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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

HSBC's low home loan rate

These past two weekends we mostly spend on the road checking out houses from as far as Las Pinas to the south and Marikina to the north. I've also combed the net and actually found a house which seems to fit right into our budget and also right in the heart of the city of Makati.  So now that we have found a suitable place to purchase, we were already thinking of how to go about acquiring our dream home.  We don't have a stashful of cash hidden so bank financing is a must. 

First on our list is HSBC. Why, because according to leaflets they are inserting into my monthly credit card statements, they are offering a home loan rate at 5.99% for 1 year re-pricing! Also, i had high hopes that my inquiry would be met with enthusiasm after all, by my standards I have a pretty good credit rating, by way of paying on time even before due dates.  That's not limited to credit card debts by the way, I am also diligent with my other obligations in other financial institutions. So anyway, I called up their hotline and got entertain by a customer representative who initially told me that the 5.99% was monthly rate! Yup, i had to ask him again and again but he still firm on the 5.99% as monthly rate.  Regardless, he told me that a home loan specialist will contact me in 2-3 business days to answer about my particular concern.

The following day, friday I again called up their hotline and inquired about their home loan rate if it's really monthly or annual.  The CS this time told me that it's annual and that she told me that she put my request on express mode to signify the urgency so that whoever the home loan specialist they assigned to me will find ways to talk to me earlier. That was friday. Monday came, then tuesday and then wednesday still there was no call.  By the way, I also filled up their online request form to talk to a home loan specialist but nobody got back to me.  I suppose, they had bigger clients to attend to.  

But I've always thought of HSBC as really up there in customer service. Contrast that with Union Bank and UCPB. When i emailed UCPB for an inquiry about home loan rate, not even a minute after sending that email my phone was already ringing and a bank representative was already calling me ready to answer all my queries.  When I also called up Union Bank-Wackwack branch, I was also immediately entertained by their business manager.  But then again Union bank and UCPB offers 9.75% as against 5.99%.  So I am giving HSBC the benefit of the doubt here.  Maybe they are just swamped with home loan applications that they didn't bother getting back to me?

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