KBC Processing Fee

I

iandublin2

Registered User
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We changed our home insurance policy and KBC charged us €30 to update their system. I wrote them a letter so it will be interesting to see what they come back with:

Dear Sir or Madam,

We received a letter dated 16th April 2011 regarding building insurance on
our house at XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Our previous policy with Quinn Direct for household insurance expired and we took out a new household insurance policy recently with Quinn Direct. You state in your letter that a €30 "processing fee" has been applied to our mortgage account.
We have a huge problem with this fee:

  • Would we be charged this processing fee each time we took out a policy with a separate insurance provider? If so, that means effectively we cannot change our insurance provider without factoring in an additional €30 fee per year. This is effectively a barrier to our ability to shop around.
  • Can you tell me what exactly is involved in processing the information? At most it would take 2 minutes to pull up our account on a PC and to update a text field with the new provider.A rate of €30 for 2 minutes work works out at approx €900 euro an hour for your administrative staff.
  • Can you explain why we the customer should be charged for fulfilling a condition of the mortgage contract?
  • Can you explain why we the customer should be charged when it is in KBC Homeloans' interest that we have buildings insurance on the home?
  • Wage costs are a consequence of being in business. Why should we as the customer have to pay a processing fee for a member of your staff to do their job?
Quite frankly we are very annoyed at this fee and want the €30 charge taken off/refunded on our mortage account. €30 may have been a charge that was easy to justify during the Celtic Tiger years but in these recessionary times, you should certainly not be trying to charge your customers this exorbitant fee.
€30 is one weeks petrol for one of us. Petrol that gets us to work, that same work that allows us to keep our mortgage account up to date at the end of the month.
Yours,
 
I got charged that fee too, be interesting to see what they reply to you with. Please keep this thread updated, Ian. Thank you
 
PaddyW said:
I got charged that fee too, be interesting to see what they reply to you with. Please keep this thread updated, Ian. Thank you
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I also got stung for this,put it on the back burner while I had another case with the Ombudsman,really was not impressed at all with this sleeveen charge....Now that I have a bit of time I will look at getting my e30 back off these bankers.
 
This must be a new thing, as I changed my house insurance policy last year and didn't get charged such a fee.

That's a disgraceful new charge, and especially in light of so many people already struggling to meet mortgage repayments!
 
Was considering opening a deposit account with them after seeing the rate they offer on their recent adverts but would have second thoughts now that I there may be hidden extras or funny calculations on the rate.
 
Checking through my paperwork/correspondence and I discover I queried this in mid 2009,I received the following reply...

In line with our ongoing commitment to provide our customers with a professional and efficient service it has been necessary for us to introduce a small number of fees as outlined below.

Processing amendments to life insurance details e30
Processing amendments to general Insurance details e30
Product switching to fixed/tracker rates e38

If you have any queries blah blah
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I will be asking for a return of this money in a request for a final response letter,failing a return of this money plus interest accrued I will refer it to the Financial Ombudsman.

This is a grossly unfair charge,I spend hours getting the cheapest insurance quote every year,haggling over a few euros,then when I notify my Mortgage lender of a change of insurer they lash a e30 charge on my a/c just for what?? a minutes work for a KBC customer care rep to update their system.
Regardless of the decision I will post the outcome here.I know its only e30 but you know what thats not the point.
 
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