Third Federal Savings and Loan Mortgage Review

Absolutely Horrendous! Looking to refi or pay off ASAP.

From start to finish this has been the absolute worst financial lender I've ever had to deal with. Terrible customer service at all levels, from application to simple day to day correspondence, and a web interface that is just flat out wrong and inaccurate. I rarely hate a lender so much, but these guys just blow it out of the water spectacularly. At the start of the 2026 calendar year, my partner and I began the process of opening a HELOC with Third Federal S&L. The introduction was fine, and they came recommended to us, but we were not existing customers and did not have familiarity with them. Still, their product seemed like it was what we were looking for. Once we started the application and began interviewing contractors for the renovation we were going to do (funded through this HELOC), correspondence from TF S&L during the application just... stopped. Tried calling, tried emailing... literally ghosted by Daniel Schartman, with whom we'd been working. We finally got moving again with the application (the bank was missing information from us but we had no way of knowing) after another associate fast tracked our application. Since then, we didn't immediately start using the line of credit for a few months. The statements were coming just fine, but showed a zero balance save for the annual fee which was paid on time. I didn't think much of it until we really began purchasing materials for our project. At that point, I should have been far more diligent with how I used the product. Their debit card offering apparently can't function like a normal debit it card, because most of the line items in the online transaction history simply show "Unapplied Disbursement" for charges or "Principal Receipt" for returns. Most charges are missing from the transaction history. The opening balance shows over $20,000 even though we didn't consolidate any debt and that amount would have been literally impossible to achieve without paying something off at the opening of the account. Checks stopped being clickable to see details on them and within the first year I already had to request copies of them from customer service. As far as statements go, the ending balance & starting balances on numerous statements don't align. We still need this line of credit to finish our project, but I absolutely hate this lender. I have an immense regret that I'm stuck doing business with them. I've opened tickets on their web portal and they close them saying it's a SITE WIDE ISSUE with NO TIMELINE to fix it. They have zero interest in being helpful, nor I suspect the capacity to fix their mistakes either. It's so bad I'm filing complaints with the CFPB and any other entity that I can to get eyes on their ginormous mismanagement of money. I cannot wait to pay this off and never deal with them ever, ever, ever again.

Ashley H. · San Diego, CA

Worst customer service ever

I was a long time customer for over twenty years, They have the worst customer service of any banking institution.I have ever dealt with. They will never help you resolve any issues. I would certainly never recommend them to anyone.

Robert I. · MD

Easy...No Pressure!

I really shopped around for a HELOC going to 5 banks and my credit union. Then I got mail about Third Federal's rate. I thought this had to be too good to be true. So I drove 1/2 hour to the nearest Third Federal to find that it was totally on the up and up. That certainly made my decision for me. They were 1/2 point lower than even my credit union. Most banks laughed when I said I was looking for prime or lower. I was told, "that doesn't exist anymore!" My wife and I went in, signed the stack of papers on Tuesday and had confirmation Monday that it was good to go. How much easier can it get. With no pressure, I also opened a savings account (my idea) so give me that option on transferring money between banks.

Bradenton T. · Bradenton, Florida