the friendlyness of belgium banks

Yesterday my girlfriend and I went to the bank. We wanted to know how much we could loan to buy a house. In the weekends we are always in my birth-town and during the week we are in Leuven. So because it was weekend we scheduled an appointment with the bank in my birt-town. The day started badly as we couldn’t find a parking space, I had to drive 3 rounds before finding one. I already dropped my girlfriend off at the bank. When I entered the first thing the lady said was that our bank account wasn’t attached to the their office but to the office in Leuven. She mentioned this several times during the conversation.

She started explaining all kinds of stuff, things we actually didn’t need to know. We just wanted some figures to know in what kind of categoy we could start looking for houses. After an hour here next appointment showed up and we still didn’t have an answer, so I bluntly said, could you please just give us figure. At the moment we still don’t have one and that was the purpose of this meeting. So she made one for us. When she did, she saw that there was a lot of information missing on our bank account to give us an accurate figure. So she had to improvise a bit.

During the whole conversation she was unfriendly, simply because we weren’t attached to their office. I understand that they probably get funding according to the bank accounts attached, but you don’t have to be unfriendly. What I don’t understand is why she did this. Doesn’t she understand that it is thanks to people like us, who want to loan from there company that she gets paid? I go into a bank and want to get a loan, I’ll be paying 100.000 € interests part of this money is here paycheck. Okay probably the bank in Leuven will get slightly more but then again thanks to here we won’t loan it at the bank we visited so neither will get the money. I really hate it that most flemish banks think they are almighty, because they are not. If I want I can close all my bank accounts and move to another bank. It’s a free market, remember?

In the end,my girlfriend and I decided we are going to move all our money from our current banks to another bank (maybe even a not Belgium bank).

3 Replies to “the friendlyness of belgium banks”

  1. Same experience for me.
    For your loan, a good advice: go to all banks you know, and don’t hesitate to tell what’s the best deal you have at that time, they’ll try to find a solution so that you choose them.

    And if you can afford to do it, split your loan in two parts: eg one on 10 years and one on 20 years. It’s still one loan, but the interest you pay on the 10 years loan are way lower. You pay much more monthly for the 10 first years, but it is much cheaper in the end!

    Good luck!

    raph

  2. Maak eens een afspraak met de immotheker in Leuven. (Herestraat 9/1 (Tervuursepoort), Tel. 016/221.221). Danny, de kantoorhouder zal naar gelang jullie persoonlijk situatie, een concreet voorstel kunnen doen. Gewapend met deze cijfers kan je dan enkele banken gaan bezoeken en ze eventueel tegen mekaar uitspelen. Een tip, vergelijk geen procenten naar centen. Een bank die goochelt met lage tarieven, kan heel duur zijn in de bijkomende verzekeringen.

  3. Ik kan ook de immotheker aanbevelen.
    Hij kon ons een percent geven dat vergelijkbaar was met dat van m’n oorspronkelijke bank, maar met een véél betere verzekering.

    Alles bij elkaar betalen we op de hele looptijd even veel als bij de eigen bank, alleen hebben we dank zij de immotheker 10.000€ eigen middelen over bij de aankoop, en die zijn zeker nodig als je wat gaat opknappen!

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