Wilmington Finance and Morequity

I concur with others who have had bad experiences with Wilmington Finance or their loan servicing division - Morequity. I would not recommend doing business with them.

While I was aware of the 3-year prepayment penalty provision when I signed the loan from Wilmington Finance, I did not realize the inconvenience and magnitude of a penalty of 5% of the remaining balance. In our case, the balance is over $200K yielding a penalty of over $10,000! I have other loans with prepayment penalties that are not anywhere near as severe as that. We're pretty well stuck here and with them until the 3 years pass, mercifully now only 6 months away.

A few months ago, their sales division almost talked me into refinancing with them - a process wherein they dangle an offer to "waive" the prepayment penalty, though they turn right around and impose the same pre-payment penalty on the new loan. Some waiver! They also seem to play a used-car sales-type negotiating game over the amount of points they can get you to pay in exchange for a lower rate. I'm so glad I backed out!

Which leads to the loan servicing by Morequity. I currently have four mortgages on three properties and Morequity is the hands-down worst of the four. In fact, I can't remember a worse mortgage servicing company since I started buying properties in 1985. They do not accept electronic funds transfers from banks so my bank has to send them a check via US Mail when I pay the bill using my bank's bill pay service. Morequity's website is not informative nor interactive - you cannot make the payment through their website. If you need to make a payment to beat the grace period deadline, the only option is via their phone service. It costs $12.00 and the payment must be made 2-3 business days before the grace period deadline.

The latest example of their customer service happened today when they refused to reverse a late fee they imposed after I was late due to fraudulent activity on my checking account. That activity had caused my bank to shut down the checking account and that action caused several payments to bounce and my bill pay authorization to Morequity to fail. I noticed the failure a day later and immediately re-sent the payment from my new checking account but it arrived 2 days late. My bank provided an explanatory letter for me to send to those companies whose payment bounced. Every other organization - credit card, car loan and insurance agency - refunded my late fees and insufficient funds fees when I sent them the letter - not Morequity, they told me it was my bank's fault and to go to them for a refund.

Again, I would not recommend doing business with them...