30,000 American Airline Miles from Loan Depot

I missed out on an opportunity to earn free miles, shame on me. When we applied for a new loan on our house we just purchased, I was loyal to my bank. I have been working with my banker for over 2.5 years now when ever we looked to refinance or possibly purchase a new home. Everything was so rushed on the purchase of our new home, I did not have a lot of time to mess around shopping the loan. My relationship with my bank was more valuable to me in this instance, and I finally wanted to be able to have my banker earn a commission after all these years of working with us. Plus, the rates and fees were just as comparable to other banks.

However, I missed out on earning free miles. Most, if not all, of the airlines are teamed with various mortgage companies to allow you to earn free miles for closing on a loan. Typically, I have always seen it offered through Lending Tree.

On my Facebook page today, American Airlines posted a deal through Loan Depot. They are currently offering 3,500 miles just for applying for a loan, and an additional 26,500 after the loan is funded.

Seeing as I still would have been loyal to my bank in the end, I could have possibly at least scored the 3,500 free miles for applying for the loan. However, looking more closely at the terms, they will pull from all three credit bureaus for the application process.

In order to be eligible for the initial 3,500 mile offer, the loan applicant must speak with a live Mortgage Banker and complete an initial application (Initial application includes: First Name, Last Name, Contact Phone Number and Email, Current Home Address, Property Address, Current Loan Amount, Current Interest Rate, Loan Purpose, Property Type, Occupancy type, Employer Name, Position/Title/Type of Business, Years on Job, Monthly Income, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, a loanDepot pulled 3-Bureau Credit Report, and Advantage Number).

It looks like a typical pre-approval. If it had been a pre-qualification, where they did not actually pull your credit, that would have been another story. For now I am happy with my decision, and will hold off on having another hard pull on each of our files.