Possibility of haggling over existing tracker rate?

Johnny321

I'm currently on a + .49% tracker with HSBC, without any leaving/early repayment charges. I've recently noticed that there are currently Building Socs offering trackers with spreads as tight as + .04% and + .08%, whose initial fees would be recouped by the interest savings in under a year if I were to switch.

Given that HSBC presumably values my custom (and, I hope, see me as a low credit risk), how would you rate my chances of giving them a call and convincing them to drop my rate, on threat of remortgaging? Anyone who has tried something similar before, whether succesful or not, I would love to hear how it went!

Johnny

MarkyMarkD

Johnny

There's no chance of them renegotiating your rate. With any lender, you can choose a product which they offer to everyone or you can leave. They aren't going to design and implement a one-off rate (which means setting up a whole new product on their systems) just for you.

I suspect that your BBR+0.49% is a lifetime tracker; those with BBR+0.04% or BBR+0.08% are short-term trackers and it's not fair to compare them.

Johnny321

Mark,

nope, those are lifetime trackers too. See one here for Leek BS: http://www.leekunited.co.uk/mortgages/tracker/tracker.shtml

It even accepts 90% LTV, a very reasonable offering.

They need not design a new product, in their systems it is as simple as clicking the box and changing the rate. Maybe for old fashioned systems it is harder, like the ones who come out with issue #2390 of their mortgage, but I have noticed HSBC vary the rate they are offering fairly often. In fact the current offering is BBR + 0.44% so I can at least aim for that. 'Retention' sections of business tend to have special powers, particularly when you threaten to leave!

Johnny321

for anyone who is interested,

I phoned up and they offered me two options:
for free, they will drop my spread to 0.44%, the current offer
for paying the arrangement fee again (£499), they would drop my spread to 0.34%, which is lower than anything on their web site.

I didn't really fancy paying so I asked if I could possibly do any better for free. They said no (probably no comission for their dept!) but eventually offered me the BBR + 0.34% offer for a cut price of £299. I haven't decided which to take yet, but they are sending both offers in the post. Of course I could also actually go through with my threat of remortgaging, but that is somewhat more hassle!

MarkyMarkD

Well done, then. I didn't expect you to get that far!