| 09/24/2020 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Private student loan
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- Getting a loan
- Denied loan
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Web |
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I found a company called Splash Financial who offers student loan refinancing. I submitted my application for pre-approval where they asked me for my gross income, defined as base income before tax. I submitted a conservative estimate of my gross income based on my current wages.With a soft credit pull, I was pre-approved for my loan at 3.79 % with a 10 year term for a roughly {$91000.00} loan. They requested copies of my current pay stubs as well as my last 2 years of W2s. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was notified that my loan was approved. When I attempted to complete the rest of my application, they approved me for a 15 year term with an interest rate of 4.32 %. I called and questioned why there was a discrepancy and they informed me that they could not verify my stated gross income of {$67000.00}. I have received bonuses and overtime income consistently for the years XXXX, XXXX and XXXX which increase my income. Based on wages already earned for XXXX and adding in solely base pay for the remainder of the year, my calculated gross wages were over {$67000.00}. The average of the last two years ( XXXX ) of gross wages was also over {$67000.00}. I was told that the only way to verify overtime/bonus to count towards income was to look at gross wages for the last 2 years and average them. Despite the fact that they only asked for gross wages in their application, the manager that I spoke with ( who dealt with the head of underwriting ) said that they use boxes XXXX and XXXX of W2 income to verify income, which is not considered gross wages by any normal standard. Boxes XXXX and XXXX are for taxable wages for XXXX XXXX and XXXX respectively and are calculated by taking actual gross wages and deducting tax differed benefits such as health insurance, so no longer considered gross wages but rather, taxable income which are distinctly different. Following HMDA reporting, since my original loan was met with a counter offer that I did not accept, they have technically denied my original loan. The pre-approval application was misleading and deceptive because they specifically ask for gross income while using something other than gross income in their underwriting process which makes it not reasonable to avoid the denial of the loan application which could constitute a UDAAP violation. When pushed, the manager that I spoke to did agree that I am correct in their application being misleading. I informed her that I would not have continued with the approval process which required a hard credit inquiry after the pre-approval with a soft credit inquiry had I known that I wouldn't be approved and my credit score has since dropped causing me to look less favorable to other lenders if I chose to apply elsewhere. Based on that, the manager has since removed the hard credit inquiry from my credit report. I have refinanced my student loans roughly 5 times in the last 3 years since graduating from college and have never had a problem with any of my other applications or them verifying my stated income so I would say their underwriting standards are not common in the industry. I work in lending/underwriting and I have never seen the underwriting standards/guidelines both in my own workplace or in any other lending institution who deals in consumer lending. I believe that their misrepresentation of requested information would lead to others being in the same spot as me where they are lured in with a pre-approval for a low interest rate loan only to be denied and offered a loan with a higher interest rate and term causing them to spend significantly more over the life of than loan. I am lucky enough to understand the financial implications of higher interest rates and longer terms but my level of financial education is not commonplace and this company could be unintentionally causing financial harm to those who accept the higher rate loan they are counter-offered.
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| 07/13/2022 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Private student loan
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- Dealing with your lender or servicer
- Received bad information about your loan
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Web |
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In early XX/XX/2022 I applied to refinance my student loans and received quotes from four different companies. My student loans are from XXXX XXXX and I only applied to loan servicers that offer $ XXXX minimum payments during medical residency. I compared quotes from the four companies ( Splash Financial, XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX ). Splash Financial had the most competitive rate, and so I called them some time in the first half of the month of XXXX ( unsure of the exact date ) and confirmed that my loan with them would have {$100.00} minimum payments while in residency. This was confirmed over the phone with their customer service, including discussion that the lender that they had quoted me for was with XXXX XXXX. I then proceeded forward with the application and was finally approved around XX/XX/2022 by which time my other inquiries at the other three servicers had expired and interest rates had increased substantially.
On XX/XX/XXXX I emailed XXXX XXXX, who works at Splash Financial and with whom I had been communicating about the documents I needed to send them for my application to get approved. In this email I asked him to confirm that I indeed would have $ XXXX minimum payments since this is what I had been promised and yet I did not see this detailed in the contract I had been sent. He responded XX/XX/XXXX saying that XXXX XXXX ( which is the company that Splash Financial was getting my loan refinanced with ) does not offer this. I responded to this email XX/XX/XXXX saying that the only reason that I had agreed to use Splash Financial to refinance was for this reason, which they advertise on their website and I included a screenshot of their own website offering the $ XXXX minimum payments to medical residents. I also responded to XXXX XXXX 's comments that I should click on a link he sent that would have me re-apply to Splash Financial 's loans available for medical residents, which is the link I had originally used to apply.
XXXX XXXX responded saying that Splash Financial actually only offers medical residency loans through XXXX XXXX, and since I had applied to XXXX XXXX to compare rates at the beginning of XXXX they never had offered me a loan that would have $ XXXX minimums during residency and they were now unable to offer me one and that I would be best off re-applying to XXXX XXXX for my loan consolidation. This means that I have now gone through the entire application process, had a hard inquiry on my credit, and lost out on the interest rates that I was promised by the other three companies over a month ago. Interest rates have increased significantly over the past month, which is why I was so keen to start the refinancing process at the beginning of XXXX, since at that time it was clear that rates would be going up. So now I am going to have to start the process over, have another hard inquiry on my credit, only to end up with a much worse interest rate that will end up costing me tens of thousands of dollars over the life time of my loan.
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| 07/13/2021 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Private student loan
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- Getting a loan
- Problem with the interest rate
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Web |
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I asked Splash Financial via text if there was the same 0.25 % rate reduction for auto pay. With the rate reduction my fixed student loan rate would be 2.84 %. Their customer service confirmed that I would in fact receive the rate reduction. I made a financial decision to select Splash Financial over my current company that was offering me 2.89 %.
The rate reduction was not applied to my account once my auto pay information was added to my account.
Me : Hello, according to your website my interest rate after the direct bank payments is 3.09 %. I was previously told that the 3.09 % would be reduced by 0.25 % once I added my bank information. Please correct the website ASAP.
Splash : Good morning! Let me look into this for you. Out of curiosity, do you remember who told you that this bank had an auto pay discount? Some of our lenders have auto pay discounts, and others do not.
Me : I already have direct bank withdrawal set up with the website. My interest rate should be 2.84 % not 3.09 %. ( I sent screen prints of my previous text conversation ) Splash : Unfortunately, at this time this bank down not offer the auto pay discount. I apologize for the miscommunication on our end.
Me : Miscommunication is not even close to what happened here. Splash is causing me a negative financial impact. The difference in the interest rate is costing me more money. I never would have refinanced my loan at 3.09 %. What is Splash going to do to make me whole?
Splash Financial refused to adjust my interest rate. Rather they offered to pay me {$400.00}. the financial impact was {$860.00}. After several emails, Splash Financial finally agreed to pay me {$860.00}.
My concern is for other consumers not aware that documentation is gold. My concern is that Splash Financial will lie to other consumers causing even more of a economic burden on student loan borrowers.
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| 12/22/2023 |
Yes |
- Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan
- Installment loan
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- Struggling to pay your loan
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Web |
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| 12/17/2023 |
Yes |
- Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan
- Installment loan
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Web |
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| 10/03/2023 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Federal student loan servicing
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- Dealing with your lender or servicer
- Received bad information about your loan
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Referral |
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| 09/20/2023 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Private student loan
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- Dealing with your lender or servicer
- Received bad information about your loan
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Web |
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| 01/01/2023 |
Yes |
- Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
- Credit reporting
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- Improper use of your report
- Credit inquiries on your report that you don't recognize
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Web |
Servicemember |
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| 09/07/2022 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Private student loan
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- Dealing with your lender or servicer
- Received bad information about your loan
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Web |
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| 03/25/2022 |
Yes |
- Credit reporting, credit repair services, or other personal consumer reports
- Credit reporting
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- Improper use of your report
- Reporting company used your report improperly
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Web |
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| 03/05/2021 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Private student loan
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- Getting a loan
- Denied loan
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Web |
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| 11/16/2020 |
Yes |
- Student loan
- Private student loan
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- Dealing with your lender or servicer
- Need information about your loan balance or loan terms
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Web |
Servicemember |
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