How much you could save by asking your existing lender for a better rate!

[Brendan Burgess]

I have looked at the banks' submissions to the Oireachtas Finance Committee and have estimated the following numbers who could benefit from asking their existing lender for a better rate

It's quite astonishing. I have campaigned a lot to bring down rates and now that the banks have responded, most customers couldn't be bothered picking up the phone and moving to a lower rate.

Brendan

 

[RedOnion]

Hi Brendan,

Agreed. The banks have done enough to take political pressure off on this topic, but it's up to customers now to make the phonecalls and get the reductions that are available.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

I have worked out how much this inertia is costing a customer with a €200k mortgage

Not all customers will make these savings, but all 220,000 customers will make some savings and probably half of them could save amounts in excess of €2,000 a year.

The biggest savings are with Ulster Bank because they have one of the highest SVRs and the lowest rate of all the lenders to which the existing customers can switch.

 

[geri]

I have just done this with KBC. Got the house valued and we have dropped down the LTV ratio. We are saving 144 euro per month from this month. It was very easy.

 

[Bronte]

It's quite astonishing. I have campaigned a lot to bring down rates and now that the banks have responded, most customers couldn't be bothered picking up the phone and moving to a lower rate.

It just takes a phone call to get a lower rate or is there more to it than that?

 

[Bronte]

I have just done this with KBC. Got the house valued and we have dropped down the LTV ratio. We are saving 144 euro per month from this month. It was very easy.

Can you explain the entire process.

 

[RedOnion]

It just takes a phone call to get a lower rate or is there more to it than that?

In some cases you need to get a valuation, but that's the extent of it.
PTSB charge a fee of 100 for fixing.

Edit: the lowest rate for KBC includes discount for switching your current account to them.

 

[geri]

Can you explain the entire process.

KBC sent some marketing material which included rate change if you had a lower LTV than at the start of the mortgage. I called them and they told me to get a valuation on the house from one of their approved estate agents. There's a list on their website. The estate agent came and did his valuation. A week later we got a call from him to give us the update. Our LTV had dropped below 50%. I called the bank for a quote and we were able to go from 4.25% variable to 3% fixed for three years. There's a simple form to complete which can be downloaded from their site. You select your new rate from this. Fill this in, attach the valuation and post to KBC . There was even a prepaid envelope in the original letter from them. A week or two later someone from the bank called me to confirm I wanted to proceed. I said yes and yesterday the reduced mortgage came out of my account.
Edited to say the only cost was the valuation which was I think €130

 

[dereko1969]

I have looked at the banks' submissions to the Oireachtas Finance Committee and have estimated the following numbers who could benefit from asking their existing lender for a better rate

View attachment 2952
It's quite astonishing. I have campaigned a lot to bring down rates and now that the banks have responded, most customers couldn't be bothered picking up the phone and moving to a lower rate.

Brendan

My experience with AIB would lead me to think that your figures for them might be overstating the number able to switch to a lower rate. Anyone who has previously had any LTV rate cannot switch to a lower LTV rate, we, after calling AIB, got a valuation that should have allowed us switch to a <50% rate but were told because we'd previously had <90% rate couldn't switch ever!

 

[Bronte]

My experience with AIB would lead me to think that your figures for them might be overstating the number able to switch to a lower rate. Anyone who has previously had any LTV rate cannot switch to a lower LTV rate, we, after calling AIB, got a valuation that should have allowed us switch to a <50% rate but were told because we'd previously had <90% rate couldn't switch ever!

Is that in your terms and conditions? Could you switch banks?

 

[mugsymugsy]

I know I posted mine a while ago but thanks to the info on here we saved over a 100 euro per month by moving rates with the same bank and locking in a rate that suits us for 10 years.

People fight tooth and nail to save money here and there when this is something that with a little bit of work could save them a significant amount.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

My experience with AIB would lead me to think that your figures for them might be overstating the number able to switch to a lower rate.

Hi Derek

Very hard to guesstimate the figure.

This is how I went about it.
They gave the following information to the Oireachtas Finance Committee

So their non-tracker variable book is €17 billion (€20 bn x 57/67)

So that is around 100,000 mortgages between SVR and LTV.

I would estimate that most are on the SVR by default. Very few switched out of it.

Most of the EBS LTV customers could benefit from moving to their new 3% rate.

So to be conservative, I guesstimated 50,000.

But I could be way out.

Brendan

 

[Brendan Burgess]

after calling AIB, got a valuation that should have allowed us switch to a <50% rate but were told because we'd previously had <90% rate couldn't switch ever!

Hi Derek

How recent was that? That is their official policy. You should really harass them on this. Tell them you are switching to Bank of Ireland. Get your solicitor to ask for the deeds. It might work.

Brendan

 

[deltrotter]

Thanks to the kind people of this website I was able to fix twice in 12 months to a lower rate with my lender and save money.

 

[dereko1969]

We're now in the process of selling so I didn't pursue it, but it was late last year. We'll probably get the new mortgage from BoI and fix for a few years.

 

[Bronte]

Hi Derek

How recent was that? That is their official policy. You should really harass them on this. Tell them you are switching to Bank of Ireland. Get your solicitor to ask for the deeds. It might work.

Brendan

This is good advice as merely lifting the telephone to bank of Ireland asking what the break out costs are got a poster offered lower rates on another thread. If they ask you why you’ve called tell them you’re on the process if switching to EBS. If that during work ask your solicitor to request the deeds. You might then get a phone call from them.

 

[TheManWho]

Most customers couldn't be bothered picking up the phone and moving to a lower rate.

If an EBS customer is on variable of 3.7% a phone call is not going to get them to 3% is it?

EBS 3% variable rate is only for new business, so an existing customer is not going to get that.

EBS 3% fixed rate, the customer on a variable will need to switch to fixed. Can this be done with a phone call? Surely some paperwork involved here?

 

[Bronte]

You have an example on here if a customer getting a better rate via a phone call. It’s also not the first time on AAM we’ve seen evidence of this.

You will normally have to sign a rate change document. It’s very simple unless things have changed.

 

[TheManWho]

You have an example on here if a customer getting a better rate via a phone call. It’s also not the first time on AAM we’ve seen evidence of this.

You will normally have to sign a rate change document. It’s very simple unless things have changed.

Thanks. Good to know it's simple to change from variable to fixed.

My post mentioned 3% variable rate for EBS new business, but this is incorrect. New business variable is also 3.7% (LTV > 80%)

The only option for EBS customers who want to stay with EBS and get a better rate is to fix then? Or has there been cases of EBS offering better variable rates than advertised when people ring up?

 

[Bronte]

Metrics around what age are you and how long have you had a mortgage, of you don't mind my asking.

I have no clue about rates, but this is easy to find out plus I believe BB has a thread on the current best rates.