Are All Bank Staff This Dumb?

We have multiple IP loans with this bank, a serious loan portfolio and over 30 years good credit history.

One of our loans is for $700,000, IO at 4% and we have $350,000 in its Offset (personal cash).

We are contemplating buying another IP for roughly $350,000 including buying expenses.

We went to this bank and ask them to send us their proposal for a new loan for $350,000, IO, with Offset, best rate, etc, given our long and good relationship.

They came back with a rate of 5.22%.

We told the bank we could take out this loan, move the $350,000 from the existing Offset into the new one and effectively buy the new IP at 4%.

We then said we were expecting a rate near/closer to 4% and asked them to sharpen their pencil.

Do all bank staff treat their (good and loyal) customers as dumb OR are they the dumb ones?

 

Was normal recently. However sounds a little high as of today. The banks have been competitive with the IO rates (tho P&I is even better)

4% IO - is really good!

 

Being good is expected. Being loyal carries no weight whatsoever. New customers are actually given greater incentives to come over than existing customers.

 

Yes they usually have better rates for new customer!! I am in the same situation last time. The front line customer service who pick up the phone won’t be able to do anything nor got any authority to lower the rates. I pretend to be angry and demand to speak with the Bank retention team. I told them that if they don’t give me a better rates, I will take my business elsewhere.

In 5 minutes they lower the rates ....

 

Tip - Show off some money in your bank accounts to the staff members. And show some interest in getting a new credit card/personal loan/insurance etc. You may experience a different level of customer service.
Unfortunate reality of big corporations - targets/KPIs/bonus is what drives CX.

 

I find banks and insurance companies treat loyal customers like a cheating husband treats his wife. Showers the mistress aka new customers with all the fantastic gifts and incentives while the loyal wife aka loyal customer receives nothing. Very crude way of putting it but have had several collegues who recently changed their gas, energy, bank, insurance and etc. Funny how they come up with a better deal once you are adamant that you're going.

 

Talk to the retentions team.

 

I love this team.

 

It's not dumb, it's good business from the Bank's point of view. They treat their customers like they are dumb and lazy and many of them area. I was talking to a mate at work about her investment loans and asked what interest rate she was on. She looked it up and it was nearly 5.5% and asked if that was good. I told her "no", it should have been under 4% at that state. She called the bank manager, who immediately dropped her rate to under 4%. Lazy tax.

So, mostly people will accept what the bank gives them. For the rest of us, the retentions team are allowed to offer better deals.

 

Might be time to become a new customer for another bank. I have already moved two loans over to other banks; so this one would make No 3.

A great way to them to do business .

When I was in business, I always taught my staff that it was cheaper to keep an existing customer than go chasing new ones. When will the banks learn this.

 

I thought that too.

 

I will see whether they will sharpen their pencil first. If not, that will be my next action item. Thanks for the heads-up. Never heard of the retention team before .

 

Maybe one bank might be getting the message:

Suncorp CEO Michael Cameron says keeping Suncorp’s 9 million customers happy is a key plank of his strategy.​

The insurer has a customer retention rate of about 80%, meaning it loses about 1 million customers a year to rivals. Retaining clients within the Suncorp family is a priority.

“At the end of the day… we shouldn’t need more customers to be successful,” Mr Cameron told a business briefing in Sydney last week.​

“What we need to do is keep our existing customers happy, and that is not a new concept.”​

Suncorp chief puts focus on customer retention - Local - Insurance News - insuranceNEWS.com.au

 

I moved from a credit union to one of the big four and wished I had done it earlier. I am yet to regret moving and yet it took me years to build up the courage. I did check there were better options with the bank first though. The service is second to none compared to the credit union who I was loyal due to it being a community run organisation originally. In the end they lost my loyalty due to endless fees and poor service.

 

Bank staff dont usually care if youre a loyal customer or not. Once had all my loans with St George at 5+% rates, met a broker, and ended up splitting each off to other banks for at least a 0.05% lower rate and extra money in the offset. Had a meeting with my local STG lending manager who booked in all these loans early on to see what could do and the answer was nothing. She did also mention she was gonna churn off to another bank so her commitment to servicing customers might already be questionable at that time.

 

I had not heard of them until I filed a discharge authority to close a loan I had with AMP. I got a call from the retentions team asking what my new interest rate would be. I told them and they beat that rate, so I stayed with them. I didn't want to close that loan anyway.

 

Before you request to speak with the retention team, you need to check what’s on offer from other lenders. If they ask where are you taking the business, at least you have some ammunition!!!