Essex Credit

Bait and Switch

The terms of the loan that they actually offered were nowhere near what they were offering through lending tree

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AVOID THIS COMPANY

May 7th – Contacted Essex credit and Ricky Aubrey. I was concerned with a lot of closing fees, Survey Fees and Coast Guard registrations that another lender wanted to charge me on a boat that I was going to purchase. I asked if there were any additional fees and asked if their processing fee was for everything or would I get surprises like I received from the other lender and he stated “Yes the $459 processing fee covers everything outside of the normal state costs (tax, registration, FL doc stamp) which should be the same no matter the bank.” At that point I processed an application and asked where I could send over the packet of my tax returns, pay stub and NADA value of the boat that I needed the loan on, no response
May 9th – Emailed because I never received any confirmation that they even received the application, no response
May 11th – They tell me that they are unable to complete the underwriting process without obtaining additional information, the NADA information that I asked were to send 4 days prior. I immediately sent the NADA and an entire financial packet.
May 15th – I had to go with the other company since after 7 business days I still had not heard back. I went to look at the boat and it was in terrible condition so I walked away from it and went back on the boat search.
May 19th – The asked me for a second time for the same information that I sent to them on the 11th. I explained that the boat was junk and that I found a different boat. They approved the other boat but in the closing costs was a “Coast Guard Documented boats fee up to $899.00” which on May 7th he did not disclose even after I specifically asked about it. Unfortunately the seller didn’t disclose repair issues that needed to be resolved so I had to walk away from that boat also.
May 27th – I’m not sure why but I reached out to Ricky again on a boat that was already surveyed and passed with flying colors. I explained that I was going to drive up to NC to pick up the boat so asked him to update the boat information 1 final time and I needed to close on June 1st.
May 28th – Ricky emails me and says that I would need a fresh application because they processed the previous application as a counteroffer and they can’t update it. I asked him if that would mean that they would need to run my credit again and he never responded. As a side note he also informed me for the first time that it takings them a couple weeks to close on marine purchases.
I even called Bank of the West and as soon as you explain that you are dealing with Essex they know that it’s going to be an issue and they escalate to their manager who will claim to email a manager at Essex and tell you that you’ll get a call back which you won’t get.
AVOID THIS COMPANY, unless you are OK paying their hidden fees
AVOID THIS COMPANY, unless you want to sit around and wonder what is going on with your application
AVOID THIS COMPANY, unless you are working with a seller that is OK waiting for weeks to close on that sale of their boat
P.S. I was referred to Huntington Bank by the dealer since they don’t do any in house financing and that was on Friday, May 29th. I took the boat on a sea trial Monday the 1st and the loan was funded this morning and will be in my driveway this afternoon. 3 Business days start to finish.

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It was the best of times!!!

Essex was professional, prompt and had competitive rates. They were 3% lower than the best rate my RV DEALER could get. Jim Pena, our loan officer was prompt and courteous. Would use Essex again in a flash.

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