Lending Tree Mortgage Refinance for Miles (worked for me)
 

I had a bit of trouble finding a lot of solid information on this either way and have recently gone through the process so I thought I would share. Lending Tree offers similar deals through several airlines’ miles programs, I happened to use OnePass with Continental. The deal was 1,250 miles for each $10,000 refinanced. In addition there was an offer of 5,000 additional miles if you signed up with the correct promo code.

The short version is that it took right up until the last few days of the 8 week timeframe (from closing) to allow miles to post, but they did.

A few things of note:

Signing up will get you on the list of some very persistent people who will likely continue to follow up until you very forcefully tell them to go away. Don’t start the process unless you are willing to deal with this.

The points given are pro-rated so don’t feel you need to get an exact increment of $10,000. It is really done at .125 miles per $1.

At least for me the rates were competitive and I didn’t feel I was getting a worse deal just to get the miles.

Hope this helps anyone else looking at these offers.

I'm glad to hear it worked out for you. I looked at Lending Tree earlier this year for a refinance. All three of their participating lenders had competitive rates but the closing costs were ridiculously high compared to local lenders. My experience has been you pay for the miles by paying much higher closing costs and fees.

I have most, perhaps all, of the LendingTree and other lender's miles deals, inclucing special offers, listed on my website below in the Finance > Home Buying section.

While it is good that Op is happy, IMHO, extreme caution is required on these deals as the margin for the miles has to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is probably you.

With that said, several years ago, after some modest hassles with the lender (claims that the miles program did not exist, had been discontinued, did not apply) I got 25K UAL miles out of Countrywide. I suspect the agent's commission was docked a bit to cover some or all of the miles cost.

And, of course, look what happened to countrywide.

I used Lending Tree for a re-fi without miles about 5-6 years ago. I am not sure if it would work if your credit is average or marginal, but if it's excellent, it can work out quite well for you. The trick is to bid well under market rates (like at least 1/2 % below market), so you get counter offers, and then you can play them off against each other.

I was able to get a mortgage with 0 points and comparable closing costs to what local banks were offering me, and a rate that was between 1/4 and 3/8% below what I could get locally.

Of course, that was back in the day when EVERYONE wanted to write lots of mortgages - not sure how well it would work nowadays - but I estimate that I saved myself around $45-$50 a month on a 15 year fixed loan by using them, rather than the banks locally. They put me through a pretty extensive chase for every bit of documentation, but once I gave them everything they asked for, they got the deal done within my rate-lock period.

Can't argue with saving $500-600 a year on my mortgage.

I recently closed on my first home and had worked with lending tree in initial loan finding process. I ultimately went with a broker I found through Zillow but when I stayed honest with Lending Tree rep, he almost matched the other offer except closing cost was $1K more. Based on miles I was getting, it was not worth it. So, I choose to continue with the broker.

My point is, at least try to work out deal with Lending Tree and they do negotiate so, send then GFE from other lenders and they may surprise you...

I totally agree. When it comes to a mortgage you must use much more caution and do a lot more research than most other methods to get miles. In my case even with the closing costs I got a better deal than I was finding with local lenders (it likley helped that I have an excellent credit rating). Had the deal not been better, getting the miles would not have been worth it.

Isn't it technically illegal to send a GFE from one lender to another? Or is this not something worth worrying about?

Thanks FT/Lending Tree
 

Long time lurker first time poster!
Program is still available and thanks to stumbling across this thread I was able to locate the buried info on the Delta partners website and take advantage of it. Rates were good, closing minimal but you do get a ton of solicitations. Once i found it contacted LT to confirm eligibility. The agent asked if I had closed (hadn't yet) and signed me up. Closed last week and was told 6-8 weeks pts will hit my account. We shall see...

Lending tree has alliances with many airlines, and many airlines have alliances with many lenders. I list (hopefully) them all on my website below in the Finance > Home Buying section.

I was told by lendingtree tonight that they ended all incentive programs through travel partners. I made an application via the continental website, which still has them listed as a partner. Did anyone else hear this?

Lending Tree Deals Over
 

I happened to be looking at this issue today and found that all the "links" to the airline deals now landed on a generic Lending Tree page. Further, LT used to have a "partners" link on its webpage, which now seems gone. There are some other deals out there from Chase, Wells Fargo, and a bunch of others. Good luck and please report back.

xlax

P.S. You can definitely start with Gary's site, www.freefrequentflyermiles.com, under "Finance"