Additional Saving Tips 2:

OK the world economy is a mess at the moment. One of the industries that have been hardest hit is the banks. They have had to take losses from customers who have not been able to pay back home loans, credit cards, car loans and personal loans.

This presents an opportunity to you. Have you ever asked your bank for a discount off their current level of interest they charge you? I have a friend who works in a bank call centre. He says that they have guidelines on what to do when people call up and ask for a discount. He once told me that he dropped someone’s home loan interest rate by 0.40%. All because they rang up and threatened to go to a different bank with a more competitive rate.

Now a less than 1% rate drop might not seem like much.

However let’s pretend that you had a $300,000 mortgage at 5% over 25 years. You call the bank and they give you 0.25% off “just for asking”. If you continue to make the minimum monthly payments over the next 25 years you will save a total of $13,025.41 in interest. If you manage to squeeze out the additional 0.15% as talked about in the above example then you would save $20,759.69.

This is all for just asking the question. Plus you can do this over all your debts. Also if you don’t get the answer you want from your bank, shop around. Nowadays it is easier than it has ever been to change from bank to bank.

The savings from this could be huge.