One Account rates cut

Poj

Just emailed John McFall, he seems to be serious about this matter, & in a position to exert some influence [old article from 6/11 though]:



Banks and building societies were today put on "red alert" that they must pass on the 1.5% interest rate cut to customers – or face possible parliamentary intervention.

In a veiled threat, John McFall, chairman of the Treasury select committee, said financial institutions had been "defying the laws of arithmetic" by not passing on rate cuts and he warned it was a "very live issue" with MPs.
"This dramatic drop in interest rates should send a red alert to the banks and other financial institutions that they must pass on this cut to customers."

Asked if government would take steps to compel banks and building societies to pass on the rate cut, McFall said: "My committee is looking at the banking crisis and this is certainly a very live issue. In the last few weeks, banks and building societies have been defying the laws of arithmetic by not passing on interest rate cuts to customers."

Saran_2

At least we know now.

I have lodged a formal complaint (again) - quoting FSA TCF outcomes (thank you woodham1963) - don't really expect a resolution but can't take it further without going through OA complaints first.

Now in the process of moving mortgage and cancelling/transferring my Direct Line car insurance, Tesco life insurance (backed by UK Insurance an RBS group company) and my Direct Line home insurance.

Voting with ones feet - it's all we can really do!

bigstuw

Personally I am pleased with the 1% cut, and although it is not the full 1.5% can understand why they have not made the full cut. If rates fall again this week, by say .5% I would expect that the account will fall again by at least .25% if not the full .5%.

RBS are in a troubled financial market, and are trying to maximise their revenue, it's all part of the game.

Personally the biggest rip off at the moment are energy prices, which considering wholesale GAS and OIL prices are down 60%, how much have your power providers lopped off your bills each month? The focus on Banking and interest rates seems to have allowed the energy companies to slip past the radar in the last 6 months.

apap

Now that we know where we stand, we have to make our own decision regarding
cost vs flexibility and decide what to do next.

Personally I will be moving my mortgage from oneaccount at the first opportunity.

Current crises and this saga with oneaccount thought me one thing though:

NEVER TO TRUST BANKS AGAIN.

Hopefully content of this forum will be available to view for few years to warn
new potential customers re oneaccount.

It is unlikely but I would like to think that our posts and affords made some contribution to the decision and thank everybody who contributed to this forum.

Dualcyclone

Although I'm happy with the 1% cut I've noticed today; it was promised the full 1.5% cut would be applied.

So, what do we do now? Sit it out and see what happens?

If another 0.5% cut were to come, and we only saw a further 0.25%, RBS would be making a clear 1.85% more over the base rate, which is a lot more than the original 1.1% over the base rate when I first opened the account; I personally think thats a liberty.

RichieC_2

I emailed BBC Breakfast this morning. I suggest you all do the same as if enough people do this then they will make it a news item on the show.

Also email your MP as it seems the Govt are getting involved here.

One Account told me this morning they are not the same as RBS even thought they admitted they were RBS (work that one out). They also said they only made the decision to cut rates today, hence we had not received letters about this. This seems strange as the computers were offline updating rates overnight.

Vancat

Do you think the powers that be at One Account, who admitted to following this thread, cut the 1% today to try to avert the mass mailing we had planned tonight?
Seems like a very big coincidence that today was the day they suddenly stopped "reviewing the rate".
Are we still mailing an updated version of the letter to AD? Or have we let OA off the hook for the time being? (By the way, before any OA lovers start banging on about moving to another lender/selling up etc if we don't like it....I am in the uneviable position of just losing my job thro redundancy after 13 years; not an option)...so please don't bother with that sort of unhelpful "advice"!!:rolleyes:
VC

RichieC_2

Vancat wrote: »

Do you think the powers that be at One Account, who admitted to following this thread, cut the 1% today to try to avert the mass mailing we had planned tonight?
Seems like a very big coincidence that today was the day they suddenly stopped "reviewing the rate".
Are we still mailing an updated version of the letter to AD? Or have we let OA off the hook for the time being? (By the way, before any OA lovers start banging on about moving to another lender/selling up etc if we don't like it....I am in the uneviable position of just losing my job thro redundancy after 13 years; not an option)...so please don't bother with that sort of unhelpful "advice"!!:rolleyes:
VC

If the email goes ahead and causes major problems for RBS that may also become a news item, so I suggest yes.

As a newbie, can you tell me whether this was to happen through a regular email or using the online banking site?

Thanks.

Princess_Coupon

I had set myself a requirement of over 1% cut to be satisfied, just 1% is not enough due to the 0.25% rise and 0.25% not passed on, they are taking us for fools, big companies take advice on how to pass on bad news they were clearly told to hang on till the issue is off the boil with the press etc and till the customers are so dejected that when the news comes they will be over the moon to get anything. I used to work for one of the big 3 mobile phone companies I have been in high level meetings to discuss how to pass on bad news to staff regarding major changes to the company. The strategy was to start rumours that far worse things were happening, whip the staff up into a frenzy then tell them the real bad news, and they will actually be pleased (it was fairly successful). High up in RBS they will have had meetings about meetings to arrange meetings around this with experts advising.
So yes things have changed we have 1% we know where we stand, but for me there has been little change and I will now lodge a formal complaint with OA and when it is rejected I will escalate, I shall continue to email the papers and pursue my MP.

iain1970

It's nice to see RBS have put the Offset mortgage rate page back on the internet. Apparently, the rate has been 4.95% since 7th July 2008 to 28th November 2008. As we all know, this is complete lies and is, I believe, deliberate misleading information and not correct advertising.

http://www.rbs.co.uk/personal/mortgages/g2/offset.ashx

I have phoned and ranted and have advised that I will be contacting their Customer Complaints dept and the FSA. I will be demanding a refund of interest too for that period stated online.

For those One Account customers jumping ship to HSBC tracker, are you putting all your savings in so that your capital borrowed matches you old One Account net capital balances? If not, it doesn't seem worthwhile.