Bank of Ireland Bank of Ireland paying me only 220 compensation

Hi Emma


How much do you think the compo should be?

Brendan

I think it should be the same as the bank would charge us if we went into debit and overdraft. I have a bank statement in from of me from Ulster bank. It says that debit Interest is 15.55% and if I go into unauthorised overdraft I would pay a surcharge of another 9%. Now banks are able to whack it on but somehow when it comes to compensation people are being given derisory sums.
 
I think it should be the same as the bank would charge us if we went into debit and overdraft. I have a bank statement in from of me from Ulster bank. It says that debit Interest is 15.55% and if I go into unauthorised overdraft I would pay a surcharge of another 9%. Now banks are able to whack it on but somehow when it comes to compensation people are being given derisory sums.

Couldn't agree more, the imbalance of knowledge and power the bank have over the consumer is huge.

There should be 100% penalties plus interest.
 
Hi Emma3003... I'm in a similar situation, several
years where the the money overcharged would have made a massive difference. I called a few weeks ago to ask what was happening and they categorically said our account and compensation was under review. I just called 5 mins ago to double check on the help line and now they say they can't tell me anything!!! So much for the lovely statement that they are sorting this out. The overcharge in our case is tens of thousands.
 
Hi Threadser,

My overpayment is only small in comparison to some people here.

I was overcharged 0.15% over an 8 year period, resulting in an overpayment of just over €2,200. They have offered €40 in interest and €80 in compensation.

€600 has been deducted to pay TRS, which was a shock to me also. I assumed when they said that the banks would be liable for sorting out TRS payments, that they would actually take the hit... not that it meant they would just take it off us, to pay revenue. But sure, why would they do that? It’s not like we can expect them to bear the brunt of their own actions of anything.
€10.00 per year compensation - that is an insult.
 
I think the compensation should be at least half the amount the overcharge would have been had they got away with theft. Surely this isn't too much probably should have minimum 5000 aswell . There are not enough heads rolling the.. Silence is deafening.
 
i agree with you all that the compensation is just not enough. I’d like to know of any other occasion where compensation has been calculated at such a ridiculously low amount and accepted.

But what irks me more is that BOI seem to be using the TRS situation to their advantage. My TRS refund was just under 25% of the amount I was overcharged, so a significant chunk. They haven’t supplied any calculations so I can’t be sure, but I suspect that they have deducted the TRS from the amount they overcharged, effectively reducing the amount I was owed back by 25%, then calculated interest and compensation on the lower figure. If they do this with every customer, how much will they be saving themselves?? Especially when it comes to customers that are owed tens of thousands.
And then there is the matter of the payment for financial advice which they said would be provided in their letter from Dec 2016. No sign of that in this offer.
Have Central Bank signed off on this approach by BOI? I’m so mad, but not sure where to go with this. I feel a bit ridiculous complaining about what is comparatively small amounts, when I know other people have been affected so much more, but it’s the principle of it.

Has anyone any ideas what to do next? I am thinking that I will write back to them to ask for a breakdown of their figures as a starting point, to see if I can find out how they calculated their interest and compensation in relation to the TRS. I will also ask that they forward on the payment for financial advice, so I can see what the story is there.
 
Hi Emma, I think that is a good starting point to request clarification from the bank and ask for the breakdown figures and the fee for your independent financial advice. If you don't receive a satisfactory reply within a week or two then contact John McGuinness TD chairmain of the Finance Committee and express your dis-satisfaction. Consider also contacting the journalists who have been covering the story. They will be interested to hear how the redress and compensation process is going!
 
I’d like to know of any other occasion where compensation has been calculated at such a ridiculously low amount and accepted.

Can anyone point out where compensation has been paid at all in cases where people have been overcharged?

All of the lenders have or will have Independent Appeals Panels in place and one can appeal any aspect of the refund or the compensation.

But I would imagine that you would have to show actual financial loss and not just annoyance.

Brendan
 
Emma

The banks are to foot the bill for the TRS. This should not have been deducted. Same happened with me. Got letter yesterday. I was overcharged by BOI 3800 and they deducted TRS of 1100. My compensation is 145 for over 8 years being overcharged. Im not bothered about the compensation but I am not accepting their offer as I want the TRS back as well as this is the banks bill. I also didnt receive an offer towards legal or other professional advice but again this doesnt bother me
 
Emma, Aidotron,
I know that for my mortgage payments, the bank take the full mortgage cost from my account and then I get a credit of the TRS. So I can see how they would do that in calculating your refund statement. The difference is what you actually paid them.
Haven't quite got my head around how to calculate the refund due to myself yet, as am not yet considered impacted so I live to fight another Day!!
I definitely agree that banks should be penalised for their actions. If it were the other way around then we know what the charges would be. I like the revenue model as a starting point. I will be looking for more for all the hassle and distress I have been through.
 
Can I ask the people that have received letters from BOI yesterday & today, if this was the first time BOI have contacted them?? Were u guys in the original impacted customers??
 
Brendan,
I’m not sure that there is any other scenario in Ireland quite like this to use as a benchmark.
But when you consider that you can get €250 compensation for a flight being delayed/cancelled, I can understand why people see the amounts being offered here as insulting.
As I’ve said previously, our hardship didn’t arise from being overcharged on our mortgage, so I’m not looking for more compensation personally and won’t be availing of the appeals process for this reason. I do think that it is too little for other people that were hugely impacted, and they shouldn’t have to suffer further by having to go through the appeals process to try to get more.

I do take issue with how the TRS refund has been handled though, and this is what I will be looking in to further. I think that interest/compensation should be calculated before the TRS is deducted, not after. Whilst it makes very little difference to me, it will be significant for those eligible for much larger redress. The bank’s current calculation method is allowing them to pay interest and compensation on approx only 75% of the money they took from customers. The other 25% was taken from us and available to them for 9 years at 0% interest rate and without penalty. How’s that for a sweet deal?

Do you think they’d let me take a loan out and only pay interest on 75% of what I borrowed? I think not.
 
Emma,

Good point about Compensation following a flight cancellation.
And I get the issues about TRS now. Just need to get my head around the calculations.
At one level. TRS is our business, not the bank's. It should be a fine for the bank really. We got TRS based on their interest charges, they should pay it back because they caused the problem in the first instance.
I like that! ☺
You keep taking issue, Emma.!
 
Can anyone point out where compensation has been paid at all in cases where people have been overcharged?

All of the lenders have or will have Independent Appeals Panels in place and one can appeal any aspect of the refund or the compensation.

But I would imagine that you would have to show actual financial loss and not just annoyance.

Brendan
Hi Brendan, could you give me your opinion on the following statement?
Lenders, who brazenly scammed their customers out of thousands of euros, often with far reaching long term harm, should have absolutely no representation on an "independent appeals panel".
 
Can anyone point out where compensation has been paid at all in cases where people have been overcharged?

All of the lenders have or will have Independent Appeals Panels in place and one can appeal any aspect of the refund or the compensation.

But I would imagine that you would have to show actual financial loss and not just annoyance.

Brendan
I quite amazed at the attitude to be honest.
Annoyance isnt what people have suffered in this debacle, annoyance is losing a fiver and not getting a coffee.
When a financial institution systematically takes more money from you than you owe them for years it causes much more than annoyance. Is it annoyance when your child cant go to friends' birthday parties? or swimming lessons? what price can you put on the fact that your children have had 5 years without the opportunities their peers had because the bank you trusted, partnered with was taking 100s extra per month? what is the price of missed family occasions, or of missed job opportunities?
what do you think is an appropriate level of compensation for the mental health load the constant struggle of years to fund their mistake?

To say you can appeal to most people who have for years been fighting a monolith of a bank, who have been struggling for years to repay their mistake, to suggest it is a matter of appealling to the SAME monolith who already took your money and in many cases your dignity is not a simple matter for many people.

I dont think you fully comprehend the stress people have been under and now are to face again.
 
Folks

Just to put this in context, a 0.15% overcharge works out at around €25 per month on a €200,000 mortgage.

The aggregate overcharged amount will now be repaid to borrowers, plus interest, plus compensation (appears to be double that interest amount), less any excess TRS already received by the borrower.

The redress payment (including the interest payment to allow for the time value of money) is intended to put borrowers back in the position that they would have been in had the overcharge not occurred.

The compensation payment is to allow for inconvenience, hardship, etc. It is unclear whether borrowers will be liable to pay tax on the compensation payments.

As Brendan says, an appeals process will be established in respect of any aspect of the redress and compensation payments. If a borrower is still not satisfied with these payments, they are free to make a complaint to the FSO.

The redress and compensation payments are not meant to represent a penalty - there is a separate process available to the Central Bank to sanction the banks for any breach of the CPC, etc.
 
Now now Clamball, I'm sure that the central bank will hit them where it hurts ...... an even more strongly worded letter.

In the meantime, they can continue to take money off people at 0.5% APR and loan it out at 12% APR.


There's a danger of some people creating stress for themselves for the sake of stress - in some caess its called catastrophy syndrome.

Judging by your figures you were overcharge about €35 a month or about net €27 a month after TRS differential.

Now, I and many others have been overcharged by about €500 a month by KBC. As a second time buyer I don't get the full value TRS, so I don't even get that.


Can I ask, what level of stress does €27 a month cause? Cos when interest rates start rising eventually, the payments will go up by a lot more than that.

As for BOI "earning 12% on your money" - They've been able to tap negative interest rates or zero interest rate son the market for many years now, so they haven't been earning 12%.

Maybe a bit of reality - you were affceted miniscullly by this. Others have been affected by €5,000 - €10,000 PER YEAR. Now THAT is stressful.

€27? Naw.
 
Sarenco, your figures are bang on in my case.

When I say the compensation is too low, I am not talking about for myself. I am thinking of the people that were overcharged by hundreds and were genuinely impacted.


However, just to put things in context... My husband was made redundant when the recession hit and money was unbelievably tight. €25 is nothing to some people, but for a long time, that was my weekly shopping budget for a family of 3, so that extra money would have absolutely helped. Maybe people could be a little bit more sensitive and remember that it is all relative when dismissing what they consider ‘minuscule amounts’. Equally, there might be people that were overcharged by hundreds each month that won’t have even felt the squeeze.

There are so many different scenarios, that it is nigh on impossible for a ‘one size fits all’ calculation for compensation. I think this is just a starting point for banks. Some people will take it and move on. Others will feel that they deserve more and should present their case to the banks.

The banks aren’t responsible for my financial hardship and we would have struggled even if we hadn’t have been overcharged, so I’m not looking for compensation and have no interest in wasting time going through an appeals process. I think I remember Brendan posting up figures of the outcomes of such appeals. I can’t recall the exact numbers, but it certainly wasn’t a favorable outcome for most customers, which makes you wonder if there is a point, but I wish anyone going through it the very best of luck.

I only posted up my case because it seems I am one of the first phase to receive a letter and I thought people would like to know how BOI are handling their redress and what to expect. It certainly wasn’t to start a debate on who is more deserving of the right to feel aggrieved.

I have an issue with BOI using the TRS refund to manipulate figures in their favour and also not honoring their previous statement that they would allow a payment for financial advice. I will pursue that with them and see where I get. In my case, it is the principle of the matter and isn’t going to make a huge difference financially, so I’m not going to devote too much time and energy in fighting it.
 
If you had taken money from BOI over 3 or 4 or 9 years and then they you went to pay it back - if it was 4000 over 6 or 7 years, do you think they would accept that you should only pay them 200 compensation over the due amount ?
I think they wopuld look for interest at their overdraft rate so why dont they compensate in like measure - what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, or does that not apply to banks?
 
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