Customer ReviewsforAssurance Financial Group, LLC

I bought my house in July 2021. I was still trying to sell my previous home, which I estimated would sell for around $150-160K and I owed $37,000. I was looking at homes for under $200,000. I told my loan officer (*****) I wanted my new note to be around $650 per month. He said, "You can go way up. You could go as high as $240,000." I picked out a house for $220,000 and it appraised for that amount. ***** told me that I could go ahead and purchase the new home and then sell my existing home and receive a recast, which would basically be a refinance to put the equity from my house sale down on the new house and recalculate my mortgage without paying closing costs again. He said the only stipulation was that I had to pay the full price pre-recast note for three months first. I agreed to that. I received a paper note in the mail for $1231.91 for September. I paid my September note by mail. Then I wanted to go ahead and pay my October note. I went online and tried to pay at assurancemortgage.com, which was the web site I had used during the application process and the only website listed on the back of my bill, but I couldn't find a way to see or pay my note. I called Assurance to ask how I could set up online banking with them and go ahead and pay my next note, and they told me I couldn't pay another note because they were in the process of selling my loan. I told them they couldn't sell my loan because I was promised a recast. They told me my loan was being sold to U.S. Bank, but they refused to tell me how to get in touch with the correct branch of that company. I went back and forth with various people at Assurance for about a week or so and they finally agreed to retain my loan. I paid my October note (again by mail because there was nothing on my bill to tell how to pay online) and sold my house the first week in October. I called ***** and said I was ready to do the recast. He advised me to wait until after my November note. I told him I was ready to pay my November note but couldn't figure out how to pay online. Everytime I logged into the Assurance website, all I got was a message saying my loan application was no longer in progress. ***** was unable to tell me how to pay online. He wasn't answering my calls or emails, so I walked into his office and asked him how I could pay my note. All he told me was to call the billing department and talk to them. I finally got through to someone from a different department and they informed me that the bill pay website was lendtheway.yourmortgageonline.com, which was obscure and something I would have never figured out on my own. I paid my November note and then called ***** back and said I was ready for the recast. He told me it wasn't time yet for me to do the recast and when I insisted on going ahead and getting the process started, he told me to call a different department. I called them and asked them to calculate what my new note would be if I put down various amounts. They told me I needed to go through my loan officer and referred me back to ***** to calculate my new loan. I called ***** again and told him I needed him to run some numbers for me to tell me what my note would be if I put a few different figures down. He told me to email him my question and he would get back to me. He never did. That was the last time I heard from him. I called the corporate office and they directed me to the recast department. I called the recast department and asked them to run some numbers for me. They told me they don't do that in their department, but they said if I would send them my $100,000 plus a $300 fee, then they would get someone to calculate my new loan. After several exchanges back and forth, they finally agreed to send me a letter stating what my new note would be. I never received the letter. After waiting for about a week, I called back and talked them into emailing the letter to me. I opened the letter to find I would have a new monthly note of $807 per month. I called some other banks and ran some comparisons. Several other banks were able to show me that they could get me a lower note even with a full refinance and higher interest rate. I contacted Assurance and told them their numbers didn't make sense. I asked for a full breakdown of what they were charging me and a way to find out what the differences in my note would be if I put different figures down. I asked them if they were still including PMI, and they admitted they were. I told them I needed PMI removed because I was putting 50% down. They told me they had no authority to remove it. I went back and forth with that department for about a week before I finally gave up and called the central office again. They tried to direct me back to my loan officer, and I told them he wasn't returning my calls or emails. I requested a different officer, which I never received. They finally put in a request for a manager to contact me. I was contacted by *****. He told me the policy was to keep PMI on loans for the first two years, regardless of how much I put down on the house. I told him it was unacceptable for me to have a note that was $150 more per month than what I was told I would have. He said he would follow up with Assurance and see if he could have PMI removed. He called me a few days later and said he had gotten it removed. I asked him about calculating my new note, because by this time I had calculations from other banks and I wanted to compare. He referred me back to the recast department who never emailed me back. I waited a few days and then called the central office again to try to talk to *****. On Friday, November 5, I talked to a girl named English who told me that her office couldn't calculate my mortgage and that they needed to submit a request to another department. She said she would call me back on Monday. By this time I had been going in circles with Assurance, trying to get answers about my new note from a loan officer, for a month. On Monday November 8, English called me and said she had a letter for me that had instructions on how to remove PMI. I asked her about calculating what my new note would be and she said that I would get the information if I followed the instructions in the letter. I asked her to email the letter to me. I received the letter right away and opened it. The letter stated that if I would immediately send $100,000 plus $300 in fees, then they would calculate my new note. At that point I gave up on ever trying to communicate with Assurance again. I contacted a different bank and began the refi process from scratch. One week later, I received a letter in the mail from Assurance stating that they had received my PMI cancellation request and that I did not meet requirements for canceling PMI. The letter stated that if I would send Assurance a check for $31,921.35 plus fees for a valuation of property review and new appraisal, along with an application, then they would review my loan and make a determination of whether or not I could receive PMI cancellation. Fortunately, by this point, I was approved to refinance elsewhere. I continued to receive several more copies in the mail of the same letter telling me that my request to remove PMI was declined and advising me to send money. The last one arrived in the mail to me a week after I refinanced with a different company. I still have no idea what my new monthly note would have been if I stayed with Assurance and gave them my money. I believe they have an entire system set up with a coordinated effort to ensure that customers cannot receive any information about their loans until after they send the funds. I would never recommend anyone do business with Assurance.

Broken down, here are my complaints:
1. Gave me inaccurate information about the price range home I could purchase to stay within my desired note, resulting in $100 more a month note than what I said I wanted, even after PMI removal
2. Assured me I could do a recast with the company (basically a refinance without being charged refi fees) after 3 full month's payments, but instead immediately tried to sell my loan
3. Did not provide me with the web site to be able to pay my notes online and refused my payment by phone due to trying to sell my loan before I could do a recast
4. After agreeing to retain my loan for the recast, refused to discuss with me what my notes would be if I put down various amount options. Instead insisted that I send $100,000 plus a $300 fee I didn't know about before being willing to discuss my new note
5. Tried to keep PMI on my note after recast. When I finally discussed this with a manager, I was informed that it's standard to charge PMI for 2 years even after a recast that would bring my balance to less than 50% of the appraisal value. After being told verbally that my PMI removal request could be granted, I received 3 different letters stating that I would need to send more equity and have a property valuation done including a new appraisal before a determination for PMI removal would be made.
6. Routed me in circles to all different departments for a month with none of them ever discussing my recast options and what my new note would be if I put various amounts down, despite my repeated requests. The loan officer never talked to me again after I requested the recast. The only progress I ever made was having the manager agree to remove PMI and saying they would discuss the new terms of the recast and note amounts only after receiving my $100,300, but then the follow-up letters contradicted his "assurance". I finally gave up and refinanced with a different company that could provide me upfront numbers.
7. Just a note to Assurance - Typically when a borrower asks, "How much will my note be if I put down X amount of dollars at 3%?" the appropriate response is to calculate the new note and then let the borrower decide if they want to do business with you. In this case, I don't, no matter what your mysterious secretive note that I'm not allowed to know about would be. Thanks.

Thank you for this feedback. After a close review we feel that we were very poor with our communication with Mrs. ******* The rules involved with recasting an existing loan and removing private mortgage insurance are very strict and do not allow for policy flexibility. We fell short on property outlining the process to recast and for the pmi to be removed from her payment. We have spoken with our loan officer and our branch manager and put forth clear guidelines surrounding a loan recast. We regret this misunderstanding and apologize for the poor customer experience Mrs. ****** had with us. ***** **** - Chief Operating Officer