Wells Fargo is the biggest mortgage servicer in the United States and you don't have a choice over who services your mortgage- mine was sold to Wells Fargo without my say. I could refinance but that comes with significant fees (>$1,000), I'd lose my amazing interest rate, and there is no guarantee it won't end up back in Wells Fargo's hands again.
Not all banks re-service mortgages. BB&T is known to keep servicing mortgages that they originate.[1]
Disclaimer: I have a mortgage through Wells Fargo (that was almost immediately re-serviced!), but I work for [redacted].
I don't disagree for a second there are some banks and credit unions that intend to service their mortgages but you don't know that will always be so. That's their policy now but it can change in the future and you have no control over it. Banks and credit unions are being bought and sold all the time.
The bank that held my parents mortgage was acquired no less than four times between 1996-2012. In 2007 I got a credit card from my local credit union - right now it's being transitioned into a Bank of America credit card. The credit union still exists though, they sold their credit card division to another company which then was acquired by BoA. Funny thing is a several years after they sold their credit cards they decided to offer them again and create new ones.
First Tech bought out the HP Credit Union (Addison Avenue) and others so in some sense, it has acted as [mega credit union].
Beyond that, this question is an imponderable for me because who can say what the future brings vs. the present. I guess one can refinance with some other credit union were this to happen in the future in a manner that was not desirable for one's mortgage.
I dropped them around 2012 when every encounter with a teller turned into an upsell session. I now use credit unions (First Tech, for example) for banking. Also moved the mortgage over to the credit union since they promise to service it for the life of the loan.
For day to day financial services maybe. But for fixed APR mortgages? They are still very competitive, and if you are a member of certain groups, like veterans, even better.
