Mortgage: Unbelievable charge from UBS

Complaints Corner
1
I have been shopping for a mortgage for the last several months and today I was shocked by the bank that holds my salary /savings and Pillar 3 accounts with a charge of CHF 350. It is called "Mortgage service Fee".

The reason (provided on phone) is the time they invested in my mortgage while I chose another provider (that was 0.28% cheaper than them). Has anyone been through something similar?

I feel robbed by the bank that I trusted (until today) with my salary and savings.

2
This is a ripoff, and absolutely ridiculous. You need to pay to UBS to provide you a quote for a mortgage??

If I were you, I would talk to whoever is in charge (e.g. the boss of the person that did the credit); and then I would leave UBS. This is insane, really.

(for the record - I am UBS customer, probably not for long, if this is their practice. I hate ripoff practices)

3
UBS have a free online mortgage calculator .

You only really need to deal with someone personally once you decide to take up a mortgage with them.

P.S. The Kantonal banks are usually much better with mortgages.

4
Probably trying to recoup the 1.4 bn of rogue trader Mr K. Adoboli lost. He received a seven year jail sentence yesterday.

5
I changed mortages several years ago in order to get a better rate. I received also such a 'service charge'. If I recollect it was CHF 500.- from the NAB which belongs to Credit Suisse. I think all the banks have an unwritten agreement that they charge when you take your mortage somewhere else.

6
& the Post Office

7
I wouldn't mind spending 7 years in prison (more like getting out after 2 years and a couple of months) if I could get 1.4 billion.

Is this supposed to be a punishment?

8
Did you prematurely terminate a mortgage, or was it up for renegotiation anyway?

9
Not really, as the online calculator gives an average rate, whereas negotiation and one's risk factor can influence the rate a lot. I would never take the rate posted on the website of UBS or CS.

Migrosbank is quite different as they say they are transparent and their rates are non-negotiable.

We negotiated offers from PostFinance, ZKB and UBS and they all gave a better rate than online, however still higher than Migros

Neither PF, ZKB nor UBS charged us such a fee. It's ridiculous. Unless they posted this fee somewhere or you agreed to it in fine print, you should not pay.

10
In the grand tradition of... "I'm no expert, but..."

Presumably you didn't sign an agreement when you asked them to provide a quote.

Presumably they didn't tell you or advise you that you'd pay a fee if you were unreasonable enough to decline their offer.

So you're under no contractual obligation to pay.. unless they can demonstrate otherwise

11
He didn't get it, he lost it in the capital markets. I'm sure he collected a few nice bonuses along the way though...

12
It is interesting so many of you thought I "defected" from UBS after holding a mortgage with them. In fact this is my first home purchase and it is the first time I ever sign-up for a mortgage in Switzerland. So UBS never had my mortgage, I called them up for a quote, they were quite helpful. I kept providing them all the information they needed. I do not remember signing anything.

Two days back, I paid the downpayment of the mortgage to my selected lender (an insurance company) - my mortgage advisor in UBS seems to have assumed I will sign with them and immediately charged me the CHF 350 for "closing the testing file she opened for me" as she called it. She also claimed she informed me "several times" about the charge. All I remember is that she said once "she will waive the mortgage service fee if I take a mortgage with them" and I understood that as "It is a fee we charge everyone who takes a mortgage from us but we will make you feel special and not charge you". I certainly did not understand it as "Everyone who asks us for proposals will be charged a mortgage service fee if they do not sign-up with us after a proposal is presented".

I have written a polite note (well as polite as practically possible in my frustration) saying I plan to terminate all my banking relationship with them if they choose not to reverse this charge to both the advisor and the branch manager and wait for the response from them. I will certainly keep the forum informed on how this proceeds.

I am deeply saddenned by the way UBS has treated me and I sincerely hope other home buyers watch-out for such predatory practices in the banking business!

PS: I have also requested my mortgage advisor to send me evidence of my agreeing to such a charge or the "fine print" where I can find this charge. Obviously no answer on that either.

13
Read the news . He didn't get 1.4 billion. That's what the bank lost due to his trades.

And, to state the blindigly obvious, even if he had, would he be allowed to keep it ?

14
You didn't take the mortgage with them. They didn't waive the fee. Seems pretty clear me.

A verbal agreement is binding in Switzerland.

15
Amazing how verbal agreement is interpreted. If she had said "we charge a fees if you do not take a mortgage from UBS" and I said "Yes" that would be verbal agreement.

My money has already been taken from me without my consent nor verbal agreement.

Btw, I had to withdraw more than CHF 50'000 from my savings account (again relating to the mortgage) because of which I am being charged 0.5% fees additionally by UBS (as per the terms and conditions of the savings account). This is clearly fine-print issue I should have been careful about. I am not complaining about the additional charges on my savings account overdraft for not providing 3 months notice. But I certainly do not agree to the "Verbal agreement" stated above.

@UBS - I have done the "fairness test" on this several times over. I sincerely hope if you listen to your customers (I am one even if I did not sign-up to a mortgage), you will give me back my hard-earned CHF 350!

16
An agreement, no matter if verbal or written, over the purchase of a service or a good requires the statement of a price.

17
Thanks FrankS. No price was agreed and I did not accept a price for the PROPOSAL.

They have taken my money away simply because I have an account with them.

18
No termination / defection involved.

19
Did you allow them to go through a valuation and/or credit approval process and have papers just waiting for you to sign, as opposed to just a chat with an advisor and an offer in principle

At that point, some sort of break clause does not seem unreasonable, and it sounds like you should have picked up that there was a fee in existence that would be waived if you did use them. Although it sounds like it should have been communicated a bit more clearly: in the past (UK overseas mortgage) I have for example had banks ask for an admin fee to be paid ahead of them formally reviewing the application.

20
They did go through an evaluation (just like all the other lenders did). Interestingly, she did say "Please do not sign a reservation contract without getting the mortgage approved" for which I responded "well there are two lenders already backing the purchase so if I do not get a loan from UBS, I will still buy", she had a golden opportunity to mention "oh but if you don't go with us, we will charge you for all that we have done so far (like doing the above evaluations)" but instead my UBS mortgage advisor chose to say "oh that is good, just wanted to be sure". So to me - I was clear she was in a competitive process and there was no agreement on them being the sole supplier. So an administration fee would have been reasonable if agreed upfront (or even better paid upfront as you mention).

They are doing this to me simply because I have an account with them.