. We reviewed the information on my application and he provided me an overview of the products Lower offered, the amount i was looking for and also asked if I wanted to proceed forward with a hard pull of my credit so they could fully assess my application. I agreed and proceeded to review what came back on the credit report. My credit score at the time was a couple of points shy of the qualification criteria for this particular product. XXXX shared with me they had a way to help me increase my credit score to the level that would allow me to be approved. He sent me an email that included the instructions and what it would require to do this. His explanation of this was that if I paid at least a certain amount on two of my outstanding accounts, they would be able to submit the documentation evidencing the payment to the credit bureau to get my credit updated right away. Furthermore, he shared that it had a 95 % + chance of getting my score to where it needed to be. He emailed me the instructions and amounts later that day. I immediately made the payments to these accounts as described in the email attachments ( attached ). Over the next few days, I gathered the required documentation showing the payments had posted and submitted to Lower. Around this same time, I also submitted all required income documentation and acknowledged and signed disclosures. On XX/XX/2022, I received an email stating my loan had gone into " Initial Loan Review '' and that my credit hurdle had been resolved. I also confirmed this with XXXX that same day. Several weeks later ( XX/XX/2022 ) after struggling to get any update on my loan application, I finally was informed that the servicer for the loans is predicting a 90-120 day turnaround time to closing. This is after being told at application submission in early June that the typical time to close is around 2 weeks to at most 30 days. At this point, I still did not have any confirmation i was close to any sort of approval. I finally received a text message ( attached ) on XX/XX/2022 that my loan had received conditional approval, but the turnaround time was still XXXX XXXX block from closing. On XX/XX/2022, I reached out for an update and was informed by XXXX XXXX was waiting on my conditional approval. This was an odd response since just a few weeks earlier that is what he indicated as well. His response indicated this was a second conditional approval which was a bit bizarre to say the least. This brings us to current where on XX/XX/2022, I received an email ( attached ) from Lower.com to my email address stating that " due to market conditions Lower has had to adjust our credit qualifications. Following this change you no longer qualify for the product. '' My complaint revolves around two issues. First, the misleading and deceptive process from start to denial is a bad process at best, but rather flat out deception. The timeline begins with a potential end point of 2 weeks and ultimately approaches 90 days to then only be told what we said before we take all of that back. The second aspect is around the credit report and expectation set around taking the actions on the outstanding accounts. The communication on this was very much if you do this, you will qualify and we will definitely be able to get you into this HELOC. While I realize I made payments on accounts where I owe funds to other institutions, this was with a full expectation it would result in me being approved for this loan. If I had known I would find myself receiving a denial nearly 3 months later, I would have never taking this action. This feels very bait and switch and while I never received anything there was a clear expectation that I would receive this loan.