One Account rates cut

RichieC_2

woodam1963 wrote: »

I for one have no intention of letting them off the hook. The four things I am currently working on are:

1) An online petition to Downing Street is already pending (see below). Even though RBS have passed on a 1% cut, the principles and aims of this petition are still as valid as ever (if not more so now that we know exactly where we stand)facts. I'll post the link on here as soon as I hear that it's live.

2) A dedicated website to provide a place where people can pool their resources, links, templates etc to make sure the campaign is as coordinated as possible. I feel this is best done as an industrywide forum (i.e. not just for One Account / RBS customers). I'll do a link to this site for the purposes of the disucssion forum in order to keep things integrated. I hope to have a URL posted and a basic home page built for this within 24 hours maximum.

3) Letter to FSA re RBS's failure to adhere to three of six the Basic 'Treating Customers Fairly' principles. Again within 24 hours

4) Some form of mass media release - to my mind this should, again, be about the wider mortgage industry issue, but probably use RBS as the highest profile 'target' (especially given the taxpayer majority ownership aspect). I've already started drafting this (though it's worth thinking about what the optimum timing for this will be for maxium impact).


The online petition...

Your petition reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to use the
British taxpayers' status as the majority shareholder in Royal
Bank of Scotland (as of 28 November 2008) to usher in far more
equitable, transparent and consistent lending policies toward
exisiting mortgage customers. And, specifically, actively to
discourage RBS from using cuts in the BOE base rate as an
opportunity to boost profit margins at the direct expense of
mortgage customers.

UK banks continue cynically to use changes in the Bank Of
England (BOE) base rate to exploit customer inertia and boost
their profit margins on mortgage products.

On 6 November 2008 the BOE cut its base rate by an
unprecedented 1.5% to 3%, the lowest level since 1955.

Following a good deal of pressure from the Government, and a
media outcry, RBS in common with other major banks and building
societies reluctantly passed on the rate cut to customers. Or
did they? The mortgage interest rate of tens of thousands of
variable rate 'One Account’ (wholly owned by RBS) customers
has, in fact, remained completely unchanged (as of 29 November
'08). However, this has somehow passed 'underneath the radar'.

We're talking about serious amounts of money here - £250 a
month for someone with a mortgage of £200,000.

With the British taxpayer now owning a majority stake in RBS,
the government has a unique opportunity to demonstrate that it
is prepared to intervene in situations where a state-owned (or
majority-owned) business is acting in a way that flies so
blatantly in the face of government wishes, values and
rhetoric...not to mention basic standards of fairness and
openness with customers.

Thank you for submitting your petition.

[ This email has been automatically sent by the Number 10
petitions system ]

Hi Woodam.

Any news on the petition yet?

Keep up the good works.

Cheers.

woodam1963

more pressure on RBS!. No mealy mouth about the cuts only being applied to SVR customers from LTSB.


Lloyds to pass on any rate change


Another 1% rate cut would save £85 on a £150,000 repayment mortgage


Lloyds TSB will pass on any cut in interest rates by the Bank of England this week to all existing customers with variable and tracker mortgages.
The bank, in the throes of rescuing its rival HBOS, will pass on any cut in bank rate on 1 January 2009.
It will also pass on, to some extent, any cut to new borrowers who take out fixed or tracker-rate deals.
The Bank of England is widely expected to cut its bank rate again on Thursday, from 3% to as low as 2%.
See who has cut mortgage rates

"Whatever the size of the cut, if base rate comes down tomorrow, we'll pass the full benefit on to our existing customers," said Stephen Noakes of the Cheltenham & Gloucester, the main mortgage lending arm of Lloyds TSB.
"As soon as we know the impact of the base rate decision on wholesale funding costs, we will launch our new fixed and tracker rates.
"If we can make a saving on funding new mortgage products, we will look to pass this on," he said.
The bank will withdraw temporarily all its current tracker deals for new borrowers at the end of business on Wednesday.
When bank rate was unexpectedly lowered from 4.5% to 3% last month lenders came under intense pressure from the government to immediately pass it on to their borrowers, especially those on standard variable rates. However the head of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, Michael Coogan, said yesterday it was "both short-sighted and counter productive" for the government to ask for lenders to do this. "Although a small percentage of borrowers - around 10% - may have a short-term financial benefit, this disregards the larger number of savers on fixed incomes dependent on their investment returns - the elderly and charities being two major examples of disadvantaged groups when rates fall," he said.

gill5blue

Hi
I have just recieved a letter from the One account and is states that they have reduced their interst rate by one percent?????????
NEVER MIND
gill5blue

RCG99

gill5blue wrote: »

Hi
I have just recieved a letter from the One account and is states that they have reduced their interst rate by one percent?????????
NEVER MIND
gill5blue

they did that on Monday 1st , what we want is the other .5%

lisyloo

they did that on Monday 1st , what we want is the other .5%

Any reason you didn't get a BOE tracker then?

RCG99

lisyloo wrote: »

Any reason you didn't get a BOE tracker then?

I did, in 1999 I took out a Virgin One account, which faithfully tracked the BOE rates, until RBS took over. :eek:

RichieC_2

RCG99 wrote: »

I did, in 1999 I took out a Virgin One account, which faithfully tracked the BOE rates, until RBS took over. :eek:

Like many, I took out my One Account when it was still run by Virgin. It was sold to me on the basis that it would track the base rate. It was explained to me that interest rate changes would occur the day after any BOE change and this was possible as the One Account calculated interest on a daily basis. I was told that other mortages could not do this as they calculated interest monthly.

Hence this was a major selling point to have a One Account instead of any other mortgage (more mis-selling)

woodam1963

RichieC wrote: »

Like many, I took out my One Account when it was still run by Virgin. It was sold to me on the basis that it would track the base rate. It was explained to me that interest rate changes would occur the day after any BOE change and this was possible as the One Account calculated interest on a daily basis. I was told that other mortages could not do this as they calculated interest monthly.

Hence this was a major selling point to have a One Account instead of any other mortgage (more mis-selling)

How in the world The One Account can expect to be able to send out millions of individual customer letters over the years like the one linked to below, and then get away with doing precisely the opposite when push comes to shove simply beggars belief. Remember this is now a majority taxpayer-owned business - the government will be as tarnished as the One Account management if they don't give customers what they were promised:

http://www.gripplespider.com/OneAccount/one-account-break-promise.html

lisyloo

I did, in 1999 I took out a Virgin One account, which faithfully tracked the BOE rates, until RBS took over

So are you saying they are renaging on their legal obligations to track the BOE rate?
Or that you made an assumption (gamble) that hasn't worked out?

I'm not saying that it was the wrong thing at the time, it may have been perfectly justified, but the two are completely different things and you need to recognise the difference to prevent any future possible mistakes.

woodam1963

lisyloo wrote: »

So are you saying they are renaging on their legal obligations to track the BOE rate?
Or that you made an assumption (gamble) that hasn't worked out?

I'm not saying that it was the wrong thing at the time, it may have been perfectly justified, but the two are completely different things and you need to recognise the difference to prevent any future possible mistakes.

nope we're all saying that they promised: http://www.gripplespider.com/OneAccount/one-account-break-promise.html .
No amount of retrospective weasel words can get them out of a commitment like this.