Guardian Savings Bank Sir Barton Way, Lexington

I am a realtor and Guardian is in my top go-to list when I recommend lenders to my clients. Ben Montoya at Guardian has handled both my personal re-financing and about a half dozen home purchases for clients. He has gotten them lower interest rates and lower closing costs than any other lender I know of could have. More importantly he is informative with quick response times and clear communication from start to finish.

This bank is simply not upfront about their loan application fees when applying for a home loan. The rather hefty application fee of $350.00 was never disclosed to us during the beginning of the application process and was not even mentioned until the day before the application was processed and then denied, which is when we thought we were pretty far along in the process. Had we known about this risk in the beginning we would have likely chosen another more transparent and "up-front" bank. Our realtor also expressed that he thought that the loan originator's methods were questionable and dishonest. When I asked the originator, her response was both flighty and rather condescending. Based on this experience, I would not recommend this bank to anyone seeking a home loan.

We have been with Guardian Savings Bank for a couple of refinances and each time, it's been incredibly easy and low maintenance. And they always have the lowest rates! Really the only issue we have is their antiquated online presence. But it's not such a big deal to us that we'd take a star away. :)

GSB has incredibly low refinance fees. However, they are incredibly slow and overwhelmed with high workloads. From start of application to anticipated closing, it would’ve been 76 days for a refinance. We ended up pulling out of the deal and didn’t close. GSB didn’t refund the $250 application fee despite the delays.

Went in to get a roll of quarters and was turned away lol. Not gonna be banking here that’s for sure. Never seen a person work so hard to be unhelpful either :/