Letter from a Danske captive customer to Michael Noonan

Eureka101

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Below is what I sent to Cental Bank and Mr Noonan to highlight the Danske situation for myself and thousands of others. ( copied and pasted using I phone so apologies for format)

It made me feel better that I had at least communicated my feelings instead of just sitting here getting worked up..!!

CB encouraged me to write in to help them gauge customer sentiment.

It's a step if nothing else...


Dear Sir/ Madam & Mr Noonan TD,

I appreciate you are all busy people so thankyou for allowing me to highlight my concerns regarding the negative impact of Danske Bank, here in Ireland.

Danske Bank no longer provide retail banking in Ireland, therefore are unable to provide any options or services to customers.

Danske Bank no longer provide a 'Bricks and Mortar' retail banking service, products or options.
Pepper Asset Management 'Service' the mortgages yet are unable to offer any options or services as they are not a Bank...

The only option Pepper Asset Management want to offer is 'restructuring' which for me is totally inappropriate as we pay our mortgage in full and on time. We are a good bet, not a toxic loan.

Therefore, What exactly are the 'Market Conditions'mentioned inDanske Bank mortgage contracts that can possibly justify an SVR rate of 4.95%, taking into account my points above?!

It could be perceived that Danske Bank and Pepper Asset Management are exploiting their 'Captive Audience' whereby they offer nothing yet can sit back and charge unjustifiably high rates.

Do we pay an extra 0.5% over the the perceived high rates of 4.5% charged by 'functioning Irish banks', purely to pay for Pepper Asset Management?
Why do ourselves and others like us deserve to be in this'Captive' situation and who is looking out for us and approximately 14000 otherDanske Bank customers?

Are Danske Bank & Pepper Asset Management regulated by the Central Bank?

Regardless, it could be perceived that the Government and the Central Bank are allowing this to happen and doing nothing to stop these companies exploiting solvent, honest and hard working Irish customers.

Why are we and other Danske Bank customers being discriminated against purely because we are customers of a bank that decided to exit the country?

Also, what happens if an inevitable rate increase sends many Danske Bank customers into arrears? Would this potentially be a big step backwards for the industry as a whole.?

We are terrified of an inevitable rate increase and frustrated at paying excessively high rates for the pleasure of being discriminated against, whilst the rest of the Irish banking industry are slowly starting to offer options to customers to take control of their housing situations.

Why are Danske Bank customers allowed to be treated differently and denied these opportunities?

For example, if our rate was reduced, it would enable us to pay off more of the borrowed capital and reduce our LTV so we could move to a larger house.
This could only be good for the market as a whole if like minded customers were able to do the same without being held back by Danske Bank

Purely from a business point of view, would it not be better for Danske Bank customers to be paying interest to an Irish Bank that you may be intending of selling off at some point in the future?

Can Danske Bank be forced to sell their loan book to a functioning bank to allow customers to benefit from the options that are beginning to appear in the market?

Please see the link below of customer sentiment regarding 'Captive customers'

Mortgage rates and options for captive customers | Askaboutmoney.com - the consumer forum


[broken link removed]





Mortgage rates and options for captive customers | Askab...
The rates published by the Central Bank and by the ECB are for new customers – which includes existing mortgage holders who have a clear credit record...

View on askaboutmoney.com
Preview by Yahoo



I have also attached a letter i received from Danske Bank last year, inviting me to contact them regarding the possible options of, and i quote 'Agree a new fixed rate, continue with an SVR ( even though my current agreement at that time was fixed ) or Revert to an ECB Tracker....!!!!

I then wasted 2 weeks trying to avoid the 'cut off date' of 28th April with no call backs from Danske Bank, only to eventually be told ' You should not have received this letter'..!!

Can you imagine the stress and frustration of not only our mortgage increasing by nearly €100 overnight but that i had spent 2 weeks under the impression i could actually reduce costs..!!

I have included this to help you see the bigger picture and to help you gauge the contempt in which this Bank treats their customers, when combined with all of the above points.

I do not wish this letter to be interperated as 'poor me' as we realise we are still more fortunate than many others who have lost their homes.

However, this is an injustice and a scandalous abuse of the situation and i believe it needs to be highlighted.

I truly appreciate this opportunity to have ours and no doubt thousands of other customers concerns, heard, and hopefully addressed.

Yours Sincerely

Martin


Good stuff, hopefully he'll give him the grilling he deserves but I won't be holding my breath. He does need to remind him about the fact that when you're in negative equity and high LTV that you can't switch or negotiate so basically you're trapped by the banks on high SVR. I'll try emailing him about this to make sure he asks him.
 
Hi Eureka

Fair play to you for taking this initiative.

The position of Danske borrowers was precisely what I had in mind in suggesting a statutory cap that is calculated by reference to an average market rate.

The Court of Appeal decision in the Millar case has effectively closed the contractual argument so really some form of political intervention would be required at this stage to improve your position.

I hope that some political party takes up this cause in a meaningful way as I do think that Danske borrowers are in a very unfortunate position.
 
Hello,

Long suffering Danske Bank customer here. I too wrote to Michael Noonan re my variable interest Mortgage - below is his repsonse(fob off) :

----------------------------
Dear,


I wish to acknowledge receipt of your recent email regarding mortgage interest rates. I also wish to apologise for the delay in responding which was caused by the pressure of other work.

As you know, I met with senior management of Ireland's six main mortgage lenders to discuss the issue of mortgage interest rates in May. The banks agreed to review their rates and products and, by the beginning of July, to have simple options to reduce monthly mortgage payments for SVR customers. In addition to the issue of rates, I also outlined the need for greater competition in the market and the need for a more active and well-resourced campaign by the individual banks. This should focus on promoting awareness of their best offering and how easy it is for customers to take up new products and switch between different institutions if they wish to avail of better rates. I should be clear that I did not meet with Danske Bank but competition should exert downward pressure on other lenders to reduce their rates in line with the six banks.

The position of home owners who are in negative equity was also discussed with the six banks and assurances were sought and received that these home owners would be able to avail of options to reduce their monthly repayments. I should clarify that this was in the context of staying with their original lender rather than switching a negative equity mortgage. The lending institutions in Ireland - including those in which the State has a significant shareholding - are independent commercial entities. I, as Minister for Finance, have no statutory role in relation to how they carry out their business or whether they choose to provide services to particular categories of customers.

The main lenders have now made announcements regarding new initiatives and products for their SVR customers. A review of what progress has been made is now taking place. A follow up set of meetings with the banks will take place in September and I will consider the issue again at that stage.

I trust this information clarifies the position.


Yours sincerely,



Michael Noonan TD
Minister for Finance.

-------------------------
 
I received the exact same email from Minister Noonan. I will send him my reply at the ballot box. I also emailed him and my local tds stating my disappointment.
 
Hello,

It seems to me that the Banks that closed up, or "exited the Irish market" have been allowed a very free hand with regards to future arrangements with their customers.

Sure, at one level, they are contratually bound, but at another level:

They fail to provide a satisfactory ongoing service (whether it's for easy access to account information, top up mortgages to fund traditional items such as house extensions etc. hence compelling people to have to refinance at potentially more expensive rates (for tracker customers) and no compensation)

There is no apparant desite from the Irish Government to interact regularly with these Banks, to ensure the public interest is properly represented (when it comes to say lending rates), hence they can do pretty much what they want and their customers must pay the price

The Government and Central Bank have handled this badly to date, with Banks such as Danske, Rabobank (ACC) and Hallifax being just a few of the institutions needing to be dealt with.

In my view, people need to really start applying pressure on the Government and all local politicans to take action now, with an election on the way, it's the one time something small just might get done to help everyone.

We as a nation have put up with far too much for far too long, sitting quietly when action was needed and then complaining in the local pub (eh, or on this website ;)). If we want change, we must press hard for it (no matter what the topic of concern may be)....
 
Moved from this thread:
"Noonan to pressure banks to cut mortgage rates again"

Will this include Danske though.? 4.95% svr....

He has so far refused to engage with Danske for some reason, denying these customers the chance to pay down some debt and maybe create a chance for themselves to switch.

This is his mantra after all..

Ps. Well done and thankyou Brendan on staying strong and never giving up hope. There seems to be a glimmer at last...!
 
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Guys

The whole Danske situation shows why some form of legislative control is necessary.

It doesn't matter if AIB cuts rates by 1%.
It doesn't matter if a new competitor comes into the market.

If you are a Danske variable rate customer and can't move, there is nothing you can do. If they raise interest rates to 10% tomorrow, you can't do anything and it appears that the Central Bank won't do anything as the Governor believes that it would be interfering in the market.

The previous governor was not as ideological as the present governor. In November 2014, he told an Oireachtas Committee

“It would not be a good idea to introduce a regime of tightly controlled mortgage rates.However, I would make an exception. [for] mortgages that are sold to non-banks, ones that are simply harvesting those mortgages without getting involved in new business. It may be that there should be some limitation on the degree to which they could deviate from market practice.”

In other words, it’s ok for the banks we supervise to fleece Irish borrowers, but we don’t care about the lenders whom we don’t supervise.
 
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