Danske Bank Closure

potnoodler said:
Time is getting closer now to the closing of the current accounts. Would I be in any breach if I just pay the mortgage repayment directly into the account and not bother with a direct debit set up
Defo dont want to jeopardize my tracker and have asked dansk if I can go that route but surprise surprise they said no its not an option
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Hello,

I must admit I am of similar mind myself.

While it may not be Danske's prefered option because Danske would rather force us all onto direct debit, that doesn't mean it's not an option.

I think we each need to ask them to show us a copy of the loan documentation, where it references repayments as I suspect paperwork differs depending on when our loans were drawndown etc.

Pehaps our loan documents refer to the requirement for a feeder account at Danske (previously National Irish Bank), payment by standing order etc and if so, they can't force us to pay by direct debit or penalise us if we refuse to pay by that method etc.
 
I filled out the form to close the mortgage service account (it used to be my main current account), but didn't sign the direct debit - I've set up a standing order instead - and said I would not do so.

I've just got another letter asking me to sign a direct debit mandate "to process your account closure request". I've written to them repeating what I said in my earlier letter.

I await their response with interest.
 
potnoodler said:
Time is getting closer now to the closing of the current accounts. Would I be in any breach if I just pay the mortgage repayment directly into the account and not bother with a direct debit set up
Defo dont want to jeopardize my tracker and have asked dansk if I can go that route but surprise surprise they said no its not an option
Click to expand...

I was thinking about the same approach. I made a €1 payment to my mortgage by eBanking last night, so I just want to check that the transfer actually lands in my mortgage account.

They can whistle for their direct debit, really.
 
Just to note that a direct payment from an external account works just fine. Like you, I did a small test payment first, which worked, as did the full monthly amount which went through from a SO.
 
Only issue with standing order is your responsible for changes when the ECB rate or variable rate changes.
 
I had a nice call back from Danske today, basically saying that a standing order is OK, but with a few provisos attached;

1) You are responsible for changing the SO amount if the rate changes
2) If the SO arrives too early, it will be treated as an extra lump sum repayment, not a regular repayment
3) If the SO arrives too late, even 1 day late, they will be firing out arrears letters
4) They will hold onto TRS, and you will have to request transfers of TRS amounts to a designated account

I'll go for that, though the TRS bit is a bit messy.
 
Thanks for this - a useful update.

RainyDay said:
2) If the SO arrives too early, it will be treated as an extra lump sum repayment, not a regular repayment
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Do you know what they consider "too early"?


RainyDay said:
4) They will hold onto TRS, and you will have to request transfers of TRS amounts to a designated account
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What does "hold onto TRS" mean? How often will they do a transfer?
 
RainyDay said:
I had a nice call back from Danske today, basically saying that a standing order is OK, but with a few provisos attached;

1) You are responsible for changing the SO amount if the rate changes
2) If the SO arrives too early, it will be treated as an extra lump sum repayment, not a regular repayment
3) If the SO arrives too late, even 1 day late, they will be firing out arrears letters
4) They will hold onto TRS, and you will have to request transfers of TRS amounts to a designated account

I'll go for that, though the TRS bit is a bit messy.
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Hello Rainyday,

That looks like some good progress. You clearly got someone on the phone who was willing to take a reasonable attitude, rather than someone trying to dictate that you do what your told (i.e. sign a direct debit) end of story ....

Can someone simply give them a standing instruction to transfer all future TRS credits to a nominated account (dare I suggest, my current account at another Bank or possibly their Danske Homeloan, as they require) - personally, I cannot see why not ? Another option is to instruct them once or twice a year to transfer the total TRS credits to the Mortgage, the total TRS credits for the period could potentially equate to a mortgage payment each year and effectively give some people a payment holiday (for that month) of sorts.

As for them issuing arrears letters if your payment is as much as 1 day late, I can't see how that will do anything other than waiste money and kill a few more trees - I don't think they can charge for issuing an arrears letter, while the payment will most likely cross over with the arrears letter, so it will have zero impact on the ICB etc given we're only talking about a day or two in many instances. Is that how you and others also see it ?

Thanks
 
ang1170 said:
Do you know what they consider "too early"?
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One day is too early, afaik.
ang1170 said:
What does "hold onto TRS" mean? How often will they do a transfer?
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It means just that - they hold onto the money until you ask them to transfer. She mentioned something about transferring it every month, if you request it every month.

MrEarl said:
Hello Rainyday,

That looks like some good progress. You clearly got someone on the phone who was willing to take a reasonable attitude, rather than someone trying to dictate that you do what your told (i.e. sign a direct debit) end of story ....
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Yes, it was definitely along those lines. I didn't have to haggle or push for this outcome. She rang me with this 'agreed position' straight off the bat.

MrEarl said:
Can someone simply give them a standing instruction to transfer all future TRS credits to a nominated account (dare I suggest, my current account at another Bank or possibly their Danske Homeloan, as they require) - personally, I cannot see why not ? Another option is to instruct them once or twice a year to transfer the total TRS credits to the Mortgage, the total TRS credits for the period could potentially equate to a mortgage payment each year and effectively give some people a payment holiday (for that month) of sorts.
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She definitely gave the impression that you had to request each transfer, so I don't think a 'standing instruction' is an option. Seems a bit silly, but there you go.


MrEarl said:
As for them issuing arrears letters if your payment is as much as 1 day late, I can't see how that will do anything other than waiste money and kill a few more trees - I don't think they can charge for issuing an arrears letter, while the payment will most likely cross over with the arrears letter, so it will have zero impact on the ICB etc given we're only talking about a day or two in many instances. Is that how you and others also see it ?
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Yes indeed - seems like a pile of unnecessary paperwork, but that's how the systems work, expecting the direct debit to be sucked in on the exact day.
 
I don't understand what people have against DD.

Sure the repayments will be the same with SO or DD.

With SO, I "push" to them.

OK, so you have more control.

But do you? According to RainyDay, the SO must be on the exact day as when they would "pull" the DD.

So you don't have discretion over dates or amount............

And aren't we protected by a DD code of conduct under SEPA??
 
Protocol said:
I don't understand what people have against DD.
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Simple example, which happened to me within the past year:

Company A takes an amount from my account using a DD. The amount and/or time is not correct (I can't recall which). The amount taken leaves next to nothing in the account. Meanwhile company B tries to take a DD, but because of the first transaction it fails. I didn't notice either of these for a couple of days, by which time Company B has applied a "late payment fee". It takes many phone calls to sort out company A's mess, and many more before company B refunded the late payment fee (which they probably weren't obliged to).

What's wrong with DDs? Some companies you just cannot trust to get the time or amounts right, and Danske is one of those companies. Although things have improved in recent times in relation to getting payments reversed, it is a lot of trouble and does nothing for the kind of scenario that I describe above.

With a SO or direct transfer you retain complete control over what happens to your account.
 
I'm with Protocol on this. Ideally, perhaps it would be better not to have to do DD. However, if the $ is not pushed over to them on the specified day with the specified amount (and remember, at some stage, there will be a series of interest rate increases once more), will this not go down as a missed payment? It most certainly will if Danskes letter informing you of this arrives later than the date they give to rectify this by (as has happened on one occasion with my Danske mortgage).

I've signed and returned the D.D. mandate - but I will be watching them ....ALWAYS!
 
Hello,

Rainyday - thank you for your responses.

Everyone, regarding the matter of direct debits, anytime you sign one you give someone else free access to draw funds if and when they want, from your account. ang1170 sets out a very good example of something which has probably happened to quite a few of us, at some stage or another.

As memory servces, I think it may be pepper who have been awarded the outsourcing work from Danske for some if not all of their customer loan book. If Danske have not already outsourced the management of their residential loan book, then it's only a matter of time given they won't have the staff here to do it directly ...

If this is the case, then thats then an outsourcing company you have to chase to get your incorrectly taken direct debit monies returned ... they in turn may or quite possibly may not have the authority to transfer funds "owned by Danske" and will have to contact Danske to get approval to return funds etc etc. How long could that take, how many phonecalls, how many subsequent problems due to one incorrectly taken direct debit ?

All in all, it's an unacceptable risk as I see it.
 
It's horses for courses of course. If you're happy with a DD, fire away. I'm not, and as I'm not too happy overall with Danske at the moment, it didn't seem unreasonable to take a stand.
 
MrEarl said:
Did they tell you what interest rates would be applicable and what impact these alternative facilities would have on your ICB record etc ?

Thank you.
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Hi. Apologies for not replying sooner. I haven't logged in for a while. Interest rate is same as currently on the card (11.5%) and there is no impact on ICB rating, as long as I make agreed payments each month. In addition, I can make lump sum payments when I want without penalty. It is simply a continuation of the current agreement under the same terms and conditions but with a withdrawal of the credit facility.
 
MrEarl said:
Personally, I don't think so - whats putting you off, if you don't mind me asking ?
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2) If the SO arrives too early, it will be treated as an extra lump sum repayment, not a regular repayment
3) If the SO arrives too late, even 1 day late, they will be firing out arrears letters
4) They will hold onto TRS, and you will have to request transfers of TRS amounts to a designated account
 
A12 said:
Hi. Apologies for not replying sooner. I haven't logged in for a while. Interest rate is same as currently on the card (11.5%) and there is no impact on ICB rating, as long as I make agreed payments each month. In addition, I can make lump sum payments when I want without penalty. It is simply a continuation of the current agreement under the same terms and conditions but with a withdrawal of the credit facility.
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It's not really a continuation of the same agreement - under the original credit card, you had to pay the minimum payment each month. Under this deal, you have to pay the rescheduled payment (balance / 24 plus interest) each month.

It's an interesting question as to whether they could affect your ICB rating for failing to pay the rescheduled payment, seeing as you never agreed to this rescheduling in the first place.
 
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