When it comes to money, it never hurts to ask for what you want.
Case in point – the mortgage on my rental property comes up for renewal this spring. For the first time ever, my bank sent me my renewal instructions 6 months before the renewal date. Usually, I get my renewal letter 3 months before I have to sign on the dotted line. In any event, I was somewhat surprised by their eagerness.
Naively, I’d thought they would be more than happy to renew at my same rate. For the past five years, I’ve been paying 2.79% on my mortgage. It’s a sweet, sweet rate and I’ve loved it. The mortgage before had been at 2.99%, so I’d gotten very comfortable with a rate of less than 3% for a 5-year term.
I girded my loins. I straightened my crown. I softly repeated my mantra to myself – “It never hurts to ask.” And I made the first strike.
Round One
My first call to my bank resulted in the perfectly-pleasant customer service representative telling me that the best my bank could offer was 3% for 5 years. I gently reminded him that I’d been a good customer for over a decade and that I also had a significant portfolio with their investment arm. Mr. Perfectly-Pleasant appeared not to be moved. We courteously discussed my ability to take my mortgage elsewhere, a move I was secretly loathe to make. We also discussed the fact that the Bank of Canada would be making four more rate announcements before I had to renew my mortgage.
(Of course, this means very little since the 5-year mortgage rate is far more heavily influenced by the bond market than it is by the prime rate. The prime rate has far more impact on short-term and/or variable mortgage rates.)
At the end of the call, Mr. Perfectly-Pleasant had stuck to his guns. My bank wasn’t going to offer me a 5-year rate at less than 3%. I’d asked and the answer had been “No”… which I’d chosen to interpret as “Not just yet.”
I’d been knocked on my bum and was no closer to my goal of getting another 5-year mortgage interest rate of less than 3%. Luckily for me, this wasn’t my first time at the Mortgage Rodeo. I knew that this was simply part of the dance that always exists when one wants to borrow money without enriching the creditor too, too much.
It never hurts to ask… but there’s never any guarantee that you’ll get the answer you want.
Round one went to the Bank… but, much like the Terminator, I would be back.
Attempt No.2
The second call to the bank didn’t go too terribly differently except for one incredibly distasteful detail – my bank now wanted to charge me 3.05% for a 5-year rate. Wait one damn minute – 3.05% is even higher than 3%!
I nearly fainted from shock!
How on Earth could my bank even consider charging me a higher rate than the one they’d offered before? Did they not understand that I wanted a rate of less than 3% for another 5 years? Had I not been explicitly transparent by stating “I’d like to have another rate of less than 3% for the next 5 years”?
It had never occurred to me that my bank would try to raise my mortgage renewal rate a second time! Was this some strange ploy to scare me by planting the seed that the rate would keep going up before my actual renewal date?
If so, their plan had failed miserably. I knew I was a great customer with a spotless repayment history and excellent credit. Let’s not forget that both my bank and I were well-aware that many other banks would be happy to have me as a new customer… and that they’d be willing to offer me their Shiny-New-Customer rates.
Still, finding another bank to finance my mortgage wouldn’t be exactly free. I’d have to pay an appraisal fee. Someone would be running a credit check. There was also the fact that I’d had to meet the requirements of B20 Stress Test, which I could easily do. There might even be fees associated with moving my mortgage from one bank to another since my bank would do what it could to extract money from me in lieu of all that mortgage interest they would no longer be getting from me. All of these were little hassles that I really didn’t want to endure if I could avoid them.
My bank was simply doing what banks do: trying to fleece me like they try to fleece all their customers. It wasn’t personal – it was simply business.
Sticking to my Guns
I refused to be deterred from my goal of renewing my mortgage for less than 3%. Just because other people were renewing at higher than 3% rates was no reason for me to do the same. If they jumped off a bridge, was I going to jump too? I think not – my parents had raised me better than that!
Ignoring the also-pleasant customer service representative’s statement that I could get a 5-year fixed mortgage of 3.05%, I asked her if there was any way that the rate could be lowered. Like my wise aunty has often said, them’s that asks are them’s that gets.
Ms. Also-Pleasant did her employer proud. Once again, she repeated that my bank was willing to offer me a 5-year rate of 3.05%. She said that her computer told her that this was the bank’s best rate of the day. Much like her predecessor, Ms. Also-Pleasant told me that I was free to check back in the future. She even added a teaser by stating that the rates might go down in the spring since a lot of people would be buying houses.
The trouble was, I didn’t want to have the task of renewing my mortgage hanging over my head until the spring. I wanted to get this chore crossed off my list, but I wasn’t going to renew unless I got a rate of less than 3% for the next 5 years. Why couldn’t they just give me what I wanted?
I held my tongue and I kept my cool. If I’ve learned anything during my few, precious years on this little Blue Ball of ours, it is this: The person who talks to the public is never the person who has all of the power. There’s no sense yelling or cursing at those on the front lines because they can’t override the decisions made by those who are higher up on the chain. However, they do have the power to put in a good word on my behalf to the people who make the decisions. And this means that it never makes any sense to be rude, mean, or un-kind to the front-line soldiers. (Also, they’re human beings doing a job so you shouldn’t be rude, mean or un-kind to them in any event.)
Again, I ignored the offer of 3.05% and I again asked – politely! – if there was any way for that rate to be lowered. You see, Life has also taught me that it never hurts to ask for whatever it is that you want. If anything, asking for exactly what you want exponentially increases your odds of getting it.
Ms. Also-Pleasant’s response to my polite inquiry thrilled me to the core. She stated that she could forward my request to the Pricing Department and see what they could for me.
Success!!! I had no idea what the Pricing Department was, nor did I have any clue as to what it could do for me. All I knew at the end of the second call was that I didn’t have to start shopping the market for another mortgage nor had I yet reached the point of calling a mortgage broker.
Round Two is what I’d like to call a draw. I hadn’t gotten what I wanted, but I hadn’t landed on my bum either.
Victory!
Phone call number three can legitimately be categorized as a late Christmas present. When I got back to my office after the holidays, my bank had left me a voicemail. Returning their voicemail resulted in unbounded glee for the rest of my first day back in the office.
The mysterious folks of the previously-unknown Pricing Department had finally understood what I wanted… and they’d granted me my wish. Finally, my bank was offering me a rate that I could live with for 5 years = 2.84%. My new rate from the Pricing Department was even lower than the rate my bank was advertising to its own Shiny-New-Customers.
Woohoo! This was more than I’d been paying, but still less than my acceptable upper limit. As much I’m not a fan of banks, even my bank should be allowed to make a wee bit of money from me. I truly feel that I’ve been quite generous by allowing my bank to increase my mortgage rate by the equivalent of 0.01% for each of the next 5 years. I’d allowed my bank to save face by charging me a slightly higher rate. My bank can still hold its head up and participate when all the banks stars talking trash about customers on the playground.
At the end of the day, I’d gotten exactly what I’d wanted. And the cherry on this particular sundae was that my name would not be flagged as a Problem Customer because I’d been polite during all of my interactions with everyone.
So you see… it never hurts to ask for what you want.
Could I have gone back to the Pricing Department and asked for a lower rate? Sure.
Would I have gotten it? Maybe…or maybe not.
Do I feel foolish for not asking for more of a discount? Not in the slightest. My life isn’t about looking to save every single penny. I had a goal and I’ve met that goal. Now, it’s time for me to direct my attention and my energy towards satisfying other goals.
After all, I was one of them’s that asked and now I’m one of them’s that’s gots! ;-}
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Weekly Tip – If you’d like to have $1,378 by the end of the 2020, then I invite you to participate in the 52-Week Savings Challenge. You can complete the weeks in order or however you see fit. Just make sure to make every required contribution then enjoy/invest/donate/whatever-you-want-do-with your money on December 31, 2020.