This is such a throwback photo. 🙂
Back when we first started this blog, Ms.K wrote a post about the power of asking. (Can’t believe that is nearly 2 years ago!) As she said then, we always catch ourselves whenever we simply accept a status quo offer or situation at the first instance and we sometimes surprise ourselves at what one can get just by asking politely.
Our most recent reminder of this was when we started looking into refinancing our home loan as the lock-up period is ending soon. Naturally we contacted our existing lender but I made a “mistake” of submitting my contact info via the new customer refinancing page instead of existing customers. This ended up being a positive thing. I’ll explain later.
Next, I contacted a reputable mortgage broker to get a view of everything currently on offer for refinancings. In case you didn’t know, mortgage brokers are middle men who assist you with your home loans and work with almost all banks. Because they aren’t tied to a particular bank they are supposedly less biased. In any case, as I said before, it is a quick way for me to know what is available instead of having to do the legwork myself.
So I quickly heard back from the broker on what they thought was the best offer for me after considering my circumstances, and kept that as a mental file note.
A day or two later my existing lender called me and told me about the offers he had. It actually seemed pretty decent…UNTIL we started looking into the paperwork and then I realised this was an offer for new customers only. That’s pretty much where the discussion ended.
I contacted the correct department this time and I was surprised at the terms they offered existing customers!
I’m not talking about those few hundred dollar shopping vouchers, but the fact is the interest margin banks offer to new customers is WAY BETTER than what they give existing customers. Then there was the application fee which was higher too! Of course, I kind of knew there was a difference because they wanted to entice new signups, but this was getting ridiculous.
And I only found out the pricing for both (which wasn’t disclosed on the website), because I made that earlier mistake of submitting my info on the wrong page.
When I heard of the existing customer offer, I simply told the bank’s staff I knew what I could get from other banks (courtesy of the broker) and what new customers were getting. I then asked if the bank could better their offer to me.
Long story short, because it took quite a few emails, my existing lender was able to provide me with terms much improved over their original offer. Just asking and negotiating patiently resulted in me saving thousands, literally, over and above the savings from just taking the original refinancing offer.
Such is the power of asking!
(Having good information, such as the market research I did, also helps put you in a better negotiating position.)
If you have any similar stories, do share in the comment section below what’s the best thing you ever got just by asking .
