Danske bank to close retail customer accounts

kennM

Kaiser2000 wrote: »

Not a customer myself but I'm curious why you think this will happen? Your contract/account is with Danske. Why would another bank be under ANY obligation to give you the same terms and conditions as you have now?

You can't just break a contract because its no longer convenient to you... which is exactly what Danske is doing, they no longer wish to provide retail banking services. Also from speaking to an acquaintance who works with the ombudsman this is the most likely thing to happen in my case.

JTMan

Auld-Yin wrote: »

Just received my statements which included a flyer about "Get Ready For SEPA". Not a hint about closure.

FFS. Danske are also still advertising products that you can't open. Clearly, there are operational issues with the closure.

Auld-Yin wrote: »

That's somewhat more than I can manage; however, if I were to withdraw €1500 from savings, deposit it and then transfer it back to savings, would that qualify.

Yes.

Aimeee

All banking with Danske here including Tracker mtg.
Just wondering if we were to move now, ie salary arranged to new account, would this affect Tracker, ie by not servicing the mortgage from the current account, (like many others opened that account as it was part of the deal of getting the Tracker if memory serves).

Also re Credit Card, I notice PTSB have a 0% for 6months balance transfer, wondering would we be as well off to avail of that now or hold on until next year and see what Danske do?

kennM

Aimeee wrote: »

All banking with Danske here including Tracker mtg.
Just wondering if we were to move now, ie salary arranged to new account, would this affect Tracker, ie by not servicing the mortgage from the current account, (like many others opened that account as it was part of the deal of getting the Tracker if memory serves).

Also re Credit Card, I notice PTSB have a 0% for 6months balance transfer, wondering would we be as well off to avail of that now or hold on until next year and see what Danske do?

Same boat as yourself, offset rather than tracker.... I'm personally waiting to see what Danske say on the matter. They've said they'd write out to each customer regarding their products so lets see what they have to say. Anything being bandied around at present is nothing more than speculation.

Thoie

Aimeee wrote: »

All banking with Danske here including Tracker mtg.
Just wondering if we were to move now, ie salary arranged to new account, would this affect Tracker, ie by not servicing the mortgage from the current account, (like many others opened that account as it was part of the deal of getting the Tracker if memory serves).

That's why I'm waiting to see what they say when they write to me. In my case it will be very straight forward - I kept my original current account as it was, and just transfer the mortgage amount (with a cushion) to the NIB feeder account once a month. I'll just stop that transfer, and set it up to transfer to the mortgage instead. The only other thing to change will be to have the TRS paid elsewhere. I'm waiting because I just don't want to give them any excuse to take my tracker away

ABC101

I have not received any communication from Danske yet. I have an offset mortgage and I don't know how it is going to offset anything if my current account is closed.

I suspect the staff in Danske Ireland do not know either. I sent in several emails but no reply yet.

It seems to me that some "genius" in Copenhagen decided to get off on "playing God" and make life difficult for lots of people here, but they did not think it through properly.

I would imagine that there is lots of emails going from staff in Ireland to head office in Copenhagen asking for advice as to how we deal with offsets and custody accounts etcetera.

To me it sounds like a classic case where the management at the top are disconnected from the chaos they are causing at the bottom of the organisation.

Why did they not try selling the Irish division like National Australia Bank did in the 90's??

The Dagda

kennM wrote: »

You can't just break a contract because its no longer convenient to you... which is exactly what Danske is doing, they no longer wish to provide retail banking services. Also from speaking to an acquaintance who works with the ombudsman this is the most likely thing to happen in my case.

It's reasonable to interpret Danske's actions as breaking their part of the contract, but what makes you think that another bank would have any obligation to facilitate you?

Is there a precedent for what you are suggesting?

jmcc99_98

Danske are not pulling out of the mortgages they already have. I have a tracker with them and afaik they will retain the mortgage. Like some of you on here my mortgage was requisite on my having a current account with them. However I spoke with them a few months back, well before their decision to pull out, and I asked that as they had closed their branches the service they were offering was no longer the same as I agreed to sign up to originally. They said that as the way they did business had changed dramatically, i.e. they no longer had branches, that there would be no problem changing current account without affecting the terms of my tracker mortgage.

So anyone who is worried about having a current account as a term of their mortgage will be fine, they will allow the mortgage be serviced by another current account. I'm not sure what the story is with offset mortgages though as I don't know a huge amount about them.

The end of the day they can't have a term of a contract which is impossible to adhere to

kennM

The Dagda wrote: »

It's reasonable to interpret Danske's actions as breaking their part of the contract, but what makes you think that another bank would have any obligation to facilitate you?

Is there a precedent for what you are suggesting?

From speaking with an acquaintance who works with one of the leading banks with the regulator its probably likely that the offset mortgages will be sold to another bank and another bank will provide the same service, i.e. offset mortgage.

Ultimately a mortgage is a product that a bank makes money on (except trackers ). So they have a financial value to the bank (assuming the customer is paying etc.). Pure speculation at this point but I would suspect that Danske bank are probably negotiating with other banks with regards to selling the offsets on at a reduced cost..... when I say reduced cost I mean the money the bank would have made if the term of the mortgage had been completed with them.

All we can do is speculate until Danske break their silence and write out as previously indicated.

ABC101

Link here for a brief explanation on how offsetting mortgage works.

http://www.moving.ie/mortgages/offset_mortgages.asp

If I have to close my current account then in effect my offset mortgage will no longer function as a offset.

Depending on the normal daily balance savings can be substantial over 25 years, I mean saving 50 to 70k in repayments alone over this time.

ABC101

kennM wrote: »

From speaking with an acquaintance who works with one of the leading banks with the regulator its probably likely that the offset mortgages will be sold to another bank and another bank will provide the same service, i.e. offset mortgage.

Ultimately a mortgage is a product that a bank makes money on (except trackers ). So they have a financial value to the bank (assuming the customer is paying etc.). Pure speculation at this point but I would suspect that Danske bank are probably negotiating with other banks with regards to selling the offsets on at a reduced cost..... when I say reduced cost I mean the money the bank would have made if the term of the mortgage had been completed with them.

All we can do is speculate until Danske break their silence and write out as previously indicated.

Thanks Kenn, as you say lets see what happens, speculation only at this point, but I don't trust these bankers,!!!

kennM

ABC101 wrote: »

Thanks Kenn, as you say lets see what happens, speculation only at this point, but I don't trust these bankers,!!!

lol... thats a shocking statement.... surely everyone in the country trusts our banking industry? No?

sentient_6

Apologies to come into the middle of heavier stuff like mortages but just to get back to the ordinary personal banking, has anybody out there being exploring other options yet? I've only been able to look at aib and to be honest they're expensive. I'm want to look at PTSB but it's out of my way, how does their online and app stack up against danske?

ABC101

It would appear the the Danske Bank App was light years ahead of anything offered by the Irish Banks.

I recently spoke to PTSB and it's not possible to send internal email messages to and from your PTSB online account. In addition when setting stuff up for the first time, they send verification codes via text messaging, AIB and Ulster Bank use a card reader which generates a code.

Contrast that with Danske Bank where I have all my messages archived both sent and received going back 3 years.

It's possible that Over time the remaining Irish banks will upgrade their Apps, but by no means certain.

Aib do offer free banking provided there is a minimum account balance of 2500 euro. PTSB offer free banking provided 1500 is lodged each month.

kBC seem to have a good mortgage rate of 3,99% provided it less than 80% LTV I think.

ABC101

Jeepers!!!!!

Aib want to charge 1.25% of the fund value when buying shares, and a fee of 32 euro per trade!!!!!

Contrast that with Danske, 0% of fund value and 20 euro per trade.

How can AIB make a loss if they are charging these rates???

GeorgeBailey

ABC101 wrote: »

How can AIB make a loss if they are charging these rates???

I imagine they're charging these rates because they're making a loss.

ABC101

They would still charge top dollar even if they were in the black.

That's the nature of the beast......it needs to be fed.....constantly.

.BrianJM

ABC101 wrote: »

They would still charge top dollar even if they were in the black.

That's the nature of the beast......it needs to be fed.....constantly.

I remember years ago, long before the crash, I spoke to a manager about opening an account. End result; he basically suggested I try elsewhere because they wouldn't be able to make as much money from me as they'd like to.

makeorbrake

josip wrote: »

So why would the bank offering an exit deal on tracker mortgages be good for their customers?
Surely the "deal" would be packaged to appear attractive to customers while in reality being more beneficial to the bank?

Given where deposit rates have gone, I'd be amenable to looking at a deal. What are the chances of them winding down their irish mortgage book?

AlexisM

makeorbrake wrote: »

What are the chances of them winding down their irish mortgage book?

According to today's Irish Times, they plan to transfer their mortgages to a third party.

Personal and business loans have been placed into a non-core unit, to be worked out over two years. Mortgages and long-term business loans will either be off-loaded to a third party or refinanced by customers. Personal loans, which typically involve shorter repayment periods, will be allowed to run off.

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/sectors/financial-services/significant-lay-offs-to-follow-danske-bank-restructure-1.1598006

handlemaster

Danske bank to either sell on mortgages to third party or customers to refinance according to Irish times. Looking more likely trackers will get an offer as the bank can't force customers off.

makeorbrake

Happy days. Lets hope for a half decent offering deal wise.

jmcc99_98

handlemaster wrote: »

Danske bank to either sell on mortgages to third party or customers to refinance according to Irish times. Looking more likely trackers will get an offer as the bank can't force customers off.

Is this how you read that statement? i.e. Tracker Holders may get an offer?

Have you any idea how such a thing would work? Will they make an offer and then just remortgage the property on the normal variable rate? Or are they likely to make an offer and you look for another provider to switch your mortgage to?

Also, any ideas on how they would calculate an amount to offer?

josip

jmcc99_98 wrote: »

Also, any ideas on how they would calculate an amount to offer?

Anyone with less than 150,000 remaining on a tracker less than 1% ECB to get it written off completely because it wouldn't be cost effective to rearrange such a small but loss making mortgage perhaps ?

jmcc99_98

josip wrote: »

Anyone with less than 150,000 remaining on a tracker less than 1% ECB to get it written off completely because it wouldn't be cost effective to rearrange such a small but loss making mortgage perhaps ?

Wouldn't that be great!

I have 100k mortgage and have 16 years remaining on the tracker.

If there were an offer I wonder how much such a mortgage would attract?

makeorbrake

Theres still far from any certainty re. a deal. Its just that upcoming changes may help in revising policy on that. If a third party starts to manage the loan book, perhaps they will entertain the idea. However, theres no certainty. I'm open to correction but in the case of Certus managing BoSI's loan book, no deals were done on the basis of tracker mortgages alone.

Therefore, its too early to even consider the mechanism of a deal. Just that theres a sliver of light/hope that there may be some sort of offer made...

josip

Would any writedown of the capital repayment part of a mortgage then be subject to capital gains tax?

makeorbrake

josip wrote: »

Would any writedown of the capital repayment part of a mortgage then be subject to capital gains tax?

I think I came across discussion of that somewhere - maybe it was on aam - recently. Some folk saying it would be subject to it. I guess its a case of tackling that when we come to it (i.e. if no deal is offered, then its not an issue anyway). How well 'controlled' would that likely to be IF a deal was in play?

homer911

josip wrote: »

Would any writedown of the capital repayment part of a mortgage then be subject to capital gains tax?

Given that profit on disposal of a family home is exempt from capital gains, I'd say unlikely

If however if the property is a buy-to-let, I would say more than likely.

Zagato

Think I will probably go with PTSB, I am probably leaving the country for a couple in July/August next but will still have Mortgage repayments (with a different bank), so should still have €1,500/month going into my current account.

I currently have the Prestige account, and was hoping to get to use my Priority Pass card a bit next year, but I guess not.