CCO Mortgage Review

My husband and I have bought and sold several homes so we are not new to the mortgage market.  We purchased our current home in 2006 and received a loan from CCO Mortgage, which we obtained through our bank, Charter One.

We had used CCO Mortgage on our previous home with no problems, so when their rates were competitive with other banks, we decided to use them again. 

We thought that all was well until one year after we closed on our mortgage loan.  We received a letter stating that our escrow account was short by almost $6,000!!!!  As if that wasn't bad enough, if we chose to pay our escrow shortage IN FULL, our monthly payment would "only" INCREASE by $365 PER MONTH!

We did not understand how such a huge mistake could have happened so the phone calls (and problems) began.  After getting minimal assistance from the customer service department, we contacted the person who help us obtain our mortgage.  He had since left the company and told us that the local bank branches of Charter One no longer had mortgage representatives to help customers.  We were stuck using the national so-called customer service representatives to help us sort out this mess.

After several phone calls, the best that we could do was to increase our monthly payment by over $600 PER MONTH since we were a bit shy of having almost $6000 to fork over to remove the escrow shortage.  To say that we were livid is an understatement.

Flash forward to one year from that fiasco, and we are still stuck with CCO Mortgage.  We managed to get our monthly payment lowered by $200 per month, but are still extremely unhappy.  We have checked into various refinancing options with other mortgage companies, but the closing costs do not make it worth switching providers at this time.

If you are considering a loan with CCO Mortgage, I stand by my advice to run, don't walk, as far away from them as you can.