RUN FAST AND FAR - THEY ARE UNETHICAL…read more
If I could give TransUnited Financial Services, and specifically broker Zac Coleman, negative stars, I would do so enthusiastically. I refinanced my property with them in the fall of 2021 as a part of a divorce preceeding. I shared with them up front that the intention would be to do a rate/term refi then, and I would return in the spring to do a cash out as a final requirement of my divorce terms. The refinance last fall had MANY challenges, and multiple times I had to escalate problems to get the loan finalized and funded due to delays on their end. We closed (LATE) in October.
In February of 2022 I reached out to initiate the cash out refi we had discussed. Rates were still low but I anticipated them going up in the near future. I considered going with another broker/lender due to challenges the first time, but naively assumed they had been resolved and this would be quick and easy since they already had all of my information. However, when I reached out Zac informed me that I could not refinance due to a prepayment penalty on the loan, and I'd have to wait until at least the end of March. This was news to me, as he had in fact assured me at closing that there was NOT a prepayment given my plans to refinance again. I asked him to check again and he confirmed that I did in fact have a prepayment. I asked if we could at least begin the process so we could close immediately as soon as the prepayment was up. I also wanted to lock in rates while they were low.
Zac told me to send in my info, but then did nothing with it. I followed up multiple times, but he continued to stall saying people were "reviewing docs". He then told me he was concerned with a single late payment that was showing from 2019, and he didn't think they'd be able to close with it. That single late payment was already showing as disputed on my credit report, and had also been there at the time of the previous refinance without issue. When I pointed that out, Zac came back and said there was now issue with my debt to income ratio because I had a balance on several credit cards. The entire intention of the cash out was to pay off those debts, which he was aware had been accumulated as a part of the divorce and had never raised a red flag. He convinced me to take a loan on my 401k to pay off those debts so they could approve the loan, and assured me I could pay the 401k loan off with the cash out. I did as he asked and paid off the debts.
I asked when we could close, as rates were starting to rise and he said we had to wait for the credit card companies to reflect the paid balances, but that I could pay an extra $25 - $50 per credit account, per credit bureau, to ask them to expedite the processing of the payments and update the bureaus. I told him to go ahead, and waited, but they were never expedited. Finally, the accounts updated on their own (it took 30+ days, and I was following up with Zac regularly but given excuse after excuse on why this wasn't happening).
Finally, all was updated and I asked AGAIN when we would close. Zac said it was back in underwriting, but that now that rates had gone up significantly and they had not locked me in as I had asked, even with those debts paid off, the higher interest raised my potential mortgage payment enough (approx $600-$700 more per month from where it would have been initially), that underwriting would now not approve the loan because by debt to income ratio was still over threshold.
At this point I was furious, and opted to go with another lender who was FANTASTIC and had my loan closed within 3 weeks - although my rate was still much higher because I missed out on the lower rate opportunity due to Zac's incompetence. Shortly after I told Zac I was going to go with another lender (in MAY, when I had tried to initiate the process in February), I received a certified letter from TransUnited that conveniently shared that there had been an error all along, and I had actually never even had a prepayment penalty. After doing some digging, it became apparent that there was never a prepayment penalty on my loan, but that Zac Coleman and TransUnited Financial stood to benefit financially if my initial loan stayed on the books for more than 6 months, which is why Zac (supported by TransUnited) unethically and falsely claimed that I COULD NOT refinance due to a prepayment penalty. I missed out on a significantly lower interest rate and am paying several hundred dollars a month more than I would have been if they had been an honest organization to work with.
I have filed official complaints with several oversight boards and hope that both Zac and TransUnited are held accountable to the full extent that the law allows.
