Hi Jody ~

Don't be paranoid ... just be cautious. As July 31, 2009 a new regulation called TILA (Truth and Lending Act) states that a borrower can not be charged ANY upfront fee except for a credit report. That means no application fee, loan approval fee, nada! TILA disclosures are sent by the mortgage bank AFTER a borrower has an "offered" accepted. That's when additional fees can be charged. But you are in a very early stage of the loan process, so no TILA disclosures are required yet. You should only pay the $$ amount listed on the credit report. And make sure you get a copy of your credit report since you will have paid for it.

Go to the appointment and treat it like an interview. You interviewing them. If you don't feel comfortable, walk away and find another mortgage company.

To Your Success,

Barbara

I work for a mortgage broker. We follow the same guidelines as banks as we also work under RESPA laws. They are not allowed to charge you more than the cost of the credit report. What may have happened though is that your credit was pulled as a pre-qualification report (about $5) then they had to pull a tri-merge account (maybe 30 or 60 days passed by or your scores were low and the credit had to be re-scored). Lots of things happend behind the scenes that you are unaware of. Regardless, they can't charge you more than they paid, so most likely, you are being charged what they paid.

Jody,
I am a Mortgage Banker, and our corporate office says that we are not legally allowed to charge you a penny more for the credit report that what is costs us. Maybe Mortgage Brokers work differently.

I certainly do not want to judge one of my peers just on this one thing. But I would do what Jes said below, and ask why the report says $14.75 and you were charged $20.00. If I were you, it would make me wonder what other things costs this mortgage professional would increase once you got further along in the loan process.

So call and ask why you are being charged $5.25 more than the cost of the report. Maybe there is a great reason.

Good Luck,
Julie Thall
jthall@rpm-mtg.com

Jody,
You should of mention that they said 15 bucks on the phone. Could of been an error on their part.
They can charge a service charge as long as they charge everyone the same service charge.
Now that you have the credit report ask for a copy and shop other direct lenders like banks and brokers.
Don't stick with one lender, shop around and see if you can get a better rate. Be sure to take the credit report, W2s for the past 2 years, recent bankstaments for the past 2 months and 2 recent pay stubs.

Good luck and happy house hunting,

Jes Sierra, B.Sc.
Realtor®