Baxter Credit Union - BCU Mortgage Review

Baxter Credit Union (BCU) is headquartered in Vernon Hills, Illinois and is one of the nation’s top credit unions. Our BCU mortgage review of their company and website are below.

BCU Mortgage Review

Baxter Credit Union has come on strong in the mortgage origination game. For example, in 2008 they only did about $260 million in mortgage applications but in 2010 they are up to almost a billion! And this is the same time period when other mortgage companies are dying. These numbers came from National Credit Union Administration data which also has refinancing double that of purchase loans and all of these loans were conventional (no FHA or VA).

Their website has pretty much everything you need when you are looking for a mortgage. They have rates posted but not for their mortgages. You have to go into their mortgage center where you apply online and there you can request a rate quote.

All mortgage companies, banks, and credit unions are going to have a website. It depends on how functional it is and how much they pay attention to it.

Note: Read Our Top Five Mortgage Complaints!

Most mortgage websites have rates posted but read the fine print. It depends on your loan amount, credit score, etc. And also look for the date the mortgage rates were posted. Sometimes a company does not update their rates so you end up looking at information days or weeks old.

You may be taken to another site to input your online application but that is pretty normal. Many of these lenders use third party websites to take in the application.

You can usually find recent news on their websites including things like special programs or events.

BCU Mortgage Review - Website

The BCU website is a professional looking site which loads quickly and has all the bells and whistles you’d expect for a credit union site. Like many credit union sites when you drill into the mortgage content you find it resides on a subdomain called homecenter.bcu.org. Once there, you can apply online, get a rate quote, or use their mortgage calculators.

The main site and the “home center” site are both pretty light on content and they are missing their phone number in an obvious place (like the upper right corner) on every page…which is one of our pet peeves.

Lastly, it doesn’t look like you can see any of their mortgage rate information until after you apply or contact a loan officer.

For these reasons BCU.org and homecenter.bcu.org get 3 out of 5 stars.

BCU Website and Phone Contacts

Website:
www.bcu.org

Phone:
(847) 932-8600

Address: BCU P.O. Box 8133 Vernon Hills, IL 60061

Complaints and Ratings

The BBB rates them an A+ and says the company has had “33 complaints closed with BBB in last 3 years | 10 closed in last 12 months”. Keep in mind the banks and credit unions have a rating and number of complaints for the company as a whole not just the mortgage department.

Good Luck!

Note: Compare Mortgage Rates of local lenders now!

Author: The Mortgage Insider