Beware! Umpqua destroyed my credit due to terrible business practices.
I have had a HELOC for years with Umpqua and have never had a late payment, in fact my balance has been $0 for several months. In the past I have made several attempts to set up autopay to avoid accidentally missing a payment since the amount is different every month when I'm using the LOC, but they do not have that option.
With no notice, Umpqua reported a $75 late payment to the credit agencies without notifying me of the amount being due at all. I had excellent credit and this one report dropped my score by nearly 100 points and I rely on having excellent credit for my profession. I later found out this $75 charge was an annual fee for having the account (I'm fine with the annual fee), but they never notified me that there was a payment due. No letter, no call, no notification, even my online account showed $0 balance due. After talking with them, I found out that I was expected to see it in a small section of the monthly e-statement. Why would I be reading through all of my statements looking for this when my balance shows $0?!
I have been nothing but a perfect client that wants to pay my bills, but when they hide an annual fee and don't show it as balance due, they blast my credit instead of simply notifying me that there is a small charge due! At this point they refuse to dispute the negative credit remark despite me paying the tiny balance as soon as I knew about it. This my not be a big deal for some, but I use my credit every month for my business and this will cost me tens of thousands of dollars.
Absolutely terrible, Umpqua! read more