Washington Mutual - Miles for Mortgages?
 

Does anyone know if Washington Mutual gives miles for home equity lines of credit?

Thanks

edited for stupidity http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Ken in Phx (edited Jan 15, 2004).]

You'll may be able to get HH points for Washington Mutual mortgage/refi/home equity:

Home Equity Loan Earn 3,250 points for each $10,000

More here:
http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/po ints/points.jhtml#awards_for_mortgage_and_real_estate?( chase,_citimortgage,_wachovia,_washington_mutual)

Edited to add direct web site for appl:
http://www.awardsformortgageandrealestate.com/hhonors/

[This message has been edited by palex (edited Jan 14, 2004).]

Washington Mutual offers United Miles for Home Equity Loans, 1,300 miles for every 10K.

http://www.awardsformortgageandrealestate.com/united/

United will also give it's Premier Members up to an additional 5K in points, see:

http://www.awardsformortgageandreale...nited/ept2.htm

Forgot to mention, WaMu of course offers miles for a variety of other Home Loan products such as straight up finances and re-fi products, and even Van moving service.

http://www.awardsformortgageandrealestate.com/united/

Also:

Alaska Airlines http://www.awardsformortgageandrealestate.com/alaska/

Continental Airlines http://www.awardsformortgageandreale...m/continental/

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles

when the whole Bank of America thang went down last year, I asked the marketing manager point blank when on the phone with him about these mortgage and miles-related subjects.

First, I was trying to deal with how he should handle the missing miles that many people were complaining about when the bank changed it s rules over night, and all the ones they stopped awarding without clearly telling people that no more money orders would be allowed... He gave me back (and many others) these owed missing miles for the months indicated and then they updated their web site saying the MO's would not be honored for mileage earnings using the debit visa at the usps. (this all took a while to get done, as some may recall)

Anyway, I asked him why banks like his just dont allow people to earn miles for paying mortgages?? I mean, hey, you want your customers to have loyalty to you for the next 30 years?? Just give them miles for something they already do and assess a nominal fee that they would be ok with paying! Be a transaction bank! Everybody wins...The airline, (if around that long,) also would stand to lock in a customer who now earns miles with them and thus sticks with their plan. I suggested that if someone wanted to be able to earn miles by paying their mortgage thru bank X, the bank could ask them to check a box on any of each monthly payment to be assessed say, $1-2 per $1,000 spent.

So if your monthly payment was $700 then maybe you pay 75cents more a month or something, just to get 700 miles. It could all on for the length of your loan! You would chose that bank if they offered this, and you would not mind paying a fee that is simple money for the banks, because all they have to do is give you miles. No paper!

HE said they are working on something like that. That was last spring. Still waiting. Will bug him again some day...

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gifMM

what do you know about these folks? Are they nationwide? I wonder if they markup their rates and fees to compensate/offset the mileage costs.

h

[This message has been edited by AllanJ (edited Jan 15, 2004).]

Based on hearsay and Tom Martino's "troubleshooter" radio show, Washington Mutual is one of the worst companies to do business with.

Common complaints have included getting late charges because "they did not receive your payment" on time.

Travel tips:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/travel.htm

Also Tom Martino, on one show lambasted a certain vacuum cleaner "as the worst", describing how he had one and it broke very shortly after he bought it and the company refused to fix it or return his money. Then at the next commercial break, "Hi, I'm xxxxx xxxxxx. The eight pound xxxxx vacuum ..." advertising the vacuum Tom just lambasted. For the next week I listened through every commercial break on his show (unusual for me) to see when and if the company continued to advertise there. That company's ad's mentioned that hotels use the vacuums but airlines were not mentioned.



[This message has been edited by AllanJ (edited Jan 15, 2004).]

All four lenders are nationwide companies with good track records. All four are considered large mortgage companies, with Washington Mutual being the largest of the four.

I would recommend Washington Mutual based on my experiance with them.

Regarding AllanJ's comments about bad history with Washington Mutual, I checked out the "troubleshooter" show's website and noticed virtually every company on earth had at one point or another made it onto that list. Remember, as always folks who have problems scream louder than those who have good experiances.

well, I agree they are all solid nationwide lenders, but it appears that like Countrywide and E-Loan, the rates and fees they would offer with all these miles would be substantially marked-up to compensate (and probably profit from) the cost of the miles they are buying from the airlines and Hilton.

Caveat Emptor!

Per the terms and conditions statement on the www.awardsformortgageandrealestate.com site, Washington Mutual Home Loans does not offer miles or points at this time for home equity loans....they only offer this on first lien mortgages (loans for home purchases or refinancing). Chase offers this on stand alone seconds, and Wachovia and CitiMortgage offer miles/points on second mortgages when closed in combination with a first mortgage.

In regards to the prior question on Countrywide marking up their rates for loan miles/points, I used to work there and we didnt price up for the miles/points. The cost of the miles/points came out of the regular retail pricing which is I am sure how the other large national lenders do this as well. While at Countrywide, we tried to get the application to only go through the call center or web site. As a result, no street loan officer commission was paid and thus this savings went to pay for the miles/points. The loans also didnt go through all of the brick/mortor expense of a branch office which also allowed for the savings to pay for the miles/points. Countrywide no longer offers airline miles.

Apparently you can still get Hilton HHonors points for loans from Countrywide, which are convertible to miles. See http://www.hilton.com/en/hhonors/poi...ide_home_loans


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Free Frequent Flyer Miles

Yes, however Countrywide offers about 23% less points than the other lenders in the Hilton HHonors program and dont you lose a large value of hotel points if you try to convert them into airline miles?