UOB Bank Do Not Keep Their Word!
Despite the best of plan and precautions we found ourselves at the mercy of UOB bank today after deciding to work with them for our mortgage.
Their credit scoring is based on income minus expenses each month and we were told that to get a 4 million baht mortgage we would need to pay 330,000 baht (appox $9600) to pay off Tik's loan for her car.
I was a little skeptical that things would go smoothly so I suggested to Tik that we visit the bank and pay off the car loan there and then so that we could leave that day with a written mortgage agreement. I imagined how, after emptying our accounts to pay off the car, we may hear of a complication that would delay or prevent us getting the mortgage in time.
For a few reasons we were not able to pay the loan off from that bank and Tik was pushed for time. Before heading to a differnt bank to make the payments we checked with UOB bank that there would be no problem at all processing the mortgage as soon as we faxed confirmation that our loan was paid off.
Tik made the payment yesterday, called UOB bank today and was told that, despite their promises, they wont get their paperwork sorted for another week. We dont plan to give them our business now.
We are now working with LH bank who actually phoned Tik about 2 hours after she paid off the car loan to offer us a mortgage for a few hundred thousand baht less that UOB but with no need to pay off the car. They missed the Friday deadline we set them but luckily we have now selected them instead of UOB Bank. LH have already got the paperwork ready and we can collect it as soon as we want.
Thankfully things will work out for the best. Whilst our bank accounts will be nearly empty by this time next week, we've paid off Tik's car (freeing up 12,000 baht a month from her income) and our mortage will be 100,000 baht less than with UOB Bank.
I predict a hairy few months ahead to recoup the extra payments we made, but, as with everything I do, jumping in at the deep end at least keeps me focused.
We now need to arrange a convenient date for the bank, Belle Park and us to visit the government registrars and complete the deal. We'll then return to Belle Park and collect our keys :)
Tags: UOB Bank
