CIVIC Financial ServicesReviews of civicfs.com

I was asked to text +1(346) 501-0850 to get my money back guaranteed, I had $29,000 in cash in my Fidelity account but my account was hacked because they could not close a deal on time. The loss was never covered by Fidelity & now I no longer have that money. Read the fine print before you use this company. They are not an FDIC bank covered by the government. Use caution. I am 72 years old so I don't have the time left in my life to earn that kind of money. Personally, I am old & very disappointed. I keep my cash in a bank & my stocks seem to be safe. Do not keep cash in your Fidelity account or you are risking losing it. If they don't post this review then they are not only dishonest but outright thieves like the crooks that hacked my nest egg savings.

I'm an investor and I'm accustomed to paying a little more for my loans in exchange for having them processed quickly so I can buy properties before someone else does. In this case I was doing a bundled refi and paying off several other investors and private money lenders. They all started looking for deals to buy because Civic's new loan would free-up their capital. Everyone was excited about this cross-collateralized loan app with Civic. I was looking to bundle the refi three of my rental properties and Civic said they could do it. I was told the company specialized in working with investors and that they understood our needs for quick turnaround on our loan apps. I was told to expect my application to be reviewed, underwritten and funded within 8 to 10 business days, so I submitted my application in mid-November 2018. It didn't take 8 - 10 days ... it was more like 10 weeks. My loan rep seemed to care about helping me get a loan but the underwriting department tried to find every reason in the world not to fund me. Dealing with their underwriters was cumbersome and inefficient. I was often asked to resubmit the same info several times. It began to feel like a black hole you pour time and information into and got nothing back. It was embarrassing for me to have to ask all of my note holders to re-do their payoff statements three times. One of my current lenders got so upset by the delay they charged me a huge late fee and demanded that I overnight my interested check to them on a Saturday (cost me $65!) To add to the drama, Civic excluded my flagship property from the package because it had a commercial, mixed-use zoning. This was a disappointing event because it was the property with the most equity in it and the source of the cash I was hoping to get out of the re-fi. Much to my chagrin I went forward with Civic on the remaining two properties. I was responsive to their ubiquitous requests for additional information. My insurance agent was also responsive. My escrow agent, my title agent, and my BPO brokers were also responsive to, often replying the same day. Some even worked overtime to suit their west coast hours. We worked over the holidays -- Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years. Maybe Civic could do the same and schedule some additional holiday coverage so an already-late loan app isn't further delayed by a slip through the holiday cracks. Even after the holidays, their underwriting department was slow, cumbersome and inefficient. It often took 3-5 days to return a phone call asking why they weren't answering our emails. They don't have a dedicated staff to cover east coast hours so it's hard to reach them during our business hours, and they replied to our calls at the end of their work day (5 pm PST/ 8 pm EST ) thus prohibiting real-time communication. Overall, it was frustrating to deal with the "millenial" staaffers who seem to prefer to write their answers rather than speaking in person and allowing follow up questions to be handled in real time. The "millenial" customer service attitude was apparent and also frustrating, verging on rude. One gal even hung up on me! Here are some examples: "It's with underwriting and they need more information (repeat for wk 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.) "It is on rush status." (really? lol!) "This is the way it is so if you don't like it maybe you should get your loan somewhere else;" "I don't know anything about that... it's not my job. You have to talk to another department " but then they don't give you a contact name, or number, or transfer you to someone who could help, or do anything to solve the problem or service the client -- it's baffling that someone could be paid to show up to work and provide this low-level of care to the client's customers. Maybe these are the growing pains of a young company, but to me it was just a pain. I almost pulled the plug on Civic about four times during this experience. By comparison, I used another lender to refi the commercial mixed use property that Civic excluded from my bundle. That lender started four weeks after Civic and funded a week sooner -- and at the same interest rate with a longer term. Paul Blanchard, the Regional Manager at Civic, managed to keep me in the game, so kudos to him. He was able to ensure I got the terms and rates I'd been promised, but he was unable to improve the underwriting process in any meaningful wall. If Civic can get their act together, and improve the customer experience then I sincerely hope they do. Investors need lenders in this niche, but if they're going to chase the investor-market they need to realize what we need. We move quickly and we support lenders who can keep up. If we want to be mired in red tape we would apply for fully amortized, low rate, 20 year loans from a conventional lender. When your product is a 3-year, interest-only instrument with significant upfront points and fees, then your customer's TIME is of the essence. We don't care that your underwriters have to validate everything to the Nth degree so our loans can be repackaged and resold as a certain class of paper... that's your back-end. We are your front end. We are the SOURCE of your revenue. We are PAYING you upfront. WE are your customer...so treat us that way. If you don't service the demand we won't buy the product. From a customer's perspective I want what I was sold -- affordable rates, multi-year terms, cross-collateralization, and fast funding. Give me what you've promised in the time frame you've told me to expect it. That's simple supply and demand. Investors understand this simple concept. I hope Civic does, too.