Rates increased higher for existing customer

I’ve a loan with a lender for about 800k. Owner occupied. Variable. I only got it about 6 months ago.

Recently, the lender increase the variable rate by 0.05% on its website. At about the same time, it also sent me a letter saying my rates have been increased by 0.2%.

Of course I’m gonna have a chat with them. But before I do so, I was hoping if people can share their experiences around negotiating with their lenders.

What are my chances and what can I realistically ask for?

 

Rate creep.

Happens often as they go up for existing clients and then down for new clients.

 

Thanks. Yup I know what just happened.

I suppose my question is as per my original post. What can someone do and what are the chances. Would be keen to hear experiences instead.

 

Are you in a position to refinance? If so, get an idea of what rate you could get elsewhere and then ring up and negotiate with them. I did this once by just ringing up and asking for the loan discharge forms - they then asked why (cause I can get a lower rate x.xxx from xxxx). They then had their retention team chasing me offering a better rate - all for a 10 minute phone call (and a little rate research).

Regards,

Jason

 

Thanks for sharing your experience Jason.

Yes, I’m in a position to refinance and have increased income since (I just got this 6 months ago though, so not sure if that’ll be against me).

 

Better check for sure as most people that have been knocked back for refinancing on this forum have also had an increase in income as well

 

What are the risks here and what are the reasons for people getting knocked back for refi?

Am I wrong to assume that if I get knocked by a lender I want to refi to then I’ll just stick to my current one or maybe try another lender?

 

Quick win is to call up mortgage retention and say you're unhappy with the extra basis points slugged to existing customers. They'll refund your annual fee or give some other token gesture as compensation.

 

If you don't have any luck with this you can also 'submit' a discharge form. Every now and again we do this for clients where we don't get a good result through the normal channels. The retention team always seems to find a bigger discount when a discharge is imminent.

 

Unfortunately thats the only way to negotiate better anything in australia, gotta find a competitor and then 'price match'. Otherwise existing customers always get milked for more profits...