Discover: 2025 Home Equity Review

Discover Home loans keep sending you letters, take all information, let you submit for 2-3 week over and over paperwork, and then they deny you with explanation they cannot take your income as part of your application, even if you show proofs of payments YTD and statements and all other documents (just because you are self employed). your credit get hit with this. I would never advise anyone to apply.

We were encouraged by their loan officer who sweet talked us into getting a hard pull analysis only to deny us.. We have scores over 800 so we put my wife first who's at 822 only to be sweet talked more into giving them so much information that it took us 3 straight days to catch up on all our income, debts and personal information. It was like having a financial colonoscopy done. The little old lady Cindy even blessed us which I really fell for as we are a Christian household. They advertise an automated valuation method for appraising which caught our attention in the first place. We bought it hook line and sinker. They said it had to be a traditional appraisal midway through. When we finally called them out on it they said they tried four times to do an AVM (Automated Valuation Method) appraisal with no success. I don't believe that excuse. Be wary because they talk up a good game and bombard you with emails that in order to finalize the process they need more information to move forward. I contacted Mr. Michael the interim CEO with an email and never got a response or an acknowledgement of my email.

Their website asks for same documents multiple times, and their application review process is very bureaucratic, first sales, then document collection, then underwriting. So far I have sent them 32 documents with several duplicates, and they have just moved me from document collection to underwriting, but underwriting has sent it back to document collection once already. Every time you log in, it requires two-step verification with a phone message, even if all logins are from the same computer. Very tedious.

They don't disclose factors that are taken into account and know will not qualify in loan process so they make you go through a whole process and waste your time. Limited knowledge on their part at the initiation of the application process

I took out a second mortgage several years ago. Never missed a payment. My bank account was hacked and some things didn't get paid on time. The other places that didn't get paid on time understood the issue and they were immediately paid. Unfortunately this was one of the bills that didn't get paid right away. So the first day I got an nasty person on the phone. I explained what happened but couldn't look as I was out of town. So I found a way to check the bank. Correct it didn't come out. So I immediately paid. I thought that was the end. Nope the next day I got another call. I was now upset because they were relentless about getting payment. Which was made. I even made the next months payment just to be sure. I told them to stop calling which is legal for me to do. They did not stop calling. I received another phone call and they wouldn't stop. Needless to say they should have stopped calling when I requested it. They harassed me for several days even after payment was made. They harassed me even after I told them to stop. Just beware of their harassment when things happen. Customer service should have stopped the calls after i requested them to stop. Beware!!!

Applied for a home equity loan, and eventually gave up & ordered them to withdraw the application. It was bizarre. Never seen anything like it. My credit is above 800. I was asking for a small portion of the equity that they confirmed was there. Then they asked me to prove whether I owned the previous addresses that I lived at. If you do not know, credit reports contained addresses that you resided at previously. It doesn't mean anything more than you once lived there. Bizarre. No one can prove a negative. So I withdrew the application & chose to go with a reputable credit union. Something isn't right with the home lending service. I had there credit card for 14 years with no problem ....but DO NOT bother with the home loans.

We were about to have roof and siding work done when we applied for a home equity loan. It was done by appraisal. They valued our property at less than what we paid in property taxes, then demanded documentation from the county for many of the updates we made because that’s their policy. Those changes are permitted by the city in Minnesota. If you’re in Minnesota don’t bother. Discover wants the impossible.

Discover Home Loans will promise you all the right things to harvest your information, but they will likely not get you all the way through to closing. You will spend weeks responding to their emails, uploading all of your personal information, filling out their forms, answering their questions, and jumping through hoops before your information is even viewed by an underwriter who will not communicate with you, but will send you a denial via email and close your application (likely overnight or on a weekend when there will be no one available to offer you any explanation). You will communicate with some of the nicest (sales)people who will give you the impression you're just one more uploaded document away from being moved to closing; however, don't be fooled, these individuals have no say in your approval and will not be able to help you when ultimately you are denied a loan. Discover Home Loans will sell your information the first moment you hit send on your online inquiry, and you will spend the next several weeks being offered loan alternatives (all of which you will decline, because DHL has promised to close on a bigger loan at a better rate). Then, a month after the huge hit all of the soft and hard inquiries on your credit generates, Discover Home Loans will cease to communicate with you. You will then be forced to start the whole process over (with the credit inquiries to explain) with an actual and reputable lender. Don't be fooled by the "big name" of this bank. They do not have ethical practices. They will use some obscure reasoning (like, in my case, as a small business owner, I am co-guarantor on business obligations - yeah, that's how S-corps work - and my income does not reflect many of my expenses that are legitimately the responsibility of the business). And on day one they had my credit report (scores above 740) and two years of tax returns and a full list of monthly obligations with documentation on how they were expensed and it wasn't until over 3 weeks later when I was "finally being turned over to underwriting to get the loan closed" that a decision was made in less than 12 hours that I did not meet "eligibility criteria" and would be offered no chance to contest the decision. I have had a credit account in good standing for 30 years with Discover Bank which meant absolutely nothing to them.

**WARNING: This is a scam!** This is a common scam tactic used by lenders to encourage individuals to apply for personal loans. The goal is to lower monthly payments. Lenders may initially inform borrowers that their debt-to-income ratio is too high and that they do not meet the loan requirements. However, they may then offer an appealing home equity loan as a solution, promising to reduce interest payments on debt. This is UNBELIEVABLE!

Wow what an experience. I have felt with hundreds of banks and loan professionals and never have I been engaged in such a lengthy and ridiculous process. Start out with a document collector, with a list of items that need submitted. Have those items within 24 hours. Two days later, can I resubmit and show all 4 corners of the documents. WHAT? Ok, resubmit. Now fill out this form. Filled it out and sent right back. Nope it needs to have a document number on it. Well it’s your form. Ok, refill it out and write document number on it and sign again. Now we are self employed with a very high credit rating. Can you provide proof of income. Oh I sent that at the beginning. Please send again showing all pages. Oh I left out the page that says, “ left blank intentionally”. Resent docs. Then file was moved to a document reviewer. Month in and it has not even seen an underwriter. Oh we need proof of income. Ummm, already sent. Oh from a business account and what expenses do you have. Umm already sent. Can you send again. Ok. Now can you send highlighting income from the business. Umm. That would be the deposits to the account. But ok, I highlighted all the deposits and sent in again. Now we need discover on my insurance policy as a lien. Wait what! So I have the loan. No you don’t have the loan but we need to be on the policy. If I don’t have the loan you don’t have an insurance interest and no insurance company will put you on their policy without an insurable interest, like the loan being funded. Well that needs to happen before it goes to underwriting. Nope nope nope. It take 10 minutes to put you on and it will take 3-4 weeks or more to get your removed if you deny the loan. So once the closing date is established, it will take 10 min to have you added to the policy and I will show proof at closing. We are currently at what they call a stalemate. It is Discovers policy, then Discovers policy is against the law. The department of insurance would love to hear about this!!!