When we bought this house, we did it long distance from southern California, through a realtor here and the financing and so forth handled through an agency here. When all was said and done, our mortgage was handed off (sold) to Well’s Fargo.
Now, at the time I had no grievance with WF, but over the years more and more upsetting reports of malfeasance, mistreatment of clients and accounts and so forth. Though we had no problems with them, so we finally got fed up.
So last Fall we refinanced. We had significant equity, and went with an institution with whom we also had savings, our credit reports look nice and it was a breeze, only requiring one in-person visit. Plus our payment went down because of better interest. A win for everyone (except the evil WF).
Tip the Wink 
Well, that must have been satisfying. Wells Fargo exists but doesn’t have anywhere near the footprint in New York that it does in California and the rest of the West Coast, but the stories have reached us too.
Yes, it was satisfying, and easy and the people we worked with were very nice.
When we had a mortgage, it was constantly “traded” between banks. We started with Citibank. Citibank “traded” our mortgage to Bank of America after a few years. Bank of America “traded” our mortgage to Key Bank. We opted for a 15-year mortgage with the option for bi-weekly payments. So instead of paying a mortgage payment once a month, we paid half the payment every two weeks. That resulted in our paying off our mortgage in 12 1/2 years. We’ve been mortgage-free since 2000.
Yes, they’re commodities for the banks. We didn’t have that problem, just didn’t want WF to have our business. We need the mortgage interest deduction on our taxes, so we factor that into our planning.
Perhaps WF should have stayed exclusively stage coaches, Rick. Certainly some of their practices over the past decade or two were not with the best interests of their customers in mind.
We have been lucky to have paid most of our homes completely, so have not been bothered with mortgages or debt. When we have had mortgages, we’ve been able to refinance most them to our advantage. Now as apartment livers, it seems strange to pay a monthly fee just for shelter.
I wasn’t able to buy my first home until I was 43, that a small condo, as prices in Southern California were high. I was happy not to rent! I paid that place off in 20 of the 30 year loan, and it grew in value so selling allowed me to get the nicer home we have now. You pay for shelter one way or another…