Loans Require Hoop-Jumping; Their Hoops Are High And Also On Fire

In 2013, my second wife and I bought a house. The oil furnace died three months later. We needed a loan to get a heat pump installed. I applied with the credit union where I’d been a member since 1985. This credit union was based in another state.

I got an email stating that the loan officer wanted documents from the court attesting that I was paying my ex-wife’s support (alimony) regularly. I emailed back telling them that: A) the courts don’t get involved unless you fail to pay support, and B) the payments were set on autopay from the same credit union, so they could see the payments going out and being cashed monthly.

The assistant loan officer replied that the loan officer required “something from the court” or the loan could not be granted.

I tried to call, but the loan officer was never available. I spoke to the assistant several times, only to get the same answer: the loan officer was insisting on “something from the court”.

After several weeks they finally abandoned asking for a court document and moved on to requesting the financial statements of all the partners of the business in which I was a partner — fifteen different people —all for a $10,000 loan. We had plenty of equity in the house, I was employed, and my credit rating was over 800, but they still wanted the financial statements of all my partners.

I politely emailed them back and said that I was not going to ask my partners to provide financial statements, and I withdrew the loan application.

We went to a local bank that knew my business and had the loan in two days.