Has KBC dropped the rates for any existing customers who have threatened to switch?

[gnf_ireland]

Back in Q1, I made a decision to move from BOI to KBC, as BOI would not offer me a 3.9% rate that they were offering new customers. I signed up to KBC at 3.55%, with the full story available in a case study on this forum.

During this process, BOI did eventually offer me the 3.9% rate, after requesting it a number of times and threatening to switch etc. A number of posters on this forum confirmed that BOI done the same based on solicitor requests for bank deeds etc

For customers who have switched to KBC in the last 12-18 months, who are on LTV<80%, have any of you threatened to switch away from KBC, and has KBC offered the new customer rate in order to keep your business ?

I am particularly interested in customers who would be in a position to avail of the 3.35% rate from Ulster Bank (LTV<80% + mortgage > 250k), since they will cover the cost of moving, and AIB/EBS does not !

 

[gnf_ireland]

For my part, I contacted the person who I arranged the mortgage through at the hub and informed me of the following

With the nature of variable mortgage rates, any changes which are made to the rates, would normally come into effect for all variable rate customers. This time however, KBC have altered variable rates which are applicable to new business mortgages only. This was a business decision which was made by KBC in order to attract new mortgage business at this time.

My apologies that there is not more that we can do for you at this stage, I have also raised your query with my manager, who has advised that it is not currently within KBC’s credit policy to reduce existing mortgage rates in line with the recent new business variable rate mortgage decreases.

I have not taken this further yet, as I am just a bit busy at the moment. However, my next step is to discuss my situation with Ulster Bank and assess what my options are, if any.

 

[Generic Name]

Hi gnf,

I'm with KBC <80% LTV and have recently requested their new business rate, initially by writing directly to KBC and subsequently via the broker that organized my mortgage with KBC. No luck on either occasion. When requesting the new rate via the broker, I informed them that I'd been approved by another bank and that they were asking me to instruct my solicitor to request the deeds from KBC, all to no avail. Around this time the Ulster Bank 3.35% offer was announced which I've since applied for.