1st United Credit Union

I've been a 1st United member for nearly 20 years. Had my first mortgage with them and never had any issues.

In 2007 I opened a home equity line of credit with 1st United. I finally decided to refinance when they sent me a letter with a promotional rate in January of this year. On 1/29/21 I sent an email to the real estate department referencing the letter and my interest in refinancing, and asked what I needed to do to get started. I didn't get a reply but did receive an email (pic included) on 2/4/21 with the same promotional rate.

I was never contacted by anyone at 1st United, so on 2/12 I called and spoke to Rena (sp?) and she said they were building a list of, presumably, any members who had contacted them and wanted to refinance.

Over the next several months, I had to call them to get any updates. All of the following were calls I made.

2/26 Carla told me the process was taking longer than expected.

3/12 Sally told me they were automatically converting my HELOC and there was nothing for me to submit. Should take around two weeks.

4/9 (four weeks later) Carla said I should be receiving disclosures and a request for income verification.

4/23 I did receive everything as stated, but I was out of town. When I finally had a chance to submit the requested docs, my returns were too large to be submitted on 1st United's website. Spoke to Bernice and she suggested I email everything, which I did on 4/23.

6/10 After not hearing anything for six weeks, I panicked thinking the emailed docs were never received. I spoke to Carla yet again, who confirmed her boss was working on my refinance and she would call me back. I did not receive a call back.

6/14 I spoke to Kelly and she said the notes on my account said "refer to boss." She sounded a bit puzzled and put me on hold. After a while, she returned to the call and told me her boss was working on a modification and I would receive documents to review by end of day. She gave me a password to access said documents. I didn't receive the docs.

6/16 I finally decided maybe the "boss" could tell me what was happening with my refinance. I left her a message expressing my fear that there was something wrong with my application that was delaying the process. Three business days later and I have not heard back.

Initially, I assumed the lengthy process was due to pandemic related delays. But I saw recently on social media that opening a brand new HELOC takes 4-5 weeks. So 4-5 months to refinance an existing HELOC seems odd. Now I feel like an idiot for letting this drag on so long, but I was giving them the benefit of the doubt given what's been happening in the world.

If this is somehow normal turnaround, then a simple call or email to explain what's happening would have been helpful. The complete lack of communication though, is disappointing.