Key Post What you can do to get the SVR rate reduced...

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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I will compile a list of things people can actually do to keep up the momentum of the campaign. Other suggestions welcome

  • Contact all your TDs. The best thing is to visit them at their constituency office. If they have a public meeting, attend that and raise the issue. Phone them. Email them. Some TDs have said that this is not an issue for them as no one has complained. Let us know the response you get here.
  • Speak to your local media. The media love stories. So if you contact your local newspaper or a national newspaper, they will feature the story.
  • When you hear the issue being discussed on radio, call or text the radio station
  • Complain to the Central Bank
  • Complain to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission - they have said that they don't consider it a good use of their resources.
  • Complain directly to the Minister for Finance
  • If you see a politician speaking up on the issue e.g. Michael McGrath or Brian Hayes, email them and thank them.
  • Write about it on social media -
    1. Facebook, SVR Mortgages Ireland
    2. Twitter
    3. boards.ie
    4. politics.ie
    5. And anywhere else online
  • When you see a newspaper article which allows readers to respond - respond and tell your story
  • Make sure to respond to this thread I am arranging a public meeting on the SVR issue
  • If you have an AIB, EBS or Haven mortgage, attend the AGM on 28th April. Speak and tell the Directors how you are being affected by the mortgage rates.
  • If you have a Bank of Ireland mortgage, attend the AGM on 29th April. Speak and tell the Directors how you are being affected by the mortgage rates.
 
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Direct Action
  • The best thing of all to do is to switch your mortgage if you can. Bank of Ireland was losing a lot of customers and is now cutting rates in individual deals to hold onto people
  • Encourage others to switch their mortgages - most people couldn't be bothered
  • Consider switching your current account and credit cards and business accounts if you have them.
Other suggestions - I am listing them here for completeness - I don't necessarily agree with them
  • Stop paying by direct debit
  • Encourage a mass withholding of mortgage payments - very, very risky
 
Well done Brendan on driving this. I would also add to the above: speak to family, friends & colleagues about what's going on with respect to svr. Educate them on this topic. I have been very proactive on this recently as frankly I have had enough. You'd be amazed of how many people aren't aware of what's going on. A lot of younger colleagues I work with who don't have mortgages weren't aware of what is happening. They are horrified as they are going to be looking for mortgagesin the future. So the more people that are aware of this, the bigger the impact with future elections as each and every person you speak to has a vote.
 
Good Work Brendan and all - This is urgent. I was asking about where to protest on boards.ie last night. If there is a meeting /protest then I will support this. After years of working and paying all the taxes,taking the pay cuts through the recession it drives me to despair to see the slow limp response of the Government to this problem:They just don't care. They are happy to have their banks gouge voting citizens,working families that have these SVR mortgages just to make them look more profitable to investors. This is hardly the type of Irish Government that was envisaged by the leaders of the 1916 rising.
 
Totally agree - have seen the footage from the PTSB meeting today and am being completely done over on a 4.5% variable rate. Am willing to take all the actions suggested by Brendan and will attend any public meetings organised.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Direct Action
  • The best thing of all to do is to switch your mortgage if you can. Bank of Ireland was losing a lot of customers and is now cutting rates in individual deals to hold onto people
  • Encourage others to switch their mortgages - most people couldn't be bothered
  • Consider switching your current account and credit cards and business accounts if you have them.
Other suggestions - I am listing them here for completeness - I don't necessarily agree with them
  • Stop paying by direct debit
  • Encourage a mass withholding of mortgage payments - very, very risky
Click to expand...

Thanks for raising awareness about this Brendan and thanks for the suggestions - good piece on Prime Time tonight - have regularly emailed senior government ministers re this and other inequities over the past number of years - will send more emails tomorrow - we are in negative equity and have SVR mortgage with BOI - seeing as we cannot switch are we not at a disadvantage in terms of accessing any limited competition in the market place - surely this is a counter argument to the central bank and government's argument about not intervening in the banking market in case this scares off potential competitors? competition authority? I mean for us it does not matter if the market place is competitive?
 
Great list of ideas.
Where is the EBS AGM on? I didn't know there was one? I am with them on a varible rate of 4.33% and while they did lower the rate they didn't lower as much as AIB.
I will certainly do a lot of what's on the op list but how do you complain to the Central Bank and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission?
Also can you cancel your direct debit? I thought you couldn't do this?
 
I was listening to the radio this morning and a correspondent from the independant was on speaking about the SVR and switching. As I not going to save much by switching it is not worth my while doing so.
She then spoke about fixing instead of switching and how the rates were much lower than the SVR being currently offered3.7% for me or so I thought. So I rang PTSB and surprise surprise the fixed rate is much higher for existing customers and these rates only apply for new customers. I couldn't be bothered to wait on the phone to see what the rate was for existing customers I was so disgusted .
 
Thank you Brendan for your huge efforts in highlighting this issue.

As previously said by other posters I am fed up at this stage paying ridiculously high interest rates. It's been a very difficult few years for both my family and I financially. Hopefully we will get some sort of result in the near future.

I have emailed all my local TD's and have emailed Brian Hayes and Michael McGrath to thank them for highlighting the issue.
 
Bronte said:
The only people affected by this are a) strugglers b) Negative equity people c) job issues - loss and pay d) newish mortgage holders

Sorry I am non of the above, but have a high SVR and I am not happy being penalised so tracker holders can carry on with in happy-low-repayment-laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank land. Its the principal of fairness and equality to customers. However, with-holding payment would be a very bad idea, with-holding electoral votes is a better idea.
Click to expand...
 
I have just emailed my local representatives today and copied Enda Kenny. I don't expect much of a response to be honest. However, I think a coordinated campaign of emails might work better. I would like to see a standard email being drafted, circulated and sent. Copied on the email should be all of the major media organizations (perhaps people like Joe Duffy, Matt Cooper, Pat Kenny etc) as well as Michael Noonan and Enda Kenny. While one email will make no difference perhaps if Mr. Kenny received 50,000 emails about the issue he might just take notice. I would certainly expect the media to react to 50,000 emails from angry citizens.
 
Here's another suggestion - banks sell ancillary products such as house insurance, car loans and many of these products are pitched at Ireland's 300,000 + SVM holders. So how about boycotting these bank products until such time as the banks stop profiteering on the backs of Ireland's hard working variable rate holders? Better still, return any promo material for these products to the bank's chief executive with a polite note explaining that you won't be considering these ancillary products until such time as they bring their interest in line with actual ECB market rates.
 
I have written to 8 tds at this stage and have received replies from 2. They assure may that they will keep the pressure on. I won't hold my breath but I will keep emailing them. In 10 years of having a Mortgage with TSB I have never missed a payment and for this I have become a victim of the scurless behavior of our bankers. I will not stop my battle and I will continue to confront every public representative I meet.
 
Ger Fleming said:
I have written to 8 tds at this stage and have received replies from 2. They assure may that they will keep the pressure on. I won't hold my breath but I will keep emailing them. In 10 years of having a Mortgage with TSB I have never missed a payment and for this I have become a victim of the scurless behavior of our bankers. I will not stop my battle and I will continue to confront every public representative I meet.
Click to expand...

I agree and am doing the same, but sadly,without a whole lot of success.
My fear now is that if the recent Government mortgage arrears process causes the banks to write off more money in doing deals etc then the same banks will charge the SVR mortgage holders for this also.
Bankers' greed again - just as during the boom.
The Government need to act urgently to reduce these SVR rates. The passive " kick the can down the road" attitude of this Government is just facilitating the transfer of wealth from many working families to bankers/shareholders etc.
 
Hey there - I have written to all my Fine Gael TD's. I had actually written to them as soon as they had won the election and at the time I was given the impression that Fine Gael had this in Hand and were fully aware of the issue and it was in their' program for government to deal with it.
I had also contacted Brian Hayes as I had seen him giving an interview on the 6 one news on rte prior to the election where he gave the distinct impression that if elected they would be dealing with this SVR issue - I emailed him about it later and he denied saying it.

Most recently one of the TDs I wrote to expressed their sympathy with my situation in what I perceived as a most patronising manner, the second, even better told me his was a minister now and that what was i was writing to him about was really not his remit ( he is my local td ) - but he would 'consider my views' - what he was going to do once he considered my views he did not say.

Anyway - whats the suggestions to do next to push this along ?
there is a article in the independent '
Former Regulator backs banks on variable rate mortgages'
I think this is a disgrace - its about how the banks must make profits ( why ? should banks make profits - they where saved 'apparently' because we need institutions to lend money - so lets nationalise them ) -or alternatively maybe someone should dip into her bank account - like they did in Cyprus - to make the banks profitable by taking money off any one with over 100k in deposits -- Why should this fall requirement to make the banks profitable fall on my and other SVR holders' shoulders to make the banks profitable?
 
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I think it's disgraceful how td,s can be so condescending in their replies. I reckon They themselves haven't a bulls notion about a lot of things and are just rhyming off a script. "Consider your views" is an insult to intellect.

If more and more people continue to write to their td,s then perhaps something will have to give...otherwise the election may be the best Avenue to success
 
I have just phoned Danske Bank,pepper,They are not reducing their rates from the penal 4.99%,They are not offer ing ,fixed rates or plan to,Did the minister talk to Danske ?,The minister should bring in legislation to cap the rates for Banks like Danske, What's going to happen when the ecb raises its rates??
 
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