My Home About Me

Currently, my house is held on a variable rate Secured Line of Credit (not a mortgage). Why? I don't know, I'm not smart?

The reason I am using the Secured line of credit (as with most things in my life) is mostly out of spite. Let me see if I can keep this story short: About 15 years ago at my previous house, I had a Mortgage with the Bank of Montreal (at 12% for 5 years, and I thought I was getting a great deal), so when that finally finished, I decided to go with 6 month terms (since I had been paying 12% interest when the going rate was 8% for a lot of the term of my loan).

Every 6 months I would dutifully go into the BMO branch talk to a very nice lady, who would then give me the 6 month rate with a 1/2 % off (for being a good customer). This arrangement worked for 1.5 years and then the 4th time I went in, the nice lady wasn't in, so I talked to another person. This person was quite indignant and said, "We do NOT discount our 6 month rate sir". I pointed out that is exactly what was happening and was told NO I was wrong (can you see where the SPITE part of things is coming from). I left there MIGHTY mad.

As I drove back home I passed the Canada Trust, I stopped, walked in and within 30 minutes, I had moved ALL of my banking over, my Mortgage had become a Secured Line of Credit (because I had more than 25% of my loan paid off), at a variable rate. I returned to the BMO branch, to close my accounts and the nice lady asked, "WHY?" and I told her, and she apologized, and so did I, but I added I wasn't going to change my mind either.

Conclusion? This is a classic example of how the system can work for you, but you must deal with people who are interested in doing business with you. If you run into a "NO" person (like that guy on the Credit Card ad), simply LEAVE and find someone else more reasonable. You are the CUSTOMER and you may not always be RIGHT, but you certainly deserve to be treated well!

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