I hate bankers

[Fidatelo]

About a year ago I talked to my current banker about the costs of early-renewal of my mortgage in order to lock in these low interest rates for another 7 years. The guy was super douchy and sketchy and responded with 3 different numbers (I think I bitched about it here somewhere) and I ended up dropping the issue, but internally resolving to move to a different bank when I had the time.

Well, today I had some time so I stopped by the Credit Union by my house to essentially offer them up my business. I'm prepared to move everything. I sat down with some woman for an hour asking all kinds of questions, and she was very friendly, but again I came away not knowing one important thing: how much money could I save by breaking my current mortgage? She explained all the fees to me (ok that's good, costs are determined), but told me just to go online to their mortgage calculator and play with various rates and options.

How is this advice? What the hell are these people paid for? I went to the damned site and can't figure out how to use the calculator for what I want (nor could I work about 18 other mortgage calculators out there... it's all great if you just want an amortization schedule on a basic mortgage, but god forbid you've got a pre-existing bi-weekly accelerated mortgage in which you've made some double-up payments throughout the years...).

This just frustrates me to no end. All I want is someone to sit down with me and say "hey lets work this out... if you do scenario A you'll save X dollars, but if you do B you'll save Y dollars, and unfortunately C would actually cost you Z dollars, so we can rule that one out...". This doesn't seem difficult to me considering THIS IS WHY THESE PEOPLE EXIST!

So angry!!

[DaddyTorgo]

Better story - i went in to the bank on Saturday to talk about a car loan (since i'm part owner of this business and don't draw a paycheck-paycheck but am instead just paid a monthly draw, i figured that might complicate things). I just went in there wanting to know what srt of documentation/letters/etc. they wanted to demonstrate my income.

First the lady sees i'm carrying like 20k in my bank account and is all over me about becoming a preferred customer, and do i want to talk to one of their FA's. Then she has no packets of info or anything on car loans so she goes to look online. She looks on the publicly available internet site and comes away with nothing more than a phone number. i call the phone number and wade through the voice prompts (including several calls pressing all sorts of buttons to try to get a human being), only to finally be told to check the website.

Really? I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF YOU WANT A LETTER ON CORPORATE LETTERHEAD OR SOMETHING DETAILING WHAT MY FUCKING GROSS INCOME IS!!!

[Mustang]

I WANT TO SCREAM SO I'M ANGRY TOO!!!

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Mustang

I WANT TO SCREAM SO I'M ANGRY TOO!!!

do they have banks is Wisconsin? I thought you all just kept your money locked up lockboxes and watched over them with shotguns still.

that is when you're not bartering with cheese and sausage for debts you owe.

[BishopMVP]

When I went off to college I switched from local bank Cambridge Trust to BoA/Fleet Bank because CTC doesn't have ATM's west of Concord. This was over a year after the Patriot Act and 3 months before the provision you had to show ID to open an account went into effect - and of course they never pointed it out to me. So January 1st I had no money and no account and it took me a dozen phone calls to find out what happened to my money and get it sent back to me in a check, which took about a month to arrive. So I said screw 'em and moved back to CTC. They know me by name, they know my family, and more than once they've waived overdraft fees if I just ask them. So IMO, national banks suck, find a local one (that wants/needs your business) you trust and use them.

[Mustang]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

that is when you're not bartering with cheese and sausage for debts you owe.

Hey, who doesn't like cheese and sausage?

[DaddyTorgo]

hehehe

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

When I went off to college I switched from local bank Cambridge Trust to BoA/Fleet Bank because CTC doesn't have ATM's west of Concord. This was over a year after the Patriot Act and 3 months before the provision you had to show ID to open an account went into effect - and of course they never pointed it out to me. So January 1st I had no money and no account and it took me a dozen phone calls to find out what happened to my money and get it sent back to me in a check, which took about a month to arrive. So I said screw 'em and moved back to CTC. They know me by name, they know my family, and more than once they've waived overdraft fees if I just ask them. So IMO, national banks suck, find a local one (that wants/needs your business) you trust and use them.

We do not have local banks in Canada, all banks are national. The only local option we have are Credit Unions, which is why I was looking into it.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

We do not have local banks in Canada, all banks are national. The only local option we have are Credit Unions, which is why I was looking into it.

I <3 Natcan.

[Cringer]

Damn you Mr. Potter.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

We do not have local banks in Canada, all banks are national. The only local option we have are Credit Unions, which is why I was looking into it.

Ewww. Nationalization FTL.

Originally Posted by Mustang

Hey, who doesn't like cheese and sausage?

I was in a car with my friend today, see a truck drive past and go "Quick, let's rob that truck!" He goes "What, is it Brinks?" My response "No, better - Boar's Head."

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

I was in a car with my friend today, see a truck drive past and go "Quick, let's rob that truck!" He goes "What, is it Brinks?" My response "No, better - Boar's Head."

Given the price on Boar's Head products, you might have actually made more money selling the goods than you could have gotten out of the truck.

[lungs]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

do they have banks is Wisconsin? I thought you all just kept your money locked up lockboxes and watched over them with shotguns still.

that is when you're not bartering with cheese and sausage for debts you owe.

Them's fightin' words.

And for the record, I bury my money in the back 40.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

national banks suck

Word.

[sooner333]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

So IMO, national banks suck, find a local one (that wants/needs your business) you trust and use them.

This. My local bank even has a checking account with no fees on other banks' ATM machines. Furthermore, they reimburse me the ATM fee from the other bank. No reason to go to a national bank again.

[Big T]

As a mortgage broker, I might recommend........... a mortgage broker.

Unfortunately employees at a bank are knowledgeable in bits of everything, but experts at nothing. So for a loans officer to discuss a mortgage, he/she doesn't have enough knowledge to discuss in detail the pro's and con's of doing a new mortgage. As well, like any employee in a Bank or Credit Union, there is absolutely very little incentive for them to help acquire new business, they are salaried and will get paid whether you switch your mortgage over or not... a broker only gets paid if they arrange a new mortgage, and in most cases there is no cost to the client for service...

Call a mortgage broker and they can figure it all for you.

[Fidatelo]

I may go the mortgage broker route, that's not a bad idea. This is totally unfounded, and I mean no offense, but for some reason I have always shied away from them.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

This just frustrates me to no end. All I want is someone to sit down with me and say "hey lets work this out... if you do scenario A you'll save X dollars, but if you do B you'll save Y dollars, and unfortunately C would actually cost you Z dollars, so we can rule that one out...". This doesn't seem difficult to me considering THIS IS WHY THESE PEOPLE EXIST!

So angry!!

They probably dont want to tell you this because you are better off where you are at. They want your business so they are going to manipulate the situation in their favor.

If it was as you want them to tell you I am guessing they would have given you them figures unless you were dealing with a real idiot.

[johnnyshaka]

A little OT but close...we're seriously thinking about moving and trying to get answers to some of the same questions Fidatelo likely has not to mention trying to decide whether to sell our place first or buy with the condition of sale.

Being a grownup sucks sometimes.

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

They probably dont want to tell you this because you are better off where you are at. They want your business so they are going to manipulate the situation in their favor.

If it was as you want them to tell you I am guessing they would have given you them figures unless you were dealing with a real idiot.

I don't know, she was pretty forthright about all the other areas including ones that were unfavorable to her institution. I honestly think she was just too lazy to start working out the numbers. My appointment was unscheduled and right before lunch, so chances are she knew it would take some time and didn't want to interrupt whatever else she had planned for that time.

[SportsDino]

I'd tend towards the bankers are stupid/lazy argument. For that matter most in the finance industry apparently didn't have to pay attention in class, a good percentage can't get basics right upon simple questioning, yet alone actually understand how the financial instruments they are selling work.

This might just be my limited sample as a consumer and not having connections to go to the right place to begin with. Eventually a friend who got a job in the industry was who I had to turn to get anything done.

The smaller banks do seem more competent/friendly, I'm highly convinced most national banks are pretty much McBanks, staffed with the pseudo-educated dumb line workers of the paper pushing culture, meant to serve McCustomers that want to be herded like lemmings towards a cliff of eventual credit overload and catastrophe.

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by SportsDino

The smaller banks do seem more competent/friendly, I'm highly convinced most national banks are pretty much McBanks, staffed with the pseudo-educated dumb line workers of the paper pushing culture, meant to serve McCustomers that want to be herded like lemmings towards a cliff of eventual credit overload and catastrophe.

+1

I worked for a smaller bank at one time and the fact that this worker didnt do everything possible to bring in the low risk mortgage had me really surprised. My guess is that bigger banks work off of their reputation therefore dont need to do everything in their power to bring in new clients.

So I am guessing Fidatelo got this type of service from a larger bank?

[Fidatelo]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

So I am guessing Fidatelo got this type of service from a larger bank?

Nope, this experience was from a local Credit Union, which only has branches within my city. My current situation is at a large national bank, which was what I figured was the problem as well. I sort of assumed this smaller CU would fall all over itself to bring in new customers, but I guess I must have been wrong.

[SportsDino]

The credit union lady sounds like she didn't want to do the legwork (lazy)... particularly if it impacts their take by a sliver of a percent. On average they hope you will make a slight mistake so they get that more edge, and really they don't have an incentive to lose profit so I don't blame them.

However, if you straight up ask them a question, they should answer truthfully, which is the standard I use these days. She should pick one particular option that ends up saving you money and give you at least a simple analysis (if you are still working with her). Inevitably she will pick one that is favorable to her bank, as she should (its bizness), but you should be able to get her to put out the basic steps, and then mix that with a mortgage calculator in your homework to see if you can tweak it back in your direction a bit more.

The very minimum she should do if you are breaking a mortgage is show at least one scenario where you come out ahead in NPV. If she doesn't she isn't doing her job and is incompetent (I mean, this is a very simple way to 'get the sale').

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Fidatelo

I sort of assumed this smaller CU would fall all over itself to bring in new customers, but I guess I must have been wrong.

Random wondering here & may not have a thing in the world to do with it (my gut is that you got what you got because she's a marginally functional flunky) but what's the regulatory structure like for CU's up there?

What I'm wondering about in particular is whether there might be some reason to CYA by avoiding making any claims or anything approaching a sales pitch and just point the customer to the information to draw their own conclusions in order to protect themselves/the CU.