Cenlar FSB Reviews 69

Awful service across the board. Website is total garbage. The "chat with us" button is a very lame robot chat system that hasn't yielded any help in the last many years. Every simple task requires you to call the 800 number. Once you do that, you are really in for a treat. Operators that are tough to understand and a tad rude. I rarely get the right person on the phone, which requires a transfer to another agent. Each transfer comes with a statement that they will let the new agent know all of the information so that I won't have to repeat it... never happens though. Frustrating company to work with across the board.

I can't be emphatic enough. These are criminals.
They surpass incompetence or stupidity.
They probably steal millions every day and get away with it.
Someone can explain this.
Steven King could not have dreamed up anything this terrifying.

$125 annual fee for a HELOC account. Impossible to pay for this unknown fee if you have autopay. Terrible customer service.
Every month the monthly statement lists this fee as "Total fees charged since last statement" as if the fee was accruing every month. Extremely confusing all around and ultimately just feels like they are trying to bilk their customers out of a little extra $125/year.

The worst company I've ever dealt with nobody knows how to calculate payments on an equity loan when you make a payment on the principal they misquote you ,I paid 90% of my equity loan it only went down 40% thats not what cenlar quoted me now they say there's nothing they can do about it

My HELOC was fully paid and closed July 21, 2020, and they still have an active lien on my property that they refuse to release and will not talk to me about. They swore originally, they released it and I sent them proof they had not (I am unable to refi, sell my home or get a HELOC because of this). I have called, written, emailed, and faxed all to no avail. I am now having to get an attorney. They do not seem to care that they are violating RESPA and they clearly have no intent to release a lien they have no rights to hold. This has to have been one of the most frustrating interactions I have had. So, now I am off warning others, stay away from CENLAR!

This should be a no-star review. It has taken over 70 calls from my wife and I to resolve 2 out of three issues. The CSR's are not knowledgeable about whatever process of theirs has completely malfunctioned. There is no way to effectively escalate issues even though they often involve large sums of money. CSR's will never let you speak to a "supervisor" instead promising a call back within 48 hours. You will be called back less than 20% of the time and the person you speak with will never have the authority, agency, or access to address your issues. After instructing me to send them insurance claims checks to endorse and send back they decided to withold the funds until AFTER the contractor repairs are complete. All contractors here demand 50% up front. They lied and told me this was due to Federal regulation which has been proven false. I have agreed to submit the work on the claim to any inspection they would like.
They have rejected my insurance adjuster's worksheet three times and my insurance adjusters have said that they have never seen anything like it in 20 years. CSR's will pretend to "loose connection", contradict one another, and willingly admit that there is no complaint process that you can participate in. I would not let this outfit manage a lemonade stand.
In less than two years I have spoken to:
Denise 2198
Hung 2550
Cashana 7254
"Service Excellence" (not making this up)
Mary
David K60
Akie 3723
Cody
Jennifer L04
Katelen EZ9
Julissa 86724
Valerie VYG
Dawn C39
Manuel MOL
Henry
Patricia C22
PePearson
Judy 3JV
Linsey LMLMT
Alexandra 96755
Yanciana
Cashana 7845
Carla 473401
Quentyn 45552
Kevona (likes to pretend that she can't hear your call)
Linda
Paula M.
Debby
Nicole (Supervisor)
Sharon

I just spoke with a rep (Abdul (refused to give me his last name)) on 1/28/22 before 9:30am. He was in a bad mood and rude from the moment he picked up a phone. He continued to be unhelpful and disrespectful throughout the call. I asked him multiple times if I could speak with a supervisor and he refused and continued to be disrespectful. After my 5th ask to be transferred to a supervisor he transferred me instead to another rep. (Is it legal to keep a customer from speaking with a supervisor after they request one???)

Luckily this other rep (Justice Bethel Emp# lmjwb ) Had a great attitude and genuinely tried to help me. He didn't give me the information or outcome that I was hoping for, but he had a good attitude and treated me like a human. He deserves all of the credit in the world.

I am in the market to refi my home loan and because of my conversation with Abdul, I am no longer exploring options to do so with Cenlar.

I wish i would have read all of these reviews before getting a loan from them. I Hope this review saves someone else from getting the same experience. If a company has this much of your money they should treat you better. Be smart, look elsewhere.

Original mortgage from Jan 1988 was sold to Citibank. In 2005 we took out an equity line with them. The original mortgage was paid off in 2007. In November 2019 the equity line was transitioned to CENLAR by CitiBank. In July 2021 we wanted to pay off the equity line. We increased our payments to bring the balance down, CENLAR blocked us from making online payments and automated phone payments. We had to speak to a representative to make final payments over the phone and make the loan balance zero. The last 2 payments were applied to ESCROW, which we didn't have since this was an equity loan. Multiple calls were required to clear that up. They provided no explanation as to why they did that. We requested a payoff statement from CENLAR. In the payoff statement they included a charge for Corporate Advance of $12,723.54. This charge was never provided on any statements, on the 2019 and 2020 1098 Tax form, or credit reports for other loans, etc. Not included in the 2021 1098 which states the balance due on the loan as zero.
We have asked numerous times for explanation of the charges, but CENLAR stated it was for flood and hazard insurance with no evidence. We sent them a letter from State Farm in which they state we had insurance from 1987 date of contract to purchase the house continuously thru the time they falsely charge us for force placed insurance.
Every time we speak with them, we get a different answer, different amounts and contradicting information. Is it ethical for a company to send out statements with one balance then have a hidden fee they expect you to pay with no documentation or proof they paid for these duplicate wasteful charges on your behalf? Seems like fraud to me. Now they want proof of current flood insurance even though the loan balance is zero and the equity line of credit is technically closed; we cannot draw from it. We have been dealing with this nightmare since June 2021. CENLAR is extremely difficult to deal with and customer service is useless to help. If your loan gets transferred to CENLAR, get another lender ASAP. Worst company we have ever dealt with. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH CENLAR, you have been warned!

I would give Cenlar Zero Stars, if that option was available. My Large Principal Reduction Payment made on 12/01/2021 was both Posted a Day Late to my HELOC Account (A Deliberate Overcharge by Cenlar), and the payment was Misallocated between Principal Reduction and the routine scheduled Automatic Checking Account Debit for the Third Week of December. Cenlar acted in a manner 100% beneficial to the Bank, at my expense. A previous inquiry (Last Year) about the Annual Membership Fee (By Telephone) ended with the Bank's Representative hanging up the telephone, and thus prematurely ending the conversation. As I have previously said, Citibank played a Very Dirty Trick on its customers, when our HELOC Accounts were transferred to Cenlar without our prior Knowledge or Consent. This One Star rating also applies to Citibank, for their undesirable actions and Consumer Unfriendly Behavior. Allen J. Frankel 12/16/2021

Paid off our loan. They are taking way to long to reimburse our money kept in escrow. Was told 20 business days to cut a check and then expect 2 weeks for mailing. When texting with agent was told that is the policy and cannot be changed. This is not their money to hold on to for over a month. Bad customer service 😞

My Citi HELOC account was transferred to them. Tried to change a mailing address since May, 2021. it’s been fruitless as of this day. Numerous mail, fax and email requests have fallen into deaf ears. Their customer service reps. are incompetent and arrogant. There’s no place on their website to change personal info. as per their advice. I would rate them a negative star if I could.

If you have any control of where you loan gets sold to ask that it NOT BE Cenlar. First their customer service is substandard and no one seems to know what they are doing. Special fees for HELOC loans are not payable online or on phone, you must write a separate check or money order and mail in. AND when you payoff the loan, they take 60+ days to update your credit report or even close the loan out. I actually believe that toddlers could do a better job. Its really sad that they have you in a position where you are helpless. If I could give a zero rating I would.

If I had known FIRSTRUST was handing this loan off, especially to CENLAR, I would have ran. CENLAR has, in two months:
(a) never returned a call
(b) held MY funds in suspense without telling me
(c) lost payments sent certified mail
(d) taken over a week to post a payment
(e) given contradictory answers
(f) disconnected calls

I would not finance a tree house involving them...

This is NO surprise that this company doesn’t have any stars higher than 2!
Worst mortgage company ever!
With every call it’s a different answer!!!
Sick and tired of giving them my money!
I can’t change companies fast enough!!!

I have been trying to simply apply for a partial claim since April. I have called in/ been called no less than 20 times. As of August 1st they still have not been able to process it correctly. I am calling the regulatory bureaus because their actions are now bordering on criminal.

This company has been fine when nothing changes - regular payments, online viewing of statements, auto pay - easy. But come selling of the property, and you are entering the ninth circle of customer service hell. Despite registering the change of insurance coverage, they incorrectly made an insurance payment from escrow, left me to chase down the refund, and escrow balance for refund still not right. But the real issue is the customer service - each message to their online system is greeted with a stock reply from a new agent with lack of visibility of prior conversation, and I might as well scream into the void trying to get my money back. My mortgage got transferred to Cenlar management mid term - but if you have a choice, choose elsewhere if you expect human contact.

My mortgage was fine until CENLAR had the nerve to raise our payments because of the crappy escrow increase. There's not much of anything in Northern Collin County for them to raise our mortgage up like that. They have lost my respect, trust and business. I wouldn't refinance with them if they were Plan Z!!

Do not do business with these people !! I got ripped off !!

I deferred payments on my VA mortgage under the Cares Act. Cenlar accepted a 3 month deferral. After 3 months they demanded full payment of the deferred payments. They then filed a negative comment on my credit report with the credit reporting agencies - resulting in me loosing 8 points on my credit score. This is not right and flies in the face of the spirit and intent of the Cares Act.

If you need a mortgage servicer - my advice is to look for a different company !!

For more than a week i am trying to get in touch with them to see if they can send me a mortgage note. Over phone, I cant reach them, their customer service is broken.
Over chat every day they tell you a story but you don't get the document.

Cenlar administers our HELOC (thanks for selling us out, Citibank). They gave us a payoff amount- this was for over $340,000- in September. It had to be wired, of course, so we went to our bank and paid a ridiculous fee and thought we were done with Cenlar. We noticed that Cenlar still showed an unpaid balance- a little less than $200, and unpaid interest of a little over $200, so we called to dispute this. Cenlar sent us a letter dated 10/10/20 acknowledging this, advising that they'd work to resolve it, and that they will continue to follow up until there was resolution to our request. From that date until today, Cenlar never again contacted us regarding our dispute. We, on the other hand, contacted Cenlar repeatedly to follow up. I called them 12 times, totaling 355 minutes of MY time, trying to resolve a dispute that Cenlar vowed to "work towards resolving." We then realized that a $25 late charge as well as an additional unexplained $50 fee was added to our account (we had just paid the $100 annual fee one month earlier and NO ONE from Cenlar could explain the $50 charge). I was told that both fees would be removed because of the underlying issue. I consistently asked to speak with a supervisor. A couple of times, I was placed on hold and would then be disconnected. A couple of times, I was told that a supervisor would call me back. No supervisor or anyone else from Cenlar ever called us back. Because I didn't want this to affect our credit, I tried making the payments that we were disputing online and by phone, but was not allowed to. We finally paid everything in full by wire transfer as required by Cenlar (at an additional cost through our bank). The icing on the cake- Cenlar reported a late payment to the 3 credit bureaus, resulting in negative credit for us, at a time we are trying to refinance our mortgage. There goes 30 years of hard work building up our credit, paying all of our bills on time. I just filed a complaint with the BBB and I'm researching where I can file additional complaints- Federal Reserve, Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the New York State Department of Financial Services. It's not like we even chose to do business with these crooks, but if you DO have a choice, whatever you do, do NOT use Cenlar.