One Account rates cut

Yorkshire_Bred

karanda wrote: »

By the way, I had a letter today from RBS One Account, explaining why they did not pass on the latest interest rate cut. It was printed on - wait for it - a Virgin One Account letterhead. Their argument not to move interest rates is:
quote]


This is what confuses me, I received yesterday my annual review from the OA and again like the cheque books it carries the V1 logo?

Is this a product that doesn't know who owns it or a RBS reminiscing to the days when they made a profit!:rotfl:

Poj

Just had an enlightening chat with 'Mel' :

Peter: Hi, I would like to know why we have not had the latest rate cut passed on?
Mel: This is something you will need to discuss with the service team. They will able to give your further details as to why this has not been passed on.
Mel: The number for them is 08456 000 000.
Peter: What do you guys deal with here then?
Mel: We are the sales team and generally answer questions about how the account works or how to apply.
Peter: Is the One Account a seperate entity within RBS, ie not linked to either Nat West or RBS variable mortgages?
Mel: Yes. It would like Direct Line or Churchill. It is linked to RBS but the company is a separate one.
Mel: sorry - would be like
Peter: I just wondered why a customer was told the rate cut was not passed on, as it would be unfair to savers. But surely, the One Account does not have any savers?
Mel: If you think about it, any money you have sitting in the account is in effect savings. Therefore you keep saving interest on those at whatever rate the mortgage is on..
Mel: Also, it is possible to have a credit account, where all the money is savings as well. The rate on that has been kept the same as well.
Peter: err, that's ridiculous. It's all net debt, so the lower the rate the better.
Mel: Not all customers see it that way. It may all be net debt, but the lower the rate, the lower amount you save with the savings in the account. That means potentially longer to pay the mortgage off.
Peter: They are not real savings, they are offsets to the mortgage. It is all debt. This is the fundamental principle of the account. If you do not understand this, why on earth are you advising anyone about this account?
Mel: I am not advising anyone. I am here to purely sell the account without giving advise. I can certainly log your concerns but I still feel that this discussion is something you should be having with our service team rather than sales. They can also get someone to call back with more explanations and possibly looking at other options with the accounts.
Peter: OK, thanks. Bye.


Quality!

woodam1963

Poj wrote: »

Just had an enlightening chat with 'Mel' :

Peter: Hi, I would like to know why we have not had the latest rate cut passed on?
Mel: This is something you will need to discuss with the service team. They will able to give your further details as to why this has not been passed on.
Mel: The number for them is 08456 000 000.
Peter: What do you guys deal with here then?
Mel: We are the sales team and generally answer questions about how the account works or how to apply.
Peter: Is the One Account a seperate entity within RBS, ie not linked to either Nat West or RBS variable mortgages?
Mel: Yes. It would like Direct Line or Churchill. It is linked to RBS but the company is a separate one.
Mel: sorry - would be like
Peter: I just wondered why a customer was told the rate cut was not passed on, as it would be unfair to savers. But surely, the One Account does not have any savers?
Mel: If you think about it, any money you have sitting in the account is in effect savings. Therefore you keep saving interest on those at whatever rate the mortgage is on..
Mel: Also, it is possible to have a credit account, where all the money is savings as well. The rate on that has been kept the same as well.
Peter: err, that's ridiculous. It's all net debt, so the lower the rate the better.
Mel: Not all customers see it that way. It may all be net debt, but the lower the rate, the lower amount you save with the savings in the account. That means potentially longer to pay the mortgage off.
Peter: They are not real savings, they are offsets to the mortgage. It is all debt. This is the fundamental principle of the account. If you do not understand this, why on earth are you advising anyone about this account?
Mel: I am not advising anyone. I am here to purely sell the account without giving advise. I can certainly log your concerns but I still feel that this discussion is something you should be having with our service team rather than sales. They can also get someone to call back with more explanations and possibly looking at other options with the accounts.
Peter: OK, thanks. Bye.


Quality![/quote


truly breathtaking...especially the drivel about lower rates meaning that it will take longer to pay off a mortgage because the theoretical 'savings' are lower. Maybe we should be demaning that they raise our mortgage rate to 15%, ot even 115%...think how much we'd be getting paid on our savings then - and of course we'd all have our mortgages paid off in no time at all.

For interest POJ, did you record the call and then transcribe it word for word, or was this a summary based on your recollection of the conversation? The only reason I ask is that this is so obviously misleading information that it really needs exposing in some way so stop them peddling this rubbish to unsuspecting callers in the future.

Doh

i find this bit interesting:

possibly looking at other options with the accounts

i wonder what she meant there?

stevem999

Is there any chance of getting MSE, or another prominent journalist to take this one on? It strikes me that the regulators/ombudsman routes are either in the pocket of the banks or so bureaucratic that it's almost pointless. In addition I don't think they understand the One Account. RBS are in all the press saying they are passing on rate cuts in full, and their past bosses are sat in Parliament apologising, but in fact thousands of borrowers in a RBS company aren't getting any benefit.

The Bank of England Governor is saying he doesn't think rate cuts are having an effect - well that's because the banks aren't passing it on, which would leave us borrowers with some extra cash to go and spend and warm up the economy. I have no idea how we can own the bank but not get the benefit - how are MP's and regulators letting this happen? Surely there must be a way of getting a campaign started in the public eye.

Is there one of those No,10 e-petitions on this matter?

red789

It seems like there is one from the last round of non-rate cuts - may as well use the same one.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/RBSOneAccount/

Caspian101

The One Account used to really suit me, unfortunately it has now reached the point of being an expensive luxury, one that is too expensive to continue.

When I originally took out the account three years ago as a first time buyer, I was very impressed with the service, even though the rate wasn't that competitive; my wife is self employed, so it worked well with varied income.

Of course, all of this was before RBS decided to expand its profit margins by an additional 1.5% at our expense, and after their failure to pass on January's cut, I decided to see what else was out there...

I found out that First Direct do an offset, tracking at 1.89% above BOE Base Rate (So currently 2.89%); compared to the 4% on The One Account, it was an easy decision to look at remortgaging.

After confirming with FD that I would be eligible (They need 80% LTV) I called OA to see what they would do to try and keep me...

I am sure it will come as no surprise that they could do.... nothing....

Having spoken to someone on their Retention team, he just said that the 4% was competitive and represented current market conditions, when I gave him the FD rate (which I assume has also been set at current market conditions), he basically couldn't answer it or offer any incentives to keep me.

So, it is with some regret that I will be saying 'Adios' to OA, but financially it just doesn't add up any more. Just a few parting thoughts though...

- Are OA deliberately trying to shed customers? If this account isn't profitable for them, are they just deliberately keeping the rate non-competitive so that people do jump ship? (I Was, I confess, surprised at how little Retention tried to hang onto a customer)

- I have no question at all that OA would definitely track the rate back upwards again as BOE Base Rate eventually increases - at 3% over, if BOE goes back up to 5%, OA will settle out at 8%, certainly uncompetitive

- It took a long while to get to speak to Retention, I suspect they are VERY busy with people closing accounts, when I asked him how many people were leaving OA, he just went quiet for about ten seconds and said 'You will have to draw your own conclusions'

- FD seem to be doing very well out of this, callbacks for mortgage applications aren't being made for over four days, the lady I spoke to said that the demand for their mortgages was 'extraordinary', interesting given the figures from the Council of Mortgage Lenders saying lending was at a 35 year low...

- I wish all of you well in your continued fight to get these uncompetitive practices brought to task

lrr_2

red789 wrote: »

It seems like there is one from the last round of non-rate cuts - may as well use the same one.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/RBSOneAccount/

Just signed it but not many signatures on it though.

Lets get as many as possible to sign it.

mrbigd

Signed up!

camz2008

At £800 for signing up, that's a hell of a lot of cash. In fact at current OA rates that's 10 months interest payments for us.

If FD dropped their signing up fee to £200-£300 it might be more competitive, but given that with the large sign up fee, you will be funding the first 3-12 months interest yourself, you won't start making a profit until 2010, and what will be the situation then?

I can understand it if you're on ££££ per month, but for some, it's not competitive.