Mortgage interest rates (PTSB V AIB)

waitingforBB

All,
Isn't it strange how we have 2 (effectively) government owned enteties charging such a disparity in their rates?

PTSB played the good citizen after the last interest rate cut by the ECB. Immediately jumping in saying they would reduce the SVR. However they have unilaterally raised rates over the last 2 years to make them far and away the most punitive lending institution of the major lenders.

There was a media (government led) forore over AIBs tardiness in passing on the .25% rate cut....Why??? They hadnt passed on the previous increases, why should they pass on the rate decrease this time?

My point is that AIB now have an SVR of 3%, PTSB have an SVR of 5.9% for the same product and both are government owned. Why was pressure on AIB to reduce rather than on PTSB to reduce further? The rates need to be aligned.

BOI were pressured to lower to 4%, yet no arguement from the government to pressure PTSB??? I really dont understand why PTSB are getting a free ride here....

Someone on a 300K mortgage with PTSB now pays about 500 per month more than someone on the same package from AIB. Same product, both governemt owned...Even the privately owned institutions arent screwing their customers to the extent that PTSB are.
Some subprime lenders have SVR less then PTSB at the moment.

So what was the big show by the government pushing BOI, AIB and UB to pass on rates really all about?? It wasnt the issue at all, just a smokescreen..

The real pressure should be to align (harmonise) the rates offered by the state owned institutions...

On a 25 year mortgage from a state owned body, a customer will pay 150K more in interest by virtue of the fact that his loan is from PTSB rather than AIB....same product...effectively the state is the lender...why are the PTSB customers getting hammered??

PTSB stated that their loan books state that there is a small proportion of loans on SVR and those that are have relatively low principals outstanding..This is an arrogant statement and disrespects the 10s of thousands of SVR customers who have loans of 2 or 3 hundred thousand..Are these so insignificant as not to be considered?

Disclosure: I am a SVR customer with PTSB with a 270K mortgage on SVR of 5.9%....I'd be saving over 100,000 by being with AIB....(why?? government owned body as well)....

woodoo

You wonder what they are thinking. They certainly aren't fooling anyone who has an EBS or PTSB mortgage. EBS is 4.63% and they are owned by AIB as far as i know.

I wonder do Kenny and Noonan even know the rates of EBS and PTSB relative to AIB.. It would be some eye opener if they didn't.

liammur

The Government screwed shareholders in IL&P. Now, they're screwing customers.

The sale of Irish Life has just fallen through, meaning the taxpayer will have to pump another €1bln+ in.

The decision to tax private sector pensions doesn't look too wise now.

Gareth2011

Don't Ptsb have more tracker mortgages on their books than any other lender? Considering rate on tracker mortgage is now 2.50% this is great for people on trackers but crap for anyone else. I thought thats why they kept increasing VRM'S because they were losing so much on trackers?

liammur

Gareth2011 wrote: »

Don't Ptsb have more tracker mortgages on their books than any other lender? Considering rate on tracker mortgage is now 2.50% this is great for people on trackers but crap for anyone else. I thought thats why they kept increasing VRM'S because they were losing so much on trackers?

Essentially they were able to increase the variable rates because they didn't need to deal with NAMA. Effectively the were owned privately. But now the government owns them, so lets see the government step up to the plate.

Tescosolvakia

I wonder if the government took control of bank mortgage and lending rates would they effectively be creating a new Irish central bank and what the outcome of that may be.

nesf

During the boom PTSB took on riskier mortgages (in general) than AIB. This allowed and allows AIB to charge the lowest interest rate available. During the boom the challenge wasn't to get a mortgage but to get an AIB mortgage because of the good rates but even during the boom they were the stingiest (relatively) of the lenders when it came to money you could borrow on your income (generally).

All of this depends on personal status and so on.

mistermouse

Part of me thinks the Government are afraid to get too involved in the banking sector, getting wrongly involved could have reprecussions not on the scale the previous govt did, but still could cause problems when trying to get outside investments into the banks. I am not sure that they really forced any bank to do anything yet

Another part of me thinks they don't really know what they are doing when it comes to banks

boatbuilder

Its seriously annoying when you have a PSTB mortgage (which you're effectively locked into since other lenders won't take you)

I agree that something needs to be done to rebalance things. Its really not fair that PTSB customers are being screwed. It really is time the government got behind the steering wheel of PTSB and changed down a gear to match BOI / AIB etc.

And I have also wondered how PSTB got away with all of the rate increases over the past year with so little media attention.

liammur

boatbuilder wrote: »

And I have also wondered how PSTB got away with all of the rate increases over the past year with so little media attention.

Shareholders owned the bank then, now the govt owns it. So before the govt couldn't do anything about rates, now they can.

waitingforBB

The government did get involved in the banking sector. They guaranteed the institutions and now are the major stakeholders in the operations of the supported lenders.

I'm all for competetition, but there is effectively none. Government dont want to intervene in rate setting or operational running of the banks? Wake up call for the government, you already have. By compelling AIB to pass on the most recent interest rate reduction, M. Noonan has opened the door.

Fact of the matter is that AIB charges SVR of 3% to borrowers. PTSB which is also owned by the state charges 5.9% to borrowers with LTV >80% who dont have trackers.

This is outreageous!!! While privately owned PTSB unilaterally increased rates at a whim. Now state owned there is a responsibility on the government to at least harmonise rates..

A 250K mortgage from PTSB over 25 years at 5.9% will cost 170K more than the same product from AIB....Same product and same owner...

500 per month of a differential in payments is ridiculous.

I'm not advocating that PTSB be forced to move to 3%, but I am calling for standardisation between state owned institutions. There should not be a 170K penalty for being with one state owned bank as opposed to another.

I'm no Fianna Fail fan, but at least in their budget proposals they mentioned the fact that there are errant institutions deviating hugely from average rates.

If Mr Noonan can compel AIB to reduce rates (which I think was misguided) then he should compel PTSB to move from their relatively punitive rate.

There is a lot of noise on various groups / blogs on this...interesting to see if there will be any action.

Kev.

Wow ..how in gods name are the Government not doing anything about this?

Unbelievable

waitingforBB

Why indeed...

It was populist to chase down AIB to reduce rates and produced headlines that the government were on the side of the borrower..

However it skirted the real issue of the rate disparity.

Its getting airplay now as people are slowly realising that there is a huge variance in the rates offered by government owned lenders.

Both were bailed out, both offer the same product, the borrower cant switch!!!
Why in Gods name did the government publicise on pressuring AIB when PTSB are the real enfant terrible....

Need to highlight this and anyone on these PTSB rates should hound their TD, press anyone to get this out in the open

channelsurfer2

its a scandal all right but will the government do anything? if they force PTSB's hand they will plead that they will just loose more money.

I remember the mortgage broker 3 years ago telling me that i should go with PTSB as AIB would not give me a mortgage. Lucky enough I decided to ignore that advice and went directly to AIB and got it saving me 500euro a month.

keithm1

I think the only way we will be heard if we set up an online mass demonstration
Anyone with ptsb on these scandalous rates miss there morgage payment in febuary if were not heard miss march and so on
Move all other banking activities else where

yayamark

Amazing

Can we not change mortgage from one bank to another anymore?

liammur

channelsurfer2 wrote: »

its a scandal all right but will the government do anything? if they force PTSB's hand they will plead that they will just loose more money.

I remember the mortgage broker 3 years ago telling me that i should go with PTSB as AIB would not give me a mortgage. Lucky enough I decided to ignore that advice and went directly to AIB and got it saving me 500euro a month.

Their banking policy has been a complete shambles. Then they opened the can of worms by challenging Ulster bank and bank of Irl to pass on the recent rate cut, and their own bank PTSB has the highest rates of all.
Once they found this out, they went very quiet on the subject.

waitingforBB

I am active in several other groups where this has been raised and its time to take action. The government cannot let this continue. PTSB SVR (or whatever they are calling it) where LTV>80% is being charged at a rate of 5.9% is scandalous. AIB is 3% and EBS is 4.5% from what I can gather. If we could get any move from PTSB it would be a win.

There is a campaign being organised at the moment and people power along with logic may just make a difference. WE can effect change!

If you are a PTSB mortgage holder subjected to these punitive rates, PM me and I will advise of an upcoming meeting in Dublin. Some brief background information, if you are in arrears etc would be helpful if you wish to provide same. But if not, just PM me and I will keep you in the loop.

Not only is the situation scandalous, but I think its having a larger impact than we assume...

In the interim if you feel animated on this topic, I advise again that you contact your TD, local press, radio etc to highlight the situation.

I've contacted the usual suspects in the dail / seanad and am awaiting responses. Also talking to the national press now as they are very interested in the situation...

Lets get this out there

liammur

waitingforBB wrote: »

I am active in several other groups where this has been raised and its time to take action. The government cannot let this continue. PTSB SVR (or whatever they are calling it) where LTV>80% is being charged at a rate of 5.9% is scandalous. AIB is 3% and EBS is 4.5% from what I can gather. If we could get any move from PTSB it would be a win.

There is a campaign being organised at the moment and people power along with logic may just make a difference. WE can effect change!

If you are a PTSB mortgage holder subjected to these punitive rates, PM me and I will advise of an upcoming meeting in Dublin. Some brief background information, if you are in arrears etc would be helpful if you wish to provide same. But if not, just PM me and I will keep you in the loop.

Not only is the situation scandalous, but I think its having a larger impact than we assume...

In the interim if you feel animated on this topic, I advise again that you contact your TD, local press, radio etc to highlight the situation.

I've contacted the usual suspects in the dail / seanad and am awaiting responses. Also talking to the national press now as they are very interested in the situation...

Lets get this out there

Lowering these rates would have appealed greatly to Noonan, until they took control of the group. Doesn't appeal to them now, as the plan is to refloat this in a few years for a tidy profit.

BrendanBurgess

keithm1 wrote: »

I think the only way we will be heard if we set up an online mass demonstration

Hi Keith

I am trying to pull PTSB customers with SVR mortgages together to form a group to get it changed.

You will find the details here if you want to get in touch.

Brendan

Button09

hi...im just following this now, i did have that rate of 4.5% with ptsb, it has been reduced now to 4% with the recent LTV changes.......im not happy with my interest rate as we constantly broke...... im gonna look into changing banks...i would prefer to stay with ptsb if they would reduce my interest rate, have any of you have had any luck at doing this or what have you all done...i need it reduced..thanks