TagScotiabank

Posted March 15, 2017 Bank News

BIG FIVE BANKS employees speak out about deplorable sales tactics… and it’s gone viral!

A news story from CBC has gone viral. The BANK employees are under tremendous pressure to sell YOU products. They will say and do almost anything, according to the CBC news article.

For those of us working in Financial Services, this is old news. Stories of high pressures sales and tied selling has been going on for over two decades. Sales targets were introduced to the retail branch network in the ’90s. It was the beginning of a new sales culture. Prior to this, bank tellers and account managers had always worked with a ‘soft sell’ approach. They were there to help and service your needs. This was about to change forever.

Your bank teller is now scanning your financial profile to see if they can up sell you some bank product. Last week, my son and I were in the TD Bank and they informed my son he was preapproved for a TD Visa card.. of course, there was a small annual fee… so we can add to the BANK’s $billion profits!

Now we are seeing Mobile Mortgage Reps working for Banks. They come to your home or business. They are paid on a commission basis. Think about it. How can anyone expect them to be unbiased? They can only sell you one brand and one range of products. Are all mortgage products the same? They can never truly provide neutral advice or recommend other brands.

It will be interesting to see if this issue gets swept under the rug or if it will become a big stink. The BIG FIVE BANKS rank in the top EIGHT largest corporations in Canada. And last year, RBC was the first Canadian corporation to report over $10billion in net profit.

Hmm, I wonder how they make all that money, year after year, after year, after year.

Your best interest is my only interest. I reply to all questions and I welcome your comments. Like this article? Share with a friend.

Steve Garganis 416 224 0114 steve@mortgagenow.ca

Posted January 4, 20161 Comment Bank News

BIG SIX BANKs report obscene RECORD $34billion in profits for 2015…and still complaining!

It’s that time of the year again.. The Banks have to report their annual profits.. And no surprise, the BIG SIX BANKS are at it again..

RBC reported a $10billion annual profit for 2015. This is the first time a Canadian company reported an annual $10billion profit. Yet, at the same time, they are crying the blues and warning of troubled times ahead. (uh, that’s the same speech they’ve made for the past 10 years.. here’s a 2013 headline). GIVE ME A BREAK!!! Canadians aren’t buying it anymore..

Check out the obscene profits pulled in by the rest of the BIG SIX BANKS..

Continue reading “BIG SIX BANKs report obscene RECORD $34billion in profits for 2015…and still complaining!”

Posted January 16, 20131 Comment Mortgage News

Scotiabank closes ING Direct mortgage broker division… but who cares?

In an email sent to Mortgage Brokers today, ING announced they will close the Mortgage Broker division February 16, 2013. My first reaction was one of sadness. In the mid 2000’s, ING was a strong Lender and partner with Mortgage Brokers. They offered some great products, competitive pricing, a fair prepayment penalty calculation and had an excellent team of employees, including their senior management.

Yes, I was sad to hear they would close the Broker division… But then I asked myself how much would this affect me? my clients? How much business was I referring to ING these days? The answer soon made me realize that there isn’t any reason for sadness. I soon realized that since they made the switch to registering all their mortgages as a collateral mortgage charge, back in December 2011, I all but completely stopped recommending them to my clients. Continue reading “Scotiabank closes ING Direct mortgage broker division… but who cares?”

Posted June 9, 20125 Comments Mortgage Rates

Beware of your Bank’s ‘special’ renewal offer…. it could cost you dearly.

Spring is the home buying season. Summer is the mortgage renewal season. It’s been that way for as long as I can remember. Most of us want to move in the summer months when it’s warmer and when kids are out of school.

Once again we’re seeing the BANKs calling borrowers ahead of their actual renewal date. And once again, they’re counting on you believing they have your best interest at heart. And once again, I’m here to warn you against signing those offers without having a discussion with your Mortgage Broker. In most cases, if not all, those offers aren’t that ‘special’.

Here’s just one example of that trust costing this Scotiabank client $3,000.

Just this week, Scotiabank offered one of my clients a renewal at 3.49% for a 5 year fixed rate…Does sound familiar to anyone? It sounded great to him. But for some reason, the client didn’t return my calls, my emails or letters about their upcoming renewal. And I can understand, sometimes life just gets in the way. Besides, it’s Scotiabank…surely, they’ll have this repeat client’s best interest in mind? Surely, they will offer him the absolute best rate?

Guess again… By signing that renewal, and not calling me to verify how competitive the interest rate really was, the client will end up paying around $3,000 more in interest charges over the next 5 years… on a $200,000 mortgage balance. Today’s best 5 yr fixed rates are hovering around 3.19%. The real cost could actually end up being more than $3,000 if the client needs to refinance or pay the mortgage off before the 5 years is up. That’s because Scotiabank, like the rest of the BIG SIX BANKs, uses a prepayment penalty calculation that has the client paying for the original discount given at the time of mortgage funding. This method of calculating penalties is NOT used by all Lenders but it IS used by all of the BIG SIX BANKs.

But we need to also be aware of other Lenders that are offering those too good to be true deals… If you see lower rates, beware.. there’s probably a catch. It could be a NO FRILLS mortgage or some sort of hidden exit fee or penalty.

Don’t take any chances…. Call your Mortgage Broker. One phone call could have saved this client $3,000. If you don’t have a broker, feel free to call me. We’re here to help.

Steve Garganis

1 866 812 0516

Posted March 30, 2012 Interest rates

Mortgage wars end?…only for the BIG SIX Banks…

March 29th, 2012 is going to be remembered as the day when the BIG SIX Banks ended their Mortgage War. Well, at least for now. Rates are up around 0.50% at Retail Branches of the BIG SIX Banks. (don’t worry, Mortgage Broker rates haven’t gone up that much and are lower than any of the so-called discounted or special rates advertised by the BIG SIX Banks.)

In what was an unprecedented, public fight for your mortgage, the BIG SIX Banks pulled down their pants and showed how low they can really go with their rates. We saw BMO come out with their 2.99% NO FRILLS mortgage… ( a product we wouldn’t recommend to anyone due to it’s restrictions, limitations and penalty calculations). Unfortunately, too many borrowers don’t look beyond the rate and have signed on for this product.. They will have to deal with the consequences in the years to come.

RBC fired back with a pretty good rate of 2.99% for 4 years… It didn’t have the restrictions or limitations but it still had that unfair penalty calculation. RBC also took some public shots at the BMO product, through the media and their own website. It was great to see some real competition take place among our BIG BANKS. There is always a winner in this war. You the borrower.

TD, Scotiabank, National Bank and CIBC all followed with a similar 4 year fixed rate at 2.99%. But they still had that same penalty calculation formula I absolutely don’t like.

“Canadian lenders appear to be extremely slow to pass on changes in the Bank Rate to their customers.” Anyone remember that quote? That’s a direct quote from the Bank of Canada review entitled ‘Competition in the Canadian Mortgage Market’.

Here’s another one from the same report “borrowers who use a mortgage broker pay less, on average, than borrowers who negotiate with lenders directly”.

The good news about all this rate war stuff is that we saw even better mortgage products being offered through the Mortgage Broker channel. Remember these quotes the next time you are shopping for a mortgage.