Ventures of an ex indie game developer

Psychology of a Bank

Five days ago I e-mailed seven competing banks stating that we have a loan with a 3.36% interest, supplying some additional information such as income, size of mortgage, etc., asking them if they could top the offer. These are the replies I got:

SEB (our current bank): You have... a margin of... .5%. This is a very good margin. Today our borrowing rate is 2.68%...

No offer there. According to the diff in interest they make about 2,136 U$ off of me per year, but what exactly am I getting for that? There is no administration involved. Our deposit account has an interest of 0%.


Swedbank: ...To be able to help you we need more information from you, including authentication... and [we need to] go through your commitment...

I need to show my ID to ask? They want to see me in person, WTF! Give me a good offer and I'll switch at once.


Handelsbanken ("The Trade Bank"): You can search for your nearest office in the link below: ...

Eh. I found the hidden link to your mail, but you don't think I can find my way to the single most repeated link on your site? Fuck you too.


Ikano Bank: To calculate the interest we can offer, follow this link: ...

Thanks for the offer!


Bättre Bolån ("Better Mortgages"): ... Our credit rules state that [your] business must have been active for at least a year and a first financial statement must have been set up.

So maybe we'll talk, but right now you don't want my money. I think you should fix your broken rules.


SBAB: Unfortunately, we can’t give you a better offer than what you already have today...

At least they're honest. EEEEH! Not true. I'm 100% certain that they give better offers to their employees. A lot better.

One bank didn’t bother replying.

Isn't it astounding that these are the replies of super-rich companies which take huge margins from all their customers? You'd think they'd be more welcoming. My current only option is to stick with one of the richest banks (if not the richest) which is making billions by loaning us customers our very own fractional banking money.

Game-wise I've spent only a few hours on the ping-pong game, mostly tweaking to get the feeling right. Now I'll add a menu and release, hopefully tonight.

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Gothenburg, Sweden