45,000 ptsb customers who could apply for a lower rate, have not done so.

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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Extract from Michael McGrath's questioning of Jeremy Masding today at the Oireachtas Finance Committee.



1 in 3 has applied for the move from the SVR to the Managed Variable Rate.

51,000 customers are still paying 4.5%

Masding: 45,000 would be a fairer figure for technical reasons.

McGrath: 45,000 customers who are paying 4.5% could get a reduction. It applies to Negative equity as well?

Why is the uptake so poor?

Masding: We wrote to them in 2015 and 2016

Mitchell: The range of reductions is from 0.2% to 0.8% depending on the LTV
We sent a free valuation voucher in 2015 and again in 2016. All they have to do is sign the form and send it back.

McGrath: Only 1/3 who are entitled to a reduction have applied. It's extraordinary and hard to understand.
 
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You're looking at it the wrong way - look at all of the people you have helped.

About 25,000?
 
Very good point Páid. Thanks

On reflection, I made the same point myself to Sara who made such an impression speaking at the ptsb AGM and in the media afterwards. I told her that when she walks down the main street of Bray, she is probably passing hundreds of people who are paying less for their mortgage based on her efforts.

Brendan
 
I wonder how representative is this across a full cross section of society? Is it 1/3rd of people who will fill out a form and try keep on top of things? What proportion people will proactively try and get the best deal possible? I am guessing less than 10%? I read somewhere that less than 4% of people had switched their mortgages in the last 5 years !

No wonder the banks are not interested in automatically passing on interest rate cuts. Ask customers to call them, or fill in a form, and at least half the customers will not bother !!!
 
I seem to remember PTSB often mentioned in their press releases for changing their variable rate that a large part of their mortgage customer base had relatively small mortgages and therefore any change to the rate had only a small impact individually. At least that was the justification they seemed to love putting out.

As a customer with a €250k+ mortgage in negative equity and paying over 5.5% that sort of a justification was about as useful to me as a chocolate teapot. (I've switched away now thank goodness). However is there such apathy among many PTSB customers because a lot have small mortgages and their mortgage rate and payments are just not on their radar? If so would a high percentage of small mortgages be particular to PTSB for some reason?
 
KBC has just given the following figures to Michael McGrath

Interest rates

Half of your customers are on standard variable rate e.g. 4.25% (or 4.05% with a current account)

42,000 are on SVR 41,970

4% have opened a current account with KBC. Since 2015.

Since 2016 - 10% of the SVRs have moved to the new business rate.

The only requirement is

8/10 of new customers have a KBC current account.

Customers with an improving LTV can move down the bands as often as they like

McGrath
Many of those on 4.25% could move to a 3.25% on very low LTVs.

Darragh: 80% are in positive equity
But even the 20% in NE can get the 0.2% discount


And a real live example

Pearse Doherty has admitted that he is a customer of KBC. He has got the forms but they are still on top of the fridge at home.

Brendan
 
I applied for this and got the tiniest change to 4.3%, when LTV was below 90% the whole thing took 5 months for this useless institution to implement. Now that we are <80% LTV I'd love to know can we apply for the lower rate for this band of LTV.
 
Great. I'll try and get them to honour that commitment, but I won't hold my breath....
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Michael McGrath asked that very question and they said customers can change as often as they like.
Click to expand...

I thought the PTSB representative answered that a borrower could only move between LTV bands once but that PTSB are currently reviewing this policy. No?
 
Joe90 said:
I applied for this and got the tiniest change to 4.3%, when LTV was below 90% the whole thing took 5 months for this useless institution to implement. Now that we are <80% LTV I'd love to know can we apply for the lower rate for this band of LTV.
Click to expand...

Joe

Sorry, I might have misled you here.

Your question came after the KBC post, so I had assumed you were a KBC customer.

But from the figures, it seems that you are a ptsb customer, so, as of now, you can't move.

Brendan
 
Bank of Ireland told the Oireachtas Finance Committee that 27% of their customers are on SVR.

They have about 150,000 customers ( 25% of 600,000)
So there are about 40,000 Bank of Ireland customers paying 4.5%

They can fix for two years at 3.2% even if they are in negative equity.

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
So there are about 40,000 Bank of Ireland customers paying 4.5%
Click to expand...
Brendan Burgess said:
McGrath: 45,000 customers who are paying 4.5% could get a reduction. It applies to Negative equity as well?
Click to expand...
Brendan Burgess said:
Half of your customers are on standard variable rate e.g. 4.25% (or 4.05% with a current account)
42,000 are on SVR 41,970
Click to expand...

Right so that makes 127k customers who could save between 0.2% or as much as 1.3% by engaging with the bank and either fixing, opening a current account with them or filling in a form?

Did Pearse give any reason why he left the form on the fridge for so long? If someone as close to the issue as him cannot fill in the form, how can others be encouraged to do so??? I thought he would have filled it in, just to see what the experience would be like so could tackle the bank on the customer experience the next time !!
 
Thanks Brendan. I thought that was the case with prison tsb all right.

I could have a dart line built across the road from my house in Navan tomorrow morning by my fairy godmother and have a Ltv of 20% and prison tsb would still not budge from 4.3%....
 
This thread sums up the cant be bothered apathy that exists with the vast majority of people in this country. I should have known better when i was so disappointed with the numbers who attended the meeting in the burlington a few years ago. I went over expecting people to be out the door as the issues affect so many people. A terrible pity for people like brendan, michael mcgrath, sarah and the others who have done so much. What Paid said about the 25k who have been helped is well said. Imagine there are 40,000 who are paying 4.5% with the dasterdly BOI, and in fairness to them they have a fixed rate of 3.2%, that if im right on a €250,000 mortgage is a difference of approx €150/ month based on €15/€100,000/0.25%. All i say is good enough for them for being so lazy.
 
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