Follow up to my Servicemember Civil Relief Act (SCRA) post, and be careful who you choose.
September 26, 2025
by a searcher from George Mason University in Manassas, VA, USA
Hello!
I'm following up to my post on the SCRA law post. For those unfamiliar the SCRA is a law designed to minimize the impact of military service on borrowers. One benefit is the mandatory lowering of interest rates to 6% for the duration of service and for the following 12 months if the loan product is a mortgage or mortgage-like (secured with liens, etc).
One year ago today I closed on my SBA 7(a) acquisition with Community Bank and Trust of West Georgia (also Phoenix Lender Services). They were the first to accept the deal.
Since closing they have made a blunder of the deal. They under-estimated closing costs by $75k and told me 5 minutes before sitting down in front of the notary and asked me if I had $75k i could pay. On auto-pay they have not once (until last month) pulled the correct loan amount, from the correct account, on the correct day. They frequently do not answer emails, and their statements are often entirely incorrect. The amount owed will vary from $100 to the full amount. They have no way to view loan status or request statements except via email and they often dont response.
While on active duty I requested my SCRA rights. They stalled for 4 months with excuses from "we're researching it" to "i called a buddy, he said its only for when youre in combat" (yes, thats a verbatim quote). Eventually the implemented it partially for a couple months.
Since then they have made every excuse to deny further implementation. So we are headed to court most likely in the next month. They attempted to circumvent my attorney (and theirs) several times to get me to sign forms about the SCRA, their attorney has failed to show up for meetings, etc.
So long story short - Be careful who you chose to go with. They offered me the lowest amount of cash out of pocket (until the accidental $75k bill), but since then have been nothing but a headache.
from University of Washington in San Diego, CA, USA
from University of Virginia in Leesburg, VA, USA