ING Direct Mortgage Customer Review
August 21, 2007
What kind of mortgage can actually make you money? I saw ING advertising their home loans with the slogan, “The Mortgage That Makes You Richer” and decided to do some research. A former co-worker went through ING direct for a loan when they bought their home a few years ago so I fired up instant messenger yesterday to find out whether it had made him any more rich. My questions are in bold, followed by his responses.
You used ING for your home loan, why did you go with them?
They had the lowest rates and at the time there were no closing costs. One thing to keep in mind, they only have 3/1, 5/1, and 7/1 adjustable rate mortgages.
Were there an application fee or any annual fees?
None at all.
Can you make extra principal payments?
Yes, you get the low rates of an ARM and can make extra payments. Which is smart since when the rate adjusts you’ll have higher payments.
How does the escrow work?
You get to handle that yourself, which is good because you can have the money in an ING Savings Account earning interest and make your two tax payments and insurance payment yourself. I setup an ING Savings account and deposit monthly for my ‘escrow’ account. I made about $300 last year in interest on my escrow balance.
Do you get checks, or do you withdraw the money then pay?
We just setup an ACH transfer from ING Direct to our checking account then write checks for taxes and insurance from there.
Do you need to have an ING Savings Account?
No, you setup a checking account to go along with your mortgage, having an ING Savings is optional.
Did you apply over the phone, through mail, or online?
Phone first, but then they send you all the paper work. Once you’re approved they mail you a loan qualifying letter. We setup our extra payments and monthly payments on the Web. Since I set it up I haven’t had to talk to them on phone except once to add my wife. It would have been easier just to add her to the account in the first place.
Sounds like a little work but you’re glad you did it?
Actually it was very easy. Yes, I am glad I did it, no hassles. They are always willing to answer questions and have good customer service hours. They answered all our questions about escrow and insurance.
ING Mortgage Summary
So it sounds like he is pretty happy with his ING DIRECT Orange Mortgage. It is helping him grow his net worth because he is getting a low mortgage rate with the ARM and earning interest on the amount he saves as escrow.
Of course the ARM will adjust at the end of his term and he then plans to move into a 15 year fixed rate. He’s making extra payments to help pay down the principal so when it comes time to move into a fixed rate loan the balance is smaller and something he can pay off in 15 years. I guess if used correctly, you could call a home loan through ING a “Mortgage That Makes You Richer”.
I considered refinancing, but had not looked into ING or even considered an adjustable rate mortgage. I like the ability to keep your own insurance and tax payments without having to escrow it, but looking into it I will only get a slightly better rate than I have fixed for 30 years right now.
While I could certainly save a little money over the next 5 years if I did go with them, I don’t think that the few hundred dollars to a grand that I would save would make up for the risk that I can not find a favorable 15 year mortgage to refinance into later.
I will have to keep an eye on their rates, though, and see if it becomes a little more favorable over the next few quarters. If I could refinance below 6% then it might make it worth taking on the risk.
Interesting. I have an ARM that will expire in 3 years. I wonder if there is any more feedback out there about their mortgages? I already do some banking with them and I like the idea of earning money on my escrow since I don’t have that option with my current mortgage lender. (And the fact they screwed up the very first escrow payment for my first tax bill. To their credit though, the bank fixed it right away and paid the penalty themselves because it was totally their fault.)
I know what you mean Blaine, I’ve given thought to going the ARM route but always worry about what rates will be when I want to re-finance.
mapgirl, that’s one of the things that interested me as well, being able to earn interest on our escrow balance. One strange thing is, the higher the interest rate you’re earning on your escrow, the higher the rate you may have to refinance at when the ARM adjusts.
We refinanced with ING with a 3/1 year arm about a year or so ago. The fees are low, the process was super easy, no complaints.
There service and reputation follow them into the mortgage biz.
I have ING savings, checking, and mortgage. The biggest benefits for me are no PMI, no escrow. The reason we could handle an ARM is we are in a small condo which we know we will be moving from in a year or so.
Sounds like another satisfied ING mortgage customer, nice to get some good referrals.
ING has lied to me and that they are, in effect, stealing money from me. Serious charges I know, but hear me out.
I was one of my customers that ING “inherited” when NetBank went belly up. I received documents from ING shortly thereafter (fall of 07′). I had 4 CDs at ING. Once I received those docs I called ING and their customer rep told me that, because of the special circumstances of the funds transfer (over which I had absolutely no control!!) I would be allowed to “break” my CDs at any time (not just within 30 days, but anytime!!), without penalty. I wanted to adjust the maturity date of the CDs to more conveniently create a CD ladder for my son’s college education, making all of them come due in early June in anticipation of paying tuition over the summer of ‘09 thru ‘12. So I made a reminder in Outlook to call ING in early June of ‘08 to do just that. The reminder came up…I called ING…and they told me that I would have to pay a penalty. Needless to say, I am removing all funds from this bank.
They lied…plain and simple. And they are stealing money from me by making me pay a penalty for “breaking” my CDs…after they had told me they would do no such thing.
Do not do business with these people
ING DIRECT MORTGAGE – Poor Customer Service
I recently bought a new home which is a new construction and had to get the builder approved loan company (countrywide) to get the incentives. After moving in 3 months i decided to refinance my mortgage and i approached ING with whom I already had a savings account for 3 years. Everything went well till it came to the home appraisal stage.
Appraisal Stage:
At this stage they use an external company to appraise my house and the appraisal came in low. I was dumbstruck as it has been 3 months and ironically i am not in the subprime bustout location and there are houses that have closed after I closed in my same neighborhood. I called ING Valuations departments and said their appraisal was inaccurate and that offended the rep and i explained to him nicely that i recently moved in to the house and it is a new construction and there have been others who have moved in after me with the same range of sq ft and house cost. I even faxed in the appraisal of my home which was done in january.
Please note that the appraisal done on my house by ING was $ 45 K below the real value.I spoke to my appraiser and county officials and they thought it was an absurd estimate. Hence I was unable to understand the banks basis of appraisal and I again called them to understand what exactly had gone wrong and the same valudation person being rude as he was would not listen to me and asked me to provide comparable data. Please note the rep was asking me to do his job of researching the market correctly and estimating the value of my house. Unbelievable as it may seem he asked me to get details about my neighbors bedrooms and bathroom county with their sale value. At this point i thought he was crazy and I decided that this bank was not worth any credit at all and was trying to just keep the $ 350.00 non refundable deposit.
I have closed my accounts both saving and mutual funds and I will never go back no matter what. Apathy towards a long standing customer and no value for customer’s comments will not take this bank far. All my friends and family have decided to close their accounts. A loss of close to $ 1 M in revenue for the bank.
Ethan.
I think Ethan Hawks story is incredible. Of course your house went down in value! Perhaps now after housing is still going down you can see that the first valuation was inflated as they always do. The second one was probably more on the mark. No one likes to be told they paid too much for their house, but that is what probably happened. No follow up on what happened next?
I tried to refinance with Them and as Ethan said every thing went smooth until Appraisal Stage.
Their Appraisal company compared two of the smallest LOT and small home sold in our sub-division and further reduced 20% of our home value.My home is only 1year old home in this sub division.
The lady on the other side of the ING was in no mood even to talk and thus they lost my business.
I feel sorry for them and home one of these days they re-evaluate their Appraisal company.
Except the low cost of refinancing there is nothing special about ING
ING Direct is full of crap.
In 30 days, they did appraisal of my house (real worth- $690K based on the house sold in last 30 days) and they came up with 2 funny numbers ($620K and $535K) for 2 different mortgage products 2 weeks apart.
- appraised value on March 9, 2009 : $620K
- appraised value on March 23, 2009: $540K
And OF COURSE, THEY DONT LISTEN EITHER- LOAD OF CRAP. I got my house refinanced with appraised value of $690K with a competing interest rate.
So my advise to you folks – do waste you time on ING Direct, unless your loan-to-value ratio is less than 50%, in that case any bank would love to offer mortgate to you.
Avoid ING Canada mortgage like the plague.
They are not only very slow, but they will make an almost mind-boggling number of requests upon you.
They approved my mortgage financing at the deadline of the expiry of the sale offer despite having the file for the full 10 days from the sale of the house, then withdrew it a few days later to request an inspection report and a specialized test of the soil. No explanation or reasoning was provided as to why they required it. I provided the inspection report (which was perfect), but had to pay to have a soil test done.
Only after a week and a half of delays – after the deadline – did they finally approve the financing. It was a nightmare scenario for me as buyer, the sellers and the two real estate agents, who claimed to have had similar experiences with them before.
Incidentally, my credit record is perfect, which is what made this entire process even more infuriating.
It’s also hard to find notaries who enjoy working with them. Of the four I called, two refused to deal with ING and the other two said they were the slowest and most complicated companies to work for.
Go with a bank. It’s a lot easier. I’ll never go with them again.
ING has the lowest rates but absolutely no customer service. We have had the appraisal and the house appraised considerably higher than our buying price. (new home builder came way down he is close to foreclosure) Now we are in some cue to review their appraisal with no time limit given…we are not able to get any answers, no one cares and we are in a time crunch. I am quite sure we will not have settlement on time and am making alternate plans for our furniture etc. It sucks that we have to use such a nasty company.. seems like no one cares no matter how high up you go. I will never deal with them again.
I NG Mortgage – Run away fast.
Received a mortgage approval from ING and subsequently signed off on my waiver for financing on my new house. Then the BOMB was delivered! 1 week before my closing, they called to inform me that unless I came up with another $25,000 there would be no approval. After asking why, the reason given was that the CMHC had appraised the house and there was a significant gap in house worth vs mortgage amount. Now in scramble mode, I received another mortgage from 1st National Bank through a great mortgage broker. As it turns out there was NEVER an application to the CMHC on my behalf. #$**#* Incredible! To add insult to the file, they refused to process the discharge statement, delaying my closing, until I spoke with an agent who tried to convince me to stay with ING. Are you kidding me….
Talking to my agent, this seems to be happening very frequently with ING.
ING? Run….Run away fast!
Beware with ING if you have good credit score!
I know it sounds silly but that is what happened to me. I have a very good credit score, 780 plus. No credit card debt, no loans. I thought there shouldn’t be a problem getting approval…but I was wrong! when I called for pre-approval, first they said that I my decision was deferred. Then I called them after couple of days and they said that my pre-approval was declined because I don’t have sufficient credit depth!! I use credit cards every month and pay it off completely when the bills are due. I don’t have a car loan or any such thing. I can’t believe they declined it. I had applied for pre-approval with different bank and they approved my application!
I think the bottom line is that ING direct wants consumers whom they think will call interest payments over a long period – more money for them. They have a easy 5/1 mortgage which on which you actually pay interest as if it is a 30 year loan, and after 5yrs, the interest rate you pay will be what exists then – which will be much higher. Same problem with 5/1 and 7/1 Orange mortgage..it can go up 2% every year till max of 6%. So if you are paying 5% now, you would be potentially paying 11% interest in 8 yrs. I would be very careful before I commit with ING mortgage.
It also happened to me. I have a credit score 775, no liabilities, paid-off mortgage on current house (worth over $500000), saving account with ING Direct with a balance of $150000, three credit cards with maximum line of credit, income over $130000 per year. So, I was told that my application is approved, and ten days after that I found out that application was declined. Explanation, insufficient credit depth. I was shocked and called them, they repeated the same story (we are sorry, etc.). I still fill still sick in my stomach whenever I think about ING Direct.
I find it hard to believe so many people have such negative comments about ING. I just did a refi with them and I couldn’t be happier. I consolidated my existing mortgage of $131K at 5.25% with 11 and a half years to go and my HELOC at $77K variable (currently 2.24%). I took $12K cash out and had them cover closing costs for a mortgage balance of $223K. I chose the bi-weekly Easy Saver Mortgage at 3.99% for the first 5 years and then resettable to market rates every 5 years thereafter. This is the perfect mortgage if you choose to pay it down, which I will be doing. I will pay off $82K in principle at the end of the 5 year period, leaving me with a balance of $141K. I know that rates will be higher then, but it is not a concern to me because the amount of interest that will be assessed will be based on the new balance of $141K, not the original amount of $223K, which could quite possibly result in a lower payment amount. The amortization schedule still follows a traditional 30 year mortgage, so my principle amounts each month will increase accordingly. After all is said and done, I will pay this total amount back in 11 and half years, which is right where I am now. The application process couldn’t have been simpler. My credit is outstanding (800+), and the only docs they required were 1 paystub, 2 W-2’s and my Home Owners Insurance Declaration Page. Everything was done online and the entire process took less than a month.
Mark : Try getting a simple payment date changed and enjoy the
club.I just searched for a ING sucks website to add my name with this story.
I just got informed my paycheck would be late and id get it on monday.
I tried to get them to just delay the mortgage payment from the 1 st to the 4 th
so’s i could get my check deposited.No .. simple answer was no .
SO i tried to have them to at least not charge me with fees and penaties
since iom calling ahead of that day.I was answered this : We got to make money.
?? i mean wtf . So conversation kept on for a minute , then the agent started to
give me shit for calling a friday afternoon at 2 30 pm. Again . wtf
It was 2 30 btw cause i had been on the phone almost two hours at that point !
Try to reach them when you’re in need of something and enjoy their
crappy service and join the rest of us dissatisfied customers.
We were warned by our notary not to use them , we did and now regret it.
ING is goods as long as you dont need service , they you will find out what they
really are. Crappy service. The worst i ever seen. We will never do business
with them ever again and i strongly discourage anyone from considering using their.services
Richard Hebert
So, Richard, you are blaming a for-profit company because you did not have enough money in your account to pay the mortgage?? Sorry to say, but you are the only one to blame. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck and a simple delay in getting paid causes you to miss a payment, it either means you need to transfer more funds from another account or you cannot afford your mortgage! No, I do not work for ING, but I am going through a refi right now and it has been great so far. I’ll report back after closing. It seems like everyone is blaming the banks for our economic situation, but I blame greedy, ignorent Americans.
So, Richard, you are blaming a for-profit company because you did not have enough money in your account to pay the mortgage?? Sorry to say, but you are the only one to blame. If you’re living paycheck to paycheck and a simple delay in getting paid causes you to miss a payment, it either means you need to transfer more funds from another account or you cannot afford your mortgage! No, I do not work for ING, but I am going through a refi right now and it has been great so far. I’ll report back after closing. It seems like everyone is blaming the banks for our economic situation, but I blame greedy, ignorant Americans.
Well, Well, I see that there are some unhappy people.
I have done 3 mortgages with ING Direct and I have had nothinh but the best service.
Listen, I hear you, anywhere you go, you will get someone who may make a stupid mistake or give the wrong answer, Yes ING DIRECT has done this a few times with me but they have done more better than worse. I can say that I am very happy with the service and I always refeer my friends to them. My realtor was amazed how fast it took and seen what I got and moved his mortgage to them. I am a very happy customer.
I have 2 mortgages with ING and the application process was a breeze compared to other banks. I think they have great customer service and have always been available (even on Sundays) if I have a question. They have the best rates around if you are comfortable going with an ARM. I am very surprised to hear all the complains on here.