Quicken Loan, one of the nation’s largest mortgage lenders that has “survived and thrived” in today’s difficult market due to avoiding subprime loans and dicey practices, boasts the number one spot in surveys for customer satisfaction and has been rated as “one of America’s best places to work.” However, the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) is not buying[1]. According to reports by CPI, Quicken Loans has mislead homeowners about the details of their loans, charged excessive fees, utilized fraudulent appraisals and even forced employees to falsify borrowers’ incomes on loan applications[2]. A West Virginia judge who ruled in favor of one homeowner bringing suit called Quicken “unconscionable.”

Now, a group of former employees is joining the fray, alleging that they were urged to boost commissions by locking customers into higher interest rates even when they qualified for lower ones and “rolling hidden fees into the loan.” One former employee, Michael Pikora, has said in a sworn affidavit that “The worse the client’s situation was, and the lower their credit, the easier it was to charge excessively high rates.” Furthermore, the former employees claim that they were compelled to work unpaid overtime.

Quicken Loan has denied that it mistreats or mistreated workers or customers, and emphasizes that its mortgage lending practices follow industry standards. Furthermore, the company has described the former employees’ lawsuit as “the product of parasitic plaintiffs’ attorneys who specialize in filing meritless claims in an effort to coerce settlements from job-producing companies.”

Strong words, but can the company back them up? Have you done business with Quicken Loans, and would you again?

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[1] http://nationalmortgageprofessional.com/news23481/center-public-integrity-launches-attacks-reputation-quicken-loan

[2] http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2889/