National Irish Bank - increase in rates

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WaterSprite

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I just got a letter from National Irish Bank increasing my variable rate from 3.15% to 4.35%, an increase of 1.25%. NIB has not raised variable rates like the other institutions to date. I know that the entire risk of having a variable rate is that banks can raise the rate as and when they want, but a 1.25% increase is massive in any language.

There's a possibility that they think I'm on an existing variable rate for an investment property (which is 4.15% currently) and, if so, then that's just a mistake on their part because the mortgage is for my PPR.

So I'm wondering if anyone else has gotten similar correspondence and managed to talk to NIB to clarify all of this? I'm meeting them on Monday but if anyone has actually managed to talk to their branch/adviser, I'd be grateful to hear of it.

Thanks
 
We have a bog-standard residential mortgage and we got the increase letter too. Not impressed.
 
Is this of any relevance?



Meanwhile, National Irish Bank will increase its variable rates by between 0.2pc and 0.95pc from November 11. Its home-loan variable rate will be 4.25pc. The bank said this was the first rise in variable rates since June 2008.

Some 75pc of NIB's customers are on tracker rates and so are unaffected by yesterday's rises.
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Also - don't know if this clarifies anything... (might be worth always quoting APRs to avoid any confusion?)

[broken link removed]
[broken link removed]
 
Thanks Clubman (welcome back) - that is relevant. My letter does state that the increase will be to 4.35% (4.44% APR), rather than 4.25%. What's unclear is if all residential mortgages (so, the 3.4% quoted on that NIB page, the 3.65% for offset and the 3.15% that applies to mine) will be changed to 4.35% (as stated in my letter) or 4.25% (as is quoted in that article) across the board.

It seems odd that I have a 3.15% rate to be honest - it wasn't a discounted rate so I'm surprised that it's not 3.4% as well.

Even a 0.95% (3.4% to 4.35%) rise is pretty massive to do all in one go, let alone the 1.2% hike I appear to be facing.

I'll update here after I meet them on Monday in any case.
 
Mine is worse - the rate was a discounted variable 2.9% and now it's 4.35% according to the letter - will have to investigate with them the reason for standard vs. old discounted. We're fairly far into our mortgage so it's not a huge € increase but you're right, it is a big hike. I suspect all mortgages will be increased and that the offset will stay a margin higher than the standard variable (this always really annoyed me - why create an attractive product to save the customers money if they hold cash in their current account - and then put a higher interest rate on it to cancel out some of the saving).
 
We have a tracker with NIB and we got the letter!
It specifically mentions it is only changing the Standard Variable Rate Home Loan so I don't know why they sent us a letter.
 
That's interesting Shawady. Reading the letter again, yes, it is just a general information letter - it doesn't say 'your mortgage rate has increased' - it says 'the standard variable has increased'. So the standard variable has increased from 3.4% to 4.35% (the 0.95% mentioned in the article Clubman linked to above) - so all rates that reference the standard rate will increase by 0.95% - e.g. I think mine is standard minus 0.5% so I think it will go to 3.85% from 2.9%. Not terrible I suppose in the current environment.
 
orka said:
Mine is worse - the rate was a discounted variable 2.9% and now it's 4.35% according to the letter .
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That’s a standard letter sent to all, I would think anyone currently on a discounted rate will keep their discount.

I have a variable rate home loan discounted by 0.4% so I currently pay 3%

NIB confirmed in writing when I got this discount in 2007 that it was standard variable discounted by 0.4% for the life of the loan.

My new rate should be 3.95% (4.35% less my discount of 0.4%)
 
Orka, the other thing it says in the letter is 'that as an Easy Plus Package customer' I can avail of a lower interest rate of 4.15% instead of the new rate of 4.35%.
As i said I am on a tracker whihc is lower than this anyway but maybe they sent the letter to all Easy Plus customers?
 
orka has a discount, the qualifying criteria states ‘’this discount rate cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or any other discounted rate already in place’’

It’s also worth noting for anyone on free banking, if you change to the easy plus or prestige packages to avail of the discount in mortgage rate you will have to pay fixed quarterly fees.
 
I was in with NIB today re. switching my mortgage to them and I was indeed told that the bank was raising its standard variable rate from 3.4% to 4.35% within the next few weeks. I was also told that this rate would be discounted to 3.9% if I switched my current account, including my salary mandate, to NIB.

Interestingly, the increases in their fixed rates are far less dramatic.
 
jas376 said:
Interestingly, the increases in their fixed rates are far less dramatic.
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Fixed rates have not increased, in fact with the package discounts, one can get a discount to a fixed rate below old rates. I am thinking of breaking my existing LTV fixed and re-fixing at lower rate with discount.

Optically, the APR on the fixed rate will have gone up as the reversion rate (or whatever one calls the variable rate after the fixed expires) will be higher but I dont worry about that. As one of the 25% of people with NIB who does not have a tracker - the fixed rates offer best value.
 
marksa said:
Fixed rates have not increased, in fact with the package discounts, one can get a discount to a fixed rate below old rates. I am thinking of breaking my existing LTV fixed and re-fixing at lower rate with discount.

.
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It doesn’t look like they will give the discount off fixed rates, it clearly refers to the applicable Home Loan Variable Rate.

Easy Plus and Prestige Home Loan Discounts:

Eligibility for these discounts is limited to holders of a Prestige or Easy Plus Package.

· Customers with a Prestige package may be eligible for a discount of 0.45% of the applicable Home Loan Variable rate.

· Customers with an Easy Plus package may be eligible for a discount of 0.20% of the applicable Home Loan Variable rate.

http://www.nationalirishbank.ie/en-ie/Personal/mortgages/Buying-a-property/Products/Pages/variable-rate-mortgage.aspx?tab=2#tabanchor
 
twofor1 said:
It doesn’t look like they will give the discount off fixed rates, it clearly refers to the applicable Home Loan Variable Rate.
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that's contrary to what I have been told, so will have to confirm again.

and if I look here - [broken link removed]

and select the fixed rate as an option it gives discount as an option. anyhow, mine is the LTV fixed and it does not mention specifically about the package discount. I think the package discount is only excluded for customers who are on, or who have a right to revert to ECB tracker which is mentioned somewhere else on the site.
 
I was offered a 2 year fixed rate of 4.2% (4.3% APR) which could be discounted to 3.75% if I switched my current account to NIB.
 
I met them today. It seems that different increases apply to different people. As I mentioned initially, I'm on 3.15%. They are increasing my rate by 0.95% (so the range of increases from between 0.2% and 0.95% seems correct). The top rate is 4.35% so that would apply to those who have a 3.4% variable rate (+0.95%)

Twofor1's info above on the potential discounts is correct. Although I was in no mood to increase my level of involvement with NIB as a result of the hefty hike, the benefits of the Prestige pack looks pretty good (as far as it goes):

- 0.45% discount off mortgage rates
- 1% credit interest
- Mastercard Platinum, which includes free travel insurance and entry to the airport lounges.

It costs €125 per annum for the account and you do have to lodge salary into it. They bigged-up their phone app, which does look good but you still have to use the code card to do transfers.

I'll probably go with it, once I get over my grump. The 0.45% saving makes it worthwhile.

Sprite
 
Update - because I am already on a discounted rate (the 3.15%), I can only get 0.2% off the 4.1% rate if I go for the Prestige pack.

Presumably, those people who are on 3.4% (going to 4.35%) can get the full 0.45% off.
 
Also note that they can change the terms of the Prestige package at any time while you have the discount for the duration of the mortgage.

I would not trust them. It could be a ploy to get you to give up your discount on your mortgage.

I took the NIB to the ombudsman and won over a case where they tried to mislead customers and I won't personally be doing anything to give up the discount rate.

(Details on the NIB case here http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=104951)

My wife had a call from them looking for us to take the prestige package. But based on previous experience she declined.
 
i also have two "variable rate investment mortgages" with NIB. I checked the rates on both today 12/11/11 - the first is 3.85 % which is a capital and interest mortgage. This has increased recently from 3.65%. The other is now 4.11 % an interest only mortgage (was 3.91% in August when I last checked it). I also got the letter about the increase in the SVR as mentioned above. From reading the above it concerns me that these investment mortgage rates are anticipated to increase soon ? i should also mention that both loans started out entitled "discounted variable rate home loan". The titles on both annual statements changed to "variable rate investment mortgage" in 2009. The rates in 2008 on the first was 4.4% and on the second 4.6 %. I have followed the previous post on this issue on askaboutmoney but have not yet made any complaints. NIB knew that both these properties were investments from day one. Any comments welcome, specifically is there any point in complaining to ombudsman in my situation ? and second do people anticipate NIB will increase interest only/investment mortgages soon ?
 
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