First Internet Bank

I’ve dealt with multiple mortgage lenders in the last few years, but few of them were as efficient, reliable and diligent as the First Internet Bank team. Jim Wirtes, Katie Buckley and the rest of their colleagues (including the underwriter) have exhibited an outstanding commitment to customer service. They have patiently guided me through the complex loan application process, and ensured closing two loans on time — and now we are working together on the third application. I would highly recommend FIBI, and I plan to continue working with them going forward.

I’ve used First IB as my primary checking and savings for over 10 years. All things considered, they are the best bank that I’ve worked with.
Here’s why I like them:
Money Market Savings account offers a consistently good interest rate (currently about 0.80%). It’s not the best rate around, but it isn’t a teaser rate that quickly drops.
ATM fee rebates
A few things that could be improved:
Foreign transaction fees on ATM withdrawals.
Customer service hours are somewhat limited, but at least you get to talk to somebody smart that can usually fix whatever problem you are having.

Been banking with these folks since the nineties. Whoop whoop! only an occasional issue but always resolved with their reasonable and caring staff. Never took out a mortgage here so that is a different animal but for everyday banking they are fantastic.

I picked up on First IB when looking at mortgage rates and starting reading reviews in multiple sites.
After filling out the website inquiry I got a phone call very promptly and began working with Chris Lawson. He took the time to explain the process and give me some numbers to compare against the other lenders I was shopping. I took a leap of faith and decided to move forward.
Chris began the process of collecting information for our mortgage and made the process very efficient. He provided me guidance and answered all of my questions throughout the process.
Then I was handed to Glenda Quigley as a processor. She had a few more document requests (a result of the mortgage crisis). She showed the same level of care and patience in dealing with my concerns and questions as Chris did.
The best part of all this, we closed early, in less than 3 weeks!

I attempted to complete a refinance and every week the promises made the week before couldn’t be honored and the deal had to be changed. Once they have my money for an appraisal, the refinance is denied and the stated reason was completely false. When I provided evidence that their interpretation was wrong, the reason was changed to a denial because of my credit report — a history they had for weeks and had no problem with before I pointed out their error. They have no credibility and I will be reporting them to the better business bureau.
Oh and don’t be fooled by their glowing reviews on Bankrate. That’s what made me choose them but when I attempted to post this review there, it was rejected. It’s easy to have all glowing reviews on a site that won’t post anything else.

They were great. Did refi and a buy and a very smooth process. Jessica Callahan is who I worked with and she was fantastic.

I, for one, am NOT happy with my dealings with First Internet. I feel scammed, my credit rating has been hit and I am still awaiting a refund from them a week after they claim it was credited. Our needs were different then most but as a brokering agent, I would say contact your local credit union or bank. Because our property is leased to a farmer, the agent did not understand they could NOT accommodate our loan, nor did they catch the farm income on our taxes. No one at first internet bank found it, until I spoke with the pre-​paid appraiser. Then it was oh no one is in to get the refund, we had processed the refund and yet still no refund, so now it is in the hands of my credit card company. In this day and age, a company needs to have employees who know the rules, and suppliers who do their job. It is NOT my job as the customer to do the job of the servicer. Not too happy currently although on a good note, they are pleasant & quick, but not sure that matters if you can not fulfill the job.

I had a great experience with my loan officer John Skipper. He offered me a great rate and great service. The loan was underwritten very quickly so I was able to complete the house purchase even earlier than expected.
Thank you.

Very poor customer service, I have had a loan with these folks for a number of years and they either won’t return phone calls when they tell you they will, or reply to your e-​mails. They charged me a fee «Loan Capitalization» and when ask why, they don’t respond to what should be a simple question. Seems to me if they can’t explain a fee they shouldn’t be charging it?

Can I give 0 Stars? This bank ripped me off! I went through all the paperwork for a cash out refi and the appraisal came back way under the value of my home! The appraiser did not use a single house that was truly comparable to mine — I was completely floored! I had it reappraised a few days later by another company and it came in over $ 50K higher! I should have paid better attention to the Unilocal reviews stating that this was a problem with FIB. Do not use this bank for any reason at all. They should all be ashamed of themselves for taking advantage of people. I am now out $ 435 for a bunk appraisal. Not to mention that my loan officer had recently quit smoking, which made him unfriendly at times and often spoke to me in a condescending tone. Extremely upset and disappointed with this bank!

Refinanced with Evan Porter. Process was fast, reasonable, great pricing and the communication was excellent. Will recommend to friends.

I’ve been using FirstIB for some of my banking since 1999 when I needed a bank I could deal with online when I was in Japan. Now I’m prompted to write when I noticed my interest payment on my checking account is about $ 3 in contrast to interest on a Chase account containing twice as much money was about 15 cents.
The biggest issue I had in these 15 years was a missing (mis-​deposited) check for $ 1550 that I didn’t notice until a year later. I was afraid they’d say I was out of luck since it had been so long but they located the missing funds and corrected the error. Of course it would have been better if they hadn’t misdeposited the funds to begin with.

FIB is unprofessional… they don’t know this business, he would not share information or numbers with be before closing. there was such a screw up that i moved into the house, and the seller never got their money… FIB assured me everything was ok, and that the seller wouldn’t get their money… but that wasn’t true, i’m an VERY VERY dissaponted w/​the service of the person and FIB. what a mess!!!

Only positive experience working with Melanie Smith! We bought the house and then re-​financed it with her in one year, and the rates, service couldn’t be better! They made our experience as painless as possible for the first time home buyers and refinancing was done at no cost within record timeframe! Thank You!

Excellent customer service. I recommend using Mark Elder, he was great to talk to and easy to work with, definitely made the mortgage process simplified.

We had a fantastic experience working with First Internet Bank… great rates and excellent service.

I’ve been banking with them for years. I saw that they were processing mortgages now and decided to try them. Their rates were better than any others with whom I talked. I had no troubles with my loan. It was completed in time with all of the paperwork where it should be. They did require a ton of documents, but that’s to be expected. They were really helpful and the rates provided were the rates that ended up for closing. I will definitely use them again for my mortgage.

Who I worked with:
Matt, Kathleen
Why 5 :
1. Matt and his team were creative in structuring my loan
2. They closed in 21 days! Yes, 21 days. I had to do my part of being prompt with responses
3. Online processing
4. Available when needed
What could they improve on:
A bit more communication among departments
Next steps:
Look forward to my review in 6 months after honeymoon

This used to be a great bank. The current state of affairs is sad.
The bill payment system kicks me out most of the time now. This has been going on for over a week, regardless of my call to their customer support and his reset of … I don’t know what.
Now it’s Sunday night and I find out my car insurance was cancelled a month ago because FIB didn’t pay the company? Did I get an email saying a payment couldn’t be sent due to lack of funds or something? (honeymoon drew down funds temporarily) No I did not.
And now I can neither log in nor call someone because they have the WORST customer service hours. Like, normal CST business hours. And I work really crazy hours.
I’ve been with this bank for about 15 years. Even just 5 years ago I would have given them a 5 star rating. It’s sad. Really sad.

DON’T BOTHER!
We got totally screwed by this bank. Everything, I mean everything was completely smooth, UNTIL they decided to use a scam appraisal company that used comps in completely different neighborhoods to appraise our house — even though there was a comp RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET, which we pointed out. I literally handed him four comps from OUR neighborhood and this moron didn’t use a SINGLE one!!! Didn’t use a single house that was geographically relevant. Really? He was very young, inexperienced and didn’t have a clue about neighborhoods in our area. We had two real estate agents tell us that appraiser had no idea what he was doing and the valuation was completely off. HOW IS THIS ALLOWED??!
Communication was okay with the Bank, we used Jodonna Fredrick, until the botched appraisal came in and within HOURS (after spending hours collecting docs, scanning and sending), we were sent a FORM LETTER telling us the deal was completely done and have a nice day. We never even got a phone call from Jodonna — nada. We «disputed» the appraisal and the only thing the bank did was to ask the SAME appraiser if their appraisal was good. Huh? They were going to say something else? Not if they had to return $ 400, or good god — send another experienced appraiser out. They replied — with another form letter! — saying it was. Guess what? We instantly got our final form letter telling us again the deal was dead. We’re out lots of time and energy, $ 400 (for a scumbag appraisal company), AND the mortgage rate in the 3s!!!
The rates have gone up more than a POINT since we tried to refi with this wretched company and it almost makes no sense to refinance anymore! I could throw up. Jerks, jerks, jerks. It’s only realistic to refi now if the mortgage rates go down. Yeah, right.
First Internet Bank is your typical company that is strictly out for cash and the moment they realize they have to do work to make that happen, you become a hot potato.