The Federal Savings Bank Pilot House Dr, Newport News

Pros: Good customer service Cons: Dishonest mailers that under-estimate closing costs I have received multiple mailers from this company, but the monthly payment estimate on the mailers have been much too low and I assume dishonest as they are trying to get potential customers to call to refinance. On the mailers they list the current balance of my mortgage and the rate they can give. Then they mention a "a new monthly payment of $X,XXX.XX or less." Currently my only debt is my mortgage, I have never had a late payment on any credit cards nor carried a balance, and have excellent credit. Upon call in, which I have done twice over the past year and a half, they have given me the same rate as the on on the mailing and confirmed my excellent credit and loan amount. Both times the monthly payment they can offer is $150-$200 per month more than the "advertised or less" payment. Both reps have told me this is because closing costs for the loan is high and this factors in to the payment. Completely true. However, the mailer takes the closing costs into account as the APR is almost a quarter percentage point higher than the rate they give. The company is also in the best position to estimate this cost prior to printing their mailers. Both times I've asked the rep if there was anything I could have done to reduce the closing costs to meet the mailers level - be that higher income, assets, etc. If there was no way to ever get anything close to this monthly payment why advertise this? The Federal Savings Bank is under-estimating the closing costs and therefore month payments. This in my opinion is just another tool they use to get more potential customers to call in. I will give a plug to both reps who were very professional and advised against refinancing unless I wanted to take out an additional loan against the house and use the money for some other need. Both were very knowledgeable and courteous.

I began a refi of a second home with Timothy Blowe of The Federal Savings Bank in September of 2020. All of the usual information for a refi was requesting and supplied within 24 hours. They requested I pay $494 for the appraisal. Usually this is paid at closing, but I didn’t think too much of it and I paid. A few weeks later an appraisal company sends me a bill for an appraisal which I had already paid for which I questioned and was told the bill was a mistake and to ignore it. A month passes with no communication and I reach out to them at the end of October. Finally I get through and they request duplicates of information as some of the documentation had expired due to elapsed time. I was not pleased and I spoke with Mr. Blowe and stated my frustration.Mr. Blowe told me that if I was not happy that I could take my business elsewhere. I was taken back, but interest rates were on the rise and I decided to stick it out as I thought the end was in sight. Another 6 weeks pass and it is now December 11 and more repeat and redundant information was requested as it had expired. Furious at this point, I provide the information yet again. January 21, 2021, they request more repeat information due to expiration. They request to pull my credit again as it has expired from the original pull in September. We all know when you request a credit inquiry it knocks your credit score down which is never good, but I have credit a score around 800 so I agreed. I couldn’t believe the lack of professionalism and progress so I requested to speak with Mr. Blowe’s superior, Robert Smith. 4 more weeks pass, it is now February 23rd I reach out to Mr. Blowe and Mr. Smith. No response. Finally on March 4th I get in touch with Mr. Blowe. I am told that my rate of 2.5% has now expired and the only way to get this rate is to purchase points costing thousands of dollars. This rate had expired due solely to the negligence and mismanagement of my refi by Federal Savings Bank, specifically the fault of Timothy Blowe and Robert Jones. At this point it has been over six months since the refi process began and rates have gone up significantly and I was unable to take my business anywhere else if I still wanted to refi. Hesitantly, I agree to complete the refi as closing documents were supplied and I was told that we could close by April 1st. In the closing document, a fee of about $1,200 was included for an appraisal. Remember, I paid for an appraisal 5 months earlier to Federal Savings Bank. I questioned the fee as it was extremely high. I have probably completed over a dozen appraisals over the past ten years and all of them were $600 or less. Again, I bring this to their attention and I was credited $495 toward this astronomical fee. As April 1st approached, I advised them that I had a mortgage payment due and that we need to close prior to this so that my payment does not alter the numbers in the closing documents resulting in yet another delay. Again no response. April 1st comes and goes and again I reach out regarding my mortgage payment and Mr. Jones said, “We cannot advise you on when to make your mortgage payments." He did not advise me on anything to do with my closing or when it may occur. I now began to seriously doubt the veracity of this business transaction as the repeated delays caused by their negligence kept costing me money, like a Ponzi Scheme. Highly questionable appraisal fees and “mistaken” oversights, buying up points due to rate expiration due their negligence, and finally the straw that broke the camel’s back. On April 5th, 7 months into the process, I was told I was required to pay over $1,100 for a rate lock extension. A rate that was originally given to me 7 months ago, a rate that not one month ago I had to agree to purchase points to maintain, a rate that had been repeatedly delayed due to their negligence. It was now clear to me that there was intention behind this fraudulent transaction to milk me for money. I refused to pay the fee and sent an email to Mr. Blowe and Mr. Jones and neither of them replied.

Nothing positive. The Mortgage loan officer, Tim Gregory, concealed knowledge that the construction company on our mortgage was bankrupt and had been sued, so the second we closed we were served with papers from the lawsuit. He knew the whole time and said he didnt think it would matter because he heard it was a "frivolous lawsuit". - like that matters when a judge has ruled on it. He also mislead us on payment to manage DTI ratio and closing costs. Once a lawyer got involved and we switched banks suddenly it became super easy and we re-closed in like 21 days. Currently in the first step of resolution by starting with a federal regulatory complaint.

Tim Blow is the best, he helped me closed two home refinancing loans, one in 2020 and 2021, Tim Blow is veryyyyyyy good person, friendly, professional and always answer my calls. I definitely recommend him and The Federal Savings Bank to friends and family. Sokun Nhem, Virginia.

This company will take your 200 dollars for processing fee. They will entice you with low apr but they will never process it. As a combat veteran please think twice to go with this company. I got fooled and please to be fooled too.

Exceptional communication throughout the process. Was never left wondering or hoping of something was done or needed to be done. Joey was awesome.