Refinancing with First Internet Bank -- any experiences

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rr2
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Refinancing with First Internet Bank -- any experiences

Post by rr2 »

I was hoping to get feedback from bogleheads regarding this bank. Rates are coming down and I was quoted a good rate on a 30 year fixed by firstib. It would bring our rate down from 4.875 to 4.5%. After the rebate, it ends up almost being a no cost refi. Seems like a free lunch. Any words of caution when dealing with firstib. Appreciate your advice.
Chuck
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Post by Chuck »

The rates are very good, and quite a few financial bloggers (including TFB) seem to recommend it.
delisim
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Post by delisim »

I refinanced with them in December. I was doing an FHA streamline refinance. Because they waited until the last possible day to close my loan at the rate I was quoted, I closed in the beginning of December instead of the end of November. As a result, I had to pay an extra month's of interest (FHA loans require full month interest payments - no pro rating).

I paid interest for December twice because FirstIB was unable to close my loan promptly. This cost me over a thousand dollars, even taking into account deducting that amount in taxes. Happy with the rate and closing costs, but annoyed I had to pay that cost (refinancing with quoted rate was cheaper than getting a new quote and new closing date).

They sold my loan to Wells Fargo immediately. The day after my loan got transferred to Wells Fargo I began receiving spear phishing e-mails spoofing wells fargo mortgage. I think that is too timely to be an unrelated coincidence. It was either FirstIB or Wells Fargo who gave my e-mail address to a spammer. Not happy with that.
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rr2
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Post by rr2 »

delisim --

Many thanks for posting your experience with them.

This is my first ever refinance. We just bought our first house this January. I wanted to make sure that everything went through as smoothly as possible. One thing I am checking on is the cost of title insurance. I read that it was possible to get a discount on the Title insurance since I just had one done less than 6 months ago.
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Ted Valentine
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Post by Ted Valentine »

rr2 wrote: One thing I am checking on is the cost of title insurance. I read that it was possible to get a discount on the Title insurance since I just had one done less than 6 months ago.
You won't. Title insurance has to be the biggest legalized scam ever invented. I thinking about telling my kids to go into that business.
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mikep
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Post by mikep »

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rr2
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Post by rr2 »

I am looking for a no cost rate from FirstIB. In my case for a 30 year FRM it is at 4.5%. This is lower than my current rate of 4.875%.
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Allocationist
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Post by Allocationist »

My daughter refinanced her home through FIB several months ago. I did a lot of the leg work for her so I am familiar with the experience.

Overall, I highly recommend them. The process got off to a slow start when the loan officer did not appear to be taking action on the new application and was difficult to contact for the first week. I contacted her manager and within 24 hours he called me with a new loan officer and from that point the process moved along at a good pace.

I shopped around for title insurance/escrow companies and found I could not beat the FIB service providers.

Good luck!
marie17
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Post by marie17 »

Ok I have never used this bank for a re-fi but they were my primary bank for checking for about 4 years. I loved them. Getting a bank check was challenging for when I purchased my first home, but everything else was great. I only left after I got married because we joined the credit union where my husband works.
mikep
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Post by mikep »

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tfb
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Post by tfb »

Chuck wrote:The rates are very good, and quite a few financial bloggers (including TFB) seem to recommend it.
I did a refi with them last year. I wrote about the experience here:

http://thefinancebuff.com/firstib-mortg ... eview.html
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indexfundfan
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Post by indexfundfan »

My first refi with FirstIB completed successfully in June 2011.

I am doing it again with them but this time it hit a snag. I requested the loan officer to lock on 8/10, which he said he did. But now he is telling me that FirstIB has not been able to get the investor to confirm the lock and they are still working on it. I have not gotten the GFE with the lock rate I requested.

Could the investor renegade on the lock agreement?
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raa.su
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Post by raa.su »

I have refinanced with First IB several times in the last couple of years. Had almost no problems, except a small messup in the year end interest paid statement. They fixed it right away when pointed out.

In all cases they transfer the loan to someone else, BoA, GMAC, Chase, etc right after closing.

I've also been their banking customer for over ten years now.
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indexfundfan
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Post by indexfundfan »

indexfundfan wrote:My first refi with FirstIB completed successfully in June 2011.

I am doing it again with them but this time it hit a snag. I requested the loan officer to lock on 8/10, which he said he did. But now he is telling me that FirstIB has not been able to get the investor to confirm the lock and they are still working on it. I have not gotten the GFE with the lock rate I requested.

Could the investor renegade on the lock agreement?
Just to update.

I talked to the FirstIB loan officer again. He could not provide me with an estimated time when I can get a confirmation of the rate lock and said he will contact me when he has more information.

I guess this is FirstIB's way to tell me that the rate lock will not be honored. Oh well. I was actually quite pleased with FirstIB on my first refinance with them.

But it looks like FirstIB is not delivering on this second refi and I missed the opportunity of the low rates if I had gone with another lender last week.

Just be aware of this possibility when using FirstIB.

I will update this post if FirstIB does come through with the lock in the next few days.
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raa.su
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Post by raa.su »

indexfundfan wrote:
indexfundfan wrote:My first refi with FirstIB completed successfully in June 2011.

I am doing it again with them but this time it hit a snag. I requested the loan officer to lock on 8/10,
But it looks like FirstIB is not delivering on this second refi and I missed the opportunity of the low rates if I had gone with another lender last week.

Just be aware of this possibility when using FirstIB.

I will update this post if FirstIB does come through with the lock in the next few days.
Last year when I tried to do a subsequent refi within a couple of months of closing on the previous one, they told me straight that it is not possible. They mentioned they have some restrictions in doing that and have to wait for a minimum waiting period before another refi. I suspect this may be because they sell it to others, and possibly can't go back to the same lender(s) again.
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indexfundfan
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Post by indexfundfan »

raa.su wrote:Last year when I tried to do a subsequent refi within a couple of months of closing on the previous one, they told me straight that it is not possible. They mentioned they have some restrictions in doing that and have to wait for a minimum waiting period before another refi. I suspect this may be because they sell it to others, and possibly can't go back to the same lender(s) again.
I actually went back to the same loan officer and he mentioned that it is OK to refi. That's why I started the process.
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Manbaerpig
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Post by Manbaerpig »

I just locked a 4.0% -30 yr no-fee refi conforming (417k) with them 2 days ago... we'll see how it goes and what mystery fees (?) if any crop up along the way... not my first rodeo w/refi's..
withoutdoing
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Post by withoutdoing »

I used them last October to refinance to a 30 year fixed conforming loan and had no issues. This week I locked a 15 year fixed conforming loan with them on Tuesday and received the good faith estimate and confirmation on Wednesday.
KCJayhawker
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Post by KCJayhawker »

Just so I'm not starting another refinance thread....


Just locked a 15yr @ 3.125%, no points. Amazing that my mortgage will soon be at a lower rate than my student loans (3.85%).
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rr2
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Post by rr2 »

Update --

We just finished signing the docs today. The funds will be disbursed on Tuesday after the 3 day waiting period for refinances.

There were a number of delays. The biggest problem was the appraisal which came low and we had to appeal this. The appeal was successful. However, the lock period had expired. But we ended up getting a lower rate with them as the rates had decreased even further. The final rate we got was 4.25% on a 30 year fixed. There was a lender rebate of 1.25% which covered all closing costs as well as the escrow amounts needed and I even got some cash back. I am happy with the loan officer who was on top of the process the whole time.
NJ921
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Post by NJ921 »

KCJayhawker - Did you get any lender credit or did you have to pay any fees/closing costs for this rate?
jaj2276
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Post by jaj2276 »

Ted Valentine wrote:
rr2 wrote: One thing I am checking on is the cost of title insurance. I read that it was possible to get a discount on the Title insurance since I just had one done less than 6 months ago.
You won't. Title insurance has to be the biggest legalized scam ever invented. I thinking about telling my kids to go into that business.
You wouldn't be as correct as that statement if you stated one dollar is equal to 100 pennies.

I bought my first house in 2006 in NY. I had to pay for a title search and then title insurance. I couldn't understand why I would need title insurance if the title search was done correctly. The answer was always "in case they missed something." So shouldn't it be the title search company that has to pay for the insurance (i.e. their screwup???).

Fast forward two years. My company is moving me and I'm selling my house. To meet certain conditions, the process involves the company buying the house from me and then selling it to the buyer. Anyways, the title company working on behalf of my company calls me and says that there's still a claim on my house from 10 years ago that they'll need to clear.

So not only did I pay for insurance to cover up someone's inability to do their job correctly when I bought the house, I also paid for a title search that apparently wasn't performed (or performed with any competence).

It seems like a racket to me. The title companies know that in 99.999% of the cases there will never be a title claim. So, they can charge for a title search and not actually search anything (free money 1) and charge for insurance that will realistically never get claimed (free money 2).
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