Third Federal Savings Bank?

[TBH]

Third Federal Savings and Loan has the lowest rates on home equity loans according to Bankrate. Some research shows they're an Ohio bank and they're not Better Business Bureau rated.

Does anybody know this bank? Their home equity loans seem like good products (no early payoff fees, no origination fees, low rates) but I'm a bit nervous about using a bank I've never heard of.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Helena_Handbasket]

When I bought my first home in 2000, my mortgage was through Third Federal. I also had to open a checking account there, as the mortgage was taken from it automatically each month. My experiences with Third Federal were nothing but positive through the sale of my home & closing of the checking account in 2006 when I moved out of Ohio.

My parents, on the other hand, were not happy with their more recent experiences with Third Federal. They had checking and savings accounts there and had at least three instances where their transactions got intermixed with other customers' transactions, compromising their personal financial information. Third Federal was slow in fixing things, and after at least two rounds of closing and opening new accounts in a hope to resolve the issue, my parents closed all of their accounts at Third Federal permanently.

So, this gives you two very different data points. I encourage you to keep digging for information on Third Federal and to proceed with caution.

[TBH]

Yikes. Okay, that's enough to make me pay a bit higher interest rate, because I'm hoping to only have this loan for 6 months so it wouldn't be a big deal to pay slightly more in interest.