First Active Error

Chris Arch

My mortgage provider (First Active) made a mistake when recalculating my monthly repayment to apply the 0.5% drop in the ECB rate directely transmissible to my tracker rate...

During 6 weeks I have battled with the customer care team explaining that there was a mistake made and that a 0.5% drop should be equal to approx. 106 euro discount on my monthly repayments and not 58 euros as they had calculated. Most of the customer care staff were not aware about how to calculate monthly repayment on a mortgage and I had to explain them. Many of them thought that the problem was related to tax relief when I knew that it was not... Other thought that I was not calculating correctely, when I had checked my calculation with previous 0.5% drop in the ECB rate which were transmitted to my mortgage in November 08, December 08 and February 09.

It is only 6 weeks later, after the payment was already taken from my current account that a staff from First Active finaly confirmed by phone what I already knew... A mistake was made and I was overcharged... This mistake created an overdraft of 23 euro on my current account and I think that First Active should be liable for the overdraft interests.

But what worries me the most, is that yesterday I received a statement about the 0.25% drop in the ECB rate to be tranmitted to my mortgage in May 09 and that a similar mistake is made on the discount which should apply on my monthly repayment next month... I have already lost many hours of my times and I do not feel like going through the same hassle again...

How can a bank like First Active repeat the same mistake twice? Why did it take 6 weeks for them to realize the mistake when it took me only 10 minutes? Is it realy a mistake on my personal mortgage or is it a mistake on all their tracker rate mortgages? Would have I been reimbursed if I did not bother to complain?

LillyVanilli

Sorry Chris I have no answers for you but I am also on a First Active tracker mortgage. I never worked out the rate to see if it was correct or not, I just assumed it was. Ill check it out tomorrow and come back to you? Is there an formula to follow to work it out easily?

Chris Arch

Ruby2Shoes wrote: »

Sorry Chris I have no answers for you but I am also on a First Active tracker mortgage. I never worked out the rate to see if it was correct or not, I just assumed it was. Ill check it out tomorrow and come back to you? Is there an formula to follow to work it out easily?

Hello Ruby,

One of the problem that I was and still confronted to, is that First Active refuses to give me their calculations and that there are different ways to apply repayments on mortgages...

In my particular case there was a difference of approximately 50Euros on what I should have paid monthly and I knew that whatever the method of repayment there was an error. from one method to the other you may have up to 5Euros difference for a 300k mortgage on 20 years but no more...

I spotted the mistake because in November there was a drop of 0.5% in the ECB rate that was transmitted to my mortgage and it resulted to a 106Euros discount on my monthly repayment. Another 0.5% drop in the ECB rate that was transmitted to my mortgage in December resulted to another 106Euros discount on my monthly repayment. Last February it was the same again. But this april a 0.5% drop in the ECB rate resulted only to a 58Euro discount. I started to wonder why? I looked at my Tax Relief (TRS), but the discount was 28 Euro as in November, December and February. I had paid back only 700Euros of capital since February... Nothing indicated that the discount on my monthly repayment should be much different...

I recommend that you find the discounts that you obtained in November, December and February. You will find that they are approx. the same (maybe 1 or 2 euros difference) unless there was a change in your Tax Relief (TRS). Then check the discount you obtained for April, if it is approx. the same then you are ok. If there is a big difference (more that 10 euros) then there was an error and you have probably overpaid...

dudara

Moved to Banking & Insurance & Pensions

dudara

stepbar

Chris Arch wrote: »

Hello Ruby,

One of the problem that I was and still confronted to, is that First Active refuses to give me their calculations and that there are different ways to apply repayments on mortgages...

In my particular case there was a difference of approximately 50Euros on what I should have paid monthly and I knew that whatever the method of repayment there was an error. from one method to the other you may have up to 5Euros difference for a 300k mortgage on 20 years but no more...

I spotted the mistake because in November there was a drop of 0.5% in the ECB rate that was transmitted to my mortgage and it resulted to a 106Euros discount on my monthly repayment. Another 0.5% drop in the ECB rate that was transmitted to my mortgage in December resulted to another 106Euros discount on my monthly repayment. Last February it was the same again. But this april a 0.5% drop in the ECB rate resulted only to a 58Euro discount. I started to wonder why? I looked at my Tax Relief (TRS), but the discount was 28 Euro as in November, December and February. I had paid back only 700Euros of capital since February... Nothing indicated that the discount on my monthly repayment should be much different...

I recommend that you find the discounts that you obtained in November, December and February. You will find that they are approx. the same (maybe 1 or 2 euros difference) unless there was a change in your Tax Relief (TRS). Then check the discount you obtained for April, if it is approx. the same then you are ok. If there is a big difference (more that 10 euros) then there was an error and you have probably overpaid...

I'm going to advise you to do this - Write a formal letter to First Active and await a written responce. They must respond. If the responce is not satifactory then involve the Financial Ombudsman. That's the only way to go because in truth unless you have something in writing, nothing else stands up (bar a recorded conversation).

Chris Arch

stepbar wrote: »

I'm going to advise you to do this - Write a formal letter to First Active and await a written responce. They must respond. If the responce is not satifactory then involve the Financial Ombudsman. That's the only way to go because in truth unless you have something in writing, nothing else stands up (bar a recorded conversation).

Thanks for your advice... In fact I have already put everything by writting last week and sent it to 2 First Active emails...

The phone calls were going nowhere, all the customer care team were not taking me seriously, they probably thought that I was just trying to get a bargain... But a few days after my emails, one of the operator confirmed by phoned that I had overpaid and that I would be reimbursed. I asked for a written confirmation. I have also emailled about the next repayment in May which seems to include the same mistake but this time for a 0.25% drop in the ECB rate. If this problem is not resolved by the end of May, I will then complain to Financial Ombudsman...