One Account rates cut

Coveredinbees!!!!

That 0.5 would be nice plus the other 0.5% from the 0.25% raise and the 0.25% they never passed on. Even the 0.5% would save an extra £4.20 per £10000 per month, that's a lot of extra money they are raking in.


Say it quietly but the current rate I'm on of 5.1% isn't that bad in the current market but really it's no excuses for profiteering, a lot of other lenders don't appear to be passing on the 1.5% either.

blisteringblue

Glad we've at least got something. Anyway feel sorry even more for me, not only do I have the one account I've also still got some share in RBS for few £s that they are worth. Talk about giving somebody a good kicking when they are down :-)

russ295

malocao wrote: »

I have filed a complaint today on three grounds:
* They haven't delivered on RBS Group's 1.5% promise
* Interest rate margin over LIBOR is now much higher than it was - i.e. their price has been hiked unilaterally
* LIBOR has fallen almost 2% in last 4 weeks - so they have only passed on half of their lower cost of funds

I think our mailshot to the Chancellor is still justified - all the grounds for objection are still valid, although in smaller amounts than yesterday

i agree, but even if libor had increased the banks are still profiteering after their promise and after being told by the government to pass this rate cut.
if you borrow£100k on a mortgage the bank doesnt borrow £100k to cover it.
do you think a bank would lend you £100k just to earn the difference between libor and their interest rate!

libor would have to be at an astrinomical rate before the banks ran at a loss.
i know every business has to make money, but with excessive bank charges, high lenders fees and refusing to pass on cuts its just another day in rip off england

will have to wait and see what the boe does this week and whether the oa goes through this pantomime all over again.

and yes i want my 0.5%.:mad:

russ

mr_jolly

Coveredinbees!!!! wrote: »

That 0.5 would be nice plus the other 0.5% from the 0.25% raise and the 0.25% they never passed on. Even the 0.5% would save an extra £4.20 per £10000 per month, that's a lot of extra money they are raking in.


Say it quietly but the current rate I'm on of 5.1% isn't that bad in the current market but really it's no excuses for profiteering, a lot of other lenders don't appear to be passing on the 1.5% either.

I'm inclined to agree.

I think what's annoyed me the most about the last 3 weeks has been the reluctance of the OA management to make an announcement either way. As a result my perception of the OA has changed for the worse. When I took out my first Virgin OA mortgage back in 1999 they seemed like a friendly organisation who aimed to treat their customers fairly. Whether they admit to it now, or not, their stated intention was to always track the BOE rate changes and, up until a year ago, they did. Then they started to slip. This was a bit disappointing but I *though* I understood their reasons for not following the rate as religiously as they used to.

Now the last three weeks experience has made me think two things: firstly they can't be trusted to be straight with me anymore, and secondly their reluctance to track the BOE rate is more about profiteering than avoiding insolvency due to a decreasing margin between their LIBOR borrowing rate and their lending rate.

I feel sorry for the people working for the OA. If you check the "Job Centre" section of their website it looks like OA employees are offered benefits relating to taking out an OA mortgage. So, presumably, some of the people answering the phones at the OA are probably as fed up as about the rate-change debacle the people calling them. I think customers (us!) should try to remember this when calling to "enquire" about their rates .

They're going to have to work hard to re-build the PR disaster of the last three weeks - both with their customers and, I expect, with their own staff.

Vancat

mr_jolly wrote: »

I'm inclined to agree.

Whether they admit to it now, or not, their stated intention was to always track the BOE rate changes and, up until a year ago, they did. Then they started to slip. This was a bit disappointing but I *though* I understood their reasons for not following the rate as religiously as they used to.

I saved this from 1999...(no idea why...I think it was posted on here by a helpful MSE'er a while back....)
Press Releases
VIRGIN DIRECT DROPS RATES AS RESEARCH SHOWS PUBLIC TRUST COULD BE DAMAGED IF CUT IS NOT PASSED ON TO MORTGAGE CUSTOMERS


[IMG]http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/mhtml:file://C:\Documents and Settings\user\Desktop\Banking\Virgin Direct drops rates as research shows public trust could be damaged if cut is not passed onto mortgage customers.mht!http://uk.virginmoney.com/assets/shim.gif[/IMG]10.06.1999
Virgin Direct is dropping mortgage rates for its One account mortgage customers by the full 0.25% for both new and existing customers following the Bank of England’s base rate cut announced today.
The drop – which is unlikely to be fully passed on by many lenders – is effective from midnight tonight for Virgin One account customers.
However, MORI research conducted among mortgage customers following the most recent rate cut – which was passed on only partially by some companies - suggests that customers’ trust may be damaged if the same reaction greets today’s cut.
In the research:

• 56% of people agreed that the trust they have in their bank or building society would be damaged if they didn’t change their variable interest rate in line with the Bank of England;
• 74% agreed that they would rather see their interest rate on mortgages go down than the rate on their savings go up (among people with both mortgages and savings);
• 95% agreed that their bank or building society should make it clear to them how they will react to any future rate cut: and,

Virgin’s commitment to follow any Bank of England gives One account customers reassurance that the company is continuing to apply rate cuts swiftly. Virgin is writing to inform customers today
Rowan Gormley, Chief Executive of Virgin Direct, said:
"We are pleased, once again, to be one of the first companies to commit to a full reduction for mortgage customers. With new mortgage business running high at the moment, any failure among lenders to match the cut could have a major impact on homeowners’ finances."


They actually used to brag about being the first to drop rates for the benefit of their customers!!
VC

musicegbdf

Vancat wrote: »

I saved this from 1999...(no idea why...I think it was posted on here by a helpful MSE'er a while back....)
Press Releases
VIRGIN DIRECT DROPS RATES AS RESEARCH SHOWS PUBLIC TRUST COULD BE DAMAGED IF CUT IS NOT PASSED ON TO MORTGAGE CUSTOMERS


10.06.1999
Virgin Direct is dropping mortgage rates for its One account mortgage customers by the full 0.25% for both new and existing customers following the Bank of England’s base rate cut announced today.
The drop – which is unlikely to be fully passed on by many lenders – is effective from midnight tonight for Virgin One account customers.
However, MORI research conducted among mortgage customers following the most recent rate cut – which was passed on only partially by some companies - suggests that customers’ trust may be damaged if the same reaction greets today’s cut.
In the research:

• 56% of people agreed that the trust they have in their bank or building society would be damaged if they didn’t change their variable interest rate in line with the Bank of England;
• 74% agreed that they would rather see their interest rate on mortgages go down than the rate on their savings go up (among people with both mortgages and savings);
• 95% agreed that their bank or building society should make it clear to them how they will react to any future rate cut: and,

Virgin’s commitment to follow any Bank of England gives One account customers reassurance that the company is continuing to apply rate cuts swiftly. Virgin is writing to inform customers today
Rowan Gormley, Chief Executive of Virgin Direct, said:
"We are pleased, once again, to be one of the first companies to commit to a full reduction for mortgage customers. With new mortgage business running high at the moment, any failure among lenders to match the cut could have a major impact on homeowners’ finances."


They actually used to brag about being the first to drop rates for the benefit of their customers!!
VC

OK I still have a copy of a little book given to me by OA which is dated feb 1999 and promises always to offer competitive intrest rates with the aim to always be below the Halifax SVR (which they quote as the industry standard) , and then they lay out detail of the Halifax SVR and the OA rate to prove they are cheaper...
I have written to them to ask why they are not complying with this now. I intend to continue this with a complaint to the FSA for mis selling if they do respond correctly.
The book was called "The essential guide" and it was on page 22.

Agree with woodham1963 that we need to keep pressure up, and not sit back making trivial comments and thereby dilute this forum as OA will only see this as a victory and short change us again.

woodam1963

Wow - all credit to Vancat for managing to dig out this release. I agree that the reference to the speed of response to a rate cut is interesting, but I'm even more interested in the strong suggestion that the rate would ALWAYS respond to changes in the base rate!

Virgin’s commitment to follow any Bank of England gives One account customers reassurance that the company is continuing to apply rate cuts swiftly. Virgin is writing to inform customers today
Rowan Gormley, Chief Executive of Virgin Direct, said:
"We are pleased, once again, to be one of the first companies to commit to a full reduction for mortgage customers. With new mortgage business running high at the moment, any failure among lenders to match the cut could have a major impact on homeowners’ finances."

This is pretty unequivocal. It doesn't make it make it clear whether the commitment extends to the size of the rate move as well as the fact it's moved. So the big question now, is whether RBS have formally withdrawn that commitment or just kept quiet about it for several years in the hope that customers would forget all about it? If it's the latter, then we're definitely onto something, particularly as any customer that was with the One Account when this commitment was made (which is as good as saying all the rest of us as well, as there's no way they'd dare - or probably be able to technically - drop the rate for some customers but not others.

In practical terms, if this 'commitment' can be shown to be in existence - whether legally or morally - it would make it near-impossible for RBS not to pass some or all of the next base rate cut...especially with the government breathing over their shoulder.


One other ironic aspect of all this is the fact that the letter is signed by Rowan Gormley. Rowan was the very much the brains behind this product and he was incredibly passionate about it being totally different (and better) to anything else on the market, which to be fair was delivered on for many years. I mentioned in a previous post how let down I felt that a product I was closely involved in has been left to fall into such disrepute by RBS in recent years. Rowan clearly feels exactly the same way, as he joined my Facebook Group ('decamp') over the weekend, which has been set up as another forum for protests about RBS's - and others' - behaviour in recent vv interest rates.

Vancat

I'm afraid I can't take the credit for digging this out originally; as I said, it was posted previously by another forum member a while ago, and I saved the web page. It was on Virgin finance pages, and was a Press release.
It may still be available on Virgin finance?
Unfortunately it won't help me, as we joined OneAccount in 2003, but it was still one of the main reasons we took out the mortgage, after many years of lender changing.....and sometimes getting royally stuffed by exit fees on fixed rates!:rolleyes: WE definately bought in because of their pledge to always follow any changes in rates. We have taken the rises when the base rate has risen, without question; we knew this was the deal. But when OA had the audacity to raise the rate this year when rates had dropped:eek: ....and then refuse to pass on another drop, that's when the OA let everyone down....and because they got away with it then, I suspect they thought they could carry on.
Still, I've just taken out all of my (50% of mortgage) savings which I had offset, and stuck it in a fixed rate account at 6.3%. I'm marginally worse off after tax....but I'm blowed if I'm keeping it in OA!:p
VC

Fedupofthebankers2008

Hi everyone, Another Newbie here....prompted into joining as I'm JUST SO ANNOYED with RBS :mad:

Just to let you know I fully support the action & last night emailed the 17 or so organisations identified & my local MP (David Laws - Lib Dem)

I too joined The One Account in Branson's day, then left and rejoined! So I've fallen for the sales pitch twice...:o

I now have what I think they call the Flexible account...Has the usual flexibility but I have a separate current account. Rate was 6.05% so I assume as of yesterday it's 5.05% but I've not had confirmation.
Let's keep up the pressure & well done to you all! :T

connavar

i wrote to my mp last week (before i found this thread and before the rate cut yesterday) and this was her reply

I am extremely disappointed to hear that RBS have not passed on any of the 1.5% interest rate cut after informing you that the account would track the Bank of England base rate. I believe those banks which have received Government funding have an extra onus on them to act in a responsible manor and honour all commitments made to their customers. If they are unable to do this there is a strong case for the Government taking a role in running their affairs.
I shall write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer putting your concerns to him and will request that he arrange for someone from his Department provide a response to the points which you have raised. I will also write to the Chief Executive of RBS asking for an explanation. I shall write to you again once I have received responses.
In the meantime if you feel I can be of any further assistance on this or any other issue please do not hesitate to get in touch.
With Best Wishes,
Katy Clark

thanks katy - and keep up the good work everyone