One Account rates cut

iain1970

For all those that are jumping ship from the 4% OA / RBS & NW offset accounts onto, for example, the FD tracker at 2.89% plus fees, are you all dumping your offset savings into the capital owed to reduce the new mortgage balance and therefore make the real savings per month?

I have £109000 owing on my mortgage and offset £64000 of savings. If I swapped to a normal tracker, I'd see a large percentage of that £64000 disappear into the house. Can a swap of that type be sensible to save less than 1.5%?

sparkey1

Standard Life has just reduced one of my mortgages by 0.20%. How generous of them to only keep 0.3% of the Feb cut. Now just waiting for One Account to do the decent thing. Might be a long wait.....thats bankers for you!

sparky99_2

gazzmf wrote: »

spary99,

I'm in a similar situation to you in that I have a Natwest Bus A/C.

Given that I am so fed up with being defrauded by OA not passing on the rate cuts, I would like to consider moving all my business.

Does it cost anything to join the FSB and if there is a charge how much does it cost?

My wife has this account for her business and she's been very pleased with it. You need to join the FSB first which costs £30.00 to join and then £100.00 per year thereafter, but all your banking is free with an easy to use online facility and also the use of 3 local post offices to put in cheques/cash,for more info go to www.co-operativebank.co.uk/fsb

hope this is useful:beer:

harryskinters

Remember!!:
0.25% cut not passed on in April 2008.
0.25% increase, out of the blue in July 2008.
0.5% not passed on after the BofE Nov 2008 1.5% base rate cut.
0.3% not passed on in January 2009
0.5% not passed on in February 2009
LIBOR (THREE-MONTH RATE): 2.067% (13 February)
Oneaccount historic margin to base rate 1.1%, currently 3.2%. Even considering LIBOR is 0.8% higher than its historic relationship to base rate, this still means RBS has significantly moved the goal posts.

Thanks RBS Oneaccount!

My property sale will shortly be finalized and then its bye bye RBS Oneaccount forever. I cannot wait!! I can scarcely believe that in one year, an account I used to think was such a superb product could have become such a collossal disappointment. If not for my good fortune in finding a buyer in the current wasteland of a housing market, I would definitely have remortgaged.

My sympathy sits with those account holders who either can't sell or don't want to sell but are trapped by too high a LTV level for the re-mortages currently on offer. With equity levels sliding this will trap more and more people.

The staff are certainly friendly and helpful but RBS have ruined the excellent customer relationship created by Virgin by breaking simple promises on rates policy. Ok! its not a tracker but it is disingenuous for them to deny that rapid simple rate tracking was an implicit and core strand of this products original advertsing. The aspect of the recent history that has infuriated me the most is the lack of communication regarding rate reviews and the long delays when they do deem to pass any cuts on. A friendly voice at a call centre doesn't make up for being robbed of hundreds/thousands of ££££s. As soon as the review drags on a few days, you know you are about to be shafted once again.

Best of luck to you all with your campaigns but I am afraid that this company doesn't care because it no longer wants your business. Justice will come in a few years time when the markets inevitably recover. RBS Oneaccount will rue the day that it squandered the goodwill of a once enthusiastically loyal customer base.

natwestripoff

Hello again, sorry to all those waiting for a copy of my submission to the Financial ombudsmen but I have been off air all week - my fault for trying to overclock my PC to keep up with all these threads! I will post it tomorrow.

Just a reminder if anyone missed my previous comments - if you are able to, the most damaging action you can take is to reduce your mortage to £1. If you did it is probably worth the bank paying you a reasonable sum to close the account (not that they will). Catch you later, Chris.

sparkey1

Natwestripoff, I guess your working on the basis that if your balance is a £1 they will still be credit insured against your full facility.

bunking_off

So I'm not in the financial industry, but is that really the case?

As an analogy, I work in telecoms. We don't build our networks so that all customers can be on the phone at any one time...we have complex models and dimension against statistical norms, with headroom for extra-ordinary events built in. I'd sort of imagined that (& similar for banks offering overdraft facilities) RBS scaled their borrowing requirements using similar statistical techniques.

natwestripoff

Morning everyone, Please find a copy of my submission to the financial ombudsmen in respect of my Nat West One account (now operated/owned by RBS). Hopefully parts of it may be of some use in making your own submission or complaint to the bank. There are slight variations between the One accounts that exist (Virgin, RBS, and Nat West) but some of the arguments presented apply to all.

I have made reference to documents that applied when I took out the mortgage but you can be more vague simply referring to documentation, terms and conditions and the banking code in general terms if the same time period does not apply.

Incidentally I did not supply copies of these documents the Ombudsmen requested Nat West to supply anything I had made reference too.

As I say I am not sure if this is of any help at all but it maybe so I have listed it.

The appeal follows in the next quote.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me or ask here on the thread.

Good luck Chris.

natwestripoff

SUBMISSION TO FINANCIAL OMBUDSMEN - RBS ONE ACCOUNT

SEPTEMBER 2008
　
　
Dear Sir
As requested please find below my submissions in support of my complaint against the Royal Bank of Scotland.

It should be noted at the outset that I accept that within the booklet The Terms and Conditions(Ref NWB 2541) that Paragraph 6.1 states ‘the initial interest rate is stated in the offer. We can change it with immediate effect at anytime’.

Not withstanding the above I would like to add the following:

(1) At no time is such an important fact brought clearly and unequivocally to the customers attention. Neither NWB 2539 ‘Applying for the Nat West One Account - an easy guide‘, or NWB 2556 ‘Making the most of your Nat West One account’ or NWB2522 ‘Your application and important information’ make any reference to the fact the mortgage rate is arbitrary and not measured against any meaningful benchmark.

(2) The former two document above are written clearly and in a large font, the latter is in a smaller font but in view of its title one might expect it to include any matter of particular importance. Yet none of these mention the fundamental issue that this product is not tied to any interest rate (whether bank of England/ Libor/Bank variable rate), or illustrate that the bank could, at its own discretion and without explanation, charge whatever interest rate it liked (and at anytime).

(3) Other supporting information provided at the time ‘The Banking Code and You’ issued March 2003 and ‘The Mortgage Code You and Your Mortgage’ dated May 2002, claim that such information as the type of product and nature of the interest charged will be made clearly available to the customer. In respect of the former it states the bank will “ give information about them (said products) in plain language” and will “explain the financial implications”. The latter claims the bank will clearly explain “ the type of interest rate - variable, fixed, discounted, capped and so on.” It too goes on to make the commitment that the bank shall “help you choose the mortgage you need and give you information on services and products in plain language”.

(4) I consider that a product that allows the lender to alter the interest rate charged without any hindrance or accountability is extremely important and yet it is mentioned in the Terms and Conditions in a small font and in amongst a great deal of other information (much of which does not carry such importance). It is not mentioned at all in the other literature noted above.

(5) In the welcoming letter (ref 82778 - 143332623) the following is stated “The cost of borrowing up to your facility is based on your interest rate of 6.45%. The cost of borrowing will vary as interest rates vary”. I purport that this is misleading and not entirely true. The interest rate could and can change for any reason whatsoever and as the bank sees fit, but it implies that it is based on the direction of interest rates.

(6) In addition to the above the illustration provided in leaflet NWB 2545 in which interest rates are quoted depending on the loan to equity on the property it states that “The actual rate of interest you pay depends on the amount of your facility in relation to the value of your home” . This too is misleading . While true in that it varies according to value, it also implies that the interest rate has some permanency and is based upon some schedule or condition. In fact any or all of these could be altered at any time so that the more you borrow the cheaper it gets and vice versa.

In essence while I concur that within the terms and conditions there is reference to the fact you can change interest rates as you see fit, I am of the opinion that this was not clearly demonstrated by the bank in its literature. In not doing so neither do I feel that the bank fulfilled its obligations under the banking code.

I expect Nat West would argue that no where in the literature does it say the base rate is tied to the Bank of England’s Base rate (and I would have to agree). But in view of the fact it doesn’t say what the interest rate is based on at all, I suggest it was reasonable to assume that it did. If you look at the references made to this product by Nat West it implies structure on a number of occasions. For example the different interest rates that are applied depending on the amount you borrow compared to the value of your home (see attached). This gives an impression the interest rate is applied to something otherwise the varied rates given are meaningless. Despite all this elaboration the fact is that the bank could the very next day actually reverse the quoted rates if it so wishes so that those borrowing less were charged more and vice versa.

It is examples such as this and in the absence of any reference to a variable rate or Libor rate that led me to believe these rates quoted were based on the Bank of England Base Rate (otherwise they are as I surmise above meaningless).

In other words on reading about the product and how it was structured it was reasonable that the interest rates quoted for demonstration purposes were based on the bank of England base rate in the absence of any other explanation. The figures used by Nat West were 1.2% above the Bank of England base rate at the time 9and followed this pattern for several years).

In accordance with your complaints procedures I state as requested, that the impact of the above situation is a great deal of stress and concern. The loss I have suffered is the interest rate I am being charged has now widened to some 1.7 (now 2.5) basis points in comparison to the 1.2 basis points at the time of taking out the mortgage and which has been applied for the past five years. In addition a whole day off work has been taken to make this representation to you.

In order for matters to be resolved I would expect the interest rate charged to remain 1.2% basis points over the B of E rate and any additional compensation for the trouble and concern caused at your discretion.
　
　
CASE DISMISSED 10TH NOVEMBER 2008
　
APPEAL LODGED - PLEASE SEE NEXT QUOTE

natwestripoff

APPEAL SUBMISSION TO FINANCIAL OMBUDSMEN FOLLOWING DISMISSAL - RBS ONE ACCOUNT

17TH NOVEMBER 2008
　
Thank you for your letter dated 10th November.

I am grateful for the assessment made of the above case and the explanation given when reaching your decision.

I would be grateful however if you would give this matter and your decision further consideration on the following basis:

My complaint was not that I did not expect the interest rate to change, on the contrary I fully expected this, but addressed the manner in which this could be done.

It was my understanding that this mortgage product followed the changes in the Bank of England base rate (i.e. at 1.2% above whatever this rate was and as was the case at the time).

The references therefore supplied by Nat West and to which you make reference were seen by me, but no reference is made to how the changes will occur. It is my belief it should have been made unequivocally clear that such changes in the interest rate could be wholly arbitrary and as and when the bank felt so inclined (and furthermore without restriction as to the amount).

On reading the references you have made I assumed these changes would occur as and when the Bank of England base rate changed so they seemed completely normal and above board. Had I been informed very clearly that the bank could charge whatever interest rate it liked and at any time of its choosing then these references would have had a completely different meaning (and effect on me and my decision in respect of this product).

Whilst I appreciate it is very difficult to prove that I was led to believe that this product did follow the bank of England base rate, I do consider that looking at all the literature it is not unreasonable that it should have been made very clear the interest rate charged was at the total discretion of the bank without any recourse whatsoever (not to a variable rate, discounted rate, inter-bank rate, their own lending rate, BOE rate etc).

Had this been done then the references the bank have made and which you have provided can be read in this context.

I remain in a position where Nat West can charge 40% tomorrow if they so wished and yet despite a great deal of experience I have agreed to this. The reason is because this was not clearly demonstrated (and in my own submissions references implied that there was structure of a sort).

It is my own opinion that the most prominent fact that should have been shown about this product and preferably in the glossy and prominent literature that they provided, before explaining all the other benefits these documents tend to dwell on, was that “the interest rate charged is at the sole discretion of the bank at any time of the banks pleasing and without any restriction as to the amount“. Alternatively perhaps greater clarity still could have been given by stating that the bank “may increase interest rates if it so wishes even if interest rates are falling” or “that the interest rate is not tied to any known benchmark or existing interest rate and can be any amount the bank so decides”. Any such comment would have had a profound effect on peoples decisions in respect of this product and despite the truth of it no such statements are made. I propose had statements such as this been made no-one would have agreed to the mortgage.

Just as other mortgage products clearly explain how the interest charged will be calculated I am of the opinion Nat West should have been obliged to do the same even though it was actually based on nothing.

I just hope that you will agree that had you seen such a declaration clearly stated in the most prominent literature you yourself would have been concerned . I feel that I had no chance to be concerned because this important fact is buried in small print and amongst pages of other less important terms and conditions.

In fact the banks ability to charge whatever interest rate it likes is ironically due to the fact it hasn’t explained how such charges will be made (and the only way of coming to this conclusion is not by the bank making it clear but by a method of deduction by the customer).

Other more prominent references are made to the interest rate changing (as you have demonstrated) but the seriousness of these references is seriously reduced because the basis of these changes are not made abundantly clear. The bank explains it can change interest rates as do other Banks but unlike other banks it does not explain how these changes may be applied.

I remain in a position where I could be charged an interest rate of 40% or 60% tomorrow and if I was to be subjected to such a demand your ruling as it now stands would mean I would be liable to pay such a sum (and effectively lose my home).

I would be most grateful if you would give my comments above further consideration and I thank you for your interest and assistance.
　
　
APPEAL DISMISSED 9TH DECEMBER 2008