My mortgage is coming up for renewal next month. In December of last year I contacted my Meridian branch to ask about what rates/options were available to me. I have been a member of this credit union for over 35 years and my credit rating is 873/900, which they have confirmed is the highest that they have ever seen. My initial contact was ignored so after two weeks with no reply, I contacted the main contact centre. After waiting another 3 days, I was finally contacted by a loan associate who set up a meeting the following week. When I arrived at the meeting, it was apparent that the associate had done absolutely no work on my file and could provide next to no information regarding my options and simply quoted me the posted rates which were at least 1% above what every bank and credit union in the city were offering. I contacted the loan associate to ask why they were not offering me a competitive rate after over 35 years of doing business only to receive n out of office reply that she was on vacation and would contact me the following week. After waiting for another week and a half, I sent a message to the bank manager asking why I was not getting any service from the loan associate. Within 24 hours, I was finally contacted and her response was that the posted rates were all Meridian was willing to offer. I contacted an independent mortgage broker and within 2 weeks had received a processed offer from one of the big banks with far more favorable terms than what I had been offered and 1% lower rate. I sent a copy of the offer to Meridian and asked why I could receive a far better offer from a bank that I had never done business with before and have the application processed and an offer made in less time than it took for Meridian to send me a reply to an email. After many apologies the branch manager informed me that the loan associate would be providing me with a new offer by the end of the week. After another week and a half, I was finally contacted by the loan associate who told me that she would no longer be working on my file and that I would be passed on to another associate and asked when I would be available to come into the office to finish the application. I informed her that I was available any day after 3:30 pm. After another day of waiting she finally replied with the option of coming in the following day at 10:00 am or the following Monday at 3:00 pm. I replied again pointing out that I had just informed her that I was not available for either of those appointments since I work until 3:00 pm. She responded by setting up an appointment for the following Monday at 3:30 pm. She made no effort to ask if I was available for the appointment or to consider the fact that weather warnings had been issued three days previously warning of a massive snow storm for Monday. After fighting through traffic from the storm I was able to make the appointment with the new associate. I informed him I wasn't too pleased with the service I had received so far and that I really did not feel comfortable signing a 5 year mortgage with a company that treated me with such disrespect so I would rather just close the mortgage and instead increase my line of credit to cover the remainder of my mortgage plus approx 30% more to cover the cost of some repairs I was going to do on the house. This amount was 20% less than what they had just offered to give me for a mortage so he told me there should not be any issues. He asked for some documentation to support the application which he received the following day. After another two weeks with no contact, I sent another email asking what the status was. One hour later he called and told me that everything was great except that they could only give me a LOC for the amount of the mortgage plaus about 20%. Although I was disappointed I told him fine. After another two weeks of not being contcted, I sent another email asking for the status. This time he told me that he hadn't even sent the application in because he needed further documentation and that he couldn't increase my LOC like he told me before; we had to reapply for a new LOC and I would need to supply new documentation to support the application. After another week and a half, which was now less than 2 weeks from the mortgage renewal date, he informed me that everything he had told me to date was wrong and all they could approve was 8% above what I owed for the mortgage. Because I am so close to the renewal date, I have no choice but to take their offer but I will most definitely be going back to the independent mortgage broker and reapplying with them. Thankfully I had changed to a line of credit or I would have been forced into a five year mortgage with an unscrupulous credit union a a rate 1% above what I had been offered. So very soon, after over 35 years, I will be closing all my accounts and moving to a real bank instead of this dog and pony show.
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Meridian Credit Union Ltd. is a Canadian credit union.