# First Active moving the goalposts on CAM - not fair?



## Betsy Og (12 May 2006)

Got a letter yesterday to tell me that the "net" repayment option (which I think they call "standard") was no longer available - this is where you make repayments based on your net mortgage, netting off mortgage account and current account.

So now theres no choice you have to make repayments as if you are paying off the gross mortgage sum (think they call this "planned repayment").

Since the interest cost is the same in both cases the Planned Repayment means you pay off your mortgage quicker as greater capital being allocated over from your current account to offset against loan account.

It had been suiting me to build up a "rainy day" fund in the current account and I was hoping to effectively repay my mortgage early by the funds in current account going up and meeting the loan account coming down somewhere in the middle. With the increased repayments its going to be hard for me to build up the "rainy day" fund much more.

On the point of principle, we signed up to a 20 deal and now a few years in they are changing the goalposts. I'm going to read the fineprint of the original deal when I get a chance but, regardless of it theres an "out" there, I think its most unprofessional to arbitrarily make changes to an agreement mid-race. I've a good mind to get irate and tell they where they can go & discuss it with the Financial Regulator/Financial Ombudsman if they want & remind them they are not the only "offset" mortgage providers.

Am I being unreasonable?? Are they trying it on??


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## Darrenm (12 May 2006)

I totally agree with you! I just received my letter today! This is a disgrace, I wonder where we stand legally? I mean they have sent out a consent form - why do they need us to sign it unless they are on shaky ground? 

I signed up to their mortgage specifically for the benefits of the standard repayment and so have a number of my friends and I can tell you that they are extremely irate too!


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## Betsy Og (15 May 2006)

I think what we need is one of the journalists who apparently scan this site looking for stories to take this us,

or Brendan, where art thou?? Could you give this an air on the Last Word?? 

When I get a chance I'll do my own checking of the fine print and see what the position is. Herself read the letter of offer and could see nothing to allow them, she also rang the Financial Regulator who didnt say much but asked if they were offering anything in return/in consideration for this change (which they are not).

Whats First Actives motivation??, is it that they are worried that they cant predict how cash in the current account will behave and therefore whether they can safely lend it on or not??


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## Strasser (15 May 2006)

This does seem outrageous.  I have been invited in to a meeting to discuss "changes we are making in the current account morgage" on Thursday.  I have 2 morgages with them and so far they have said our system in future will only support 1 current account morgage and I have to change the other to another product type.  Can they do that?


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## ClubMan (15 May 2006)

Strasser said:
			
		

> Can they do that?


What do the terms & conditions of the original loan agreement say?


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## Sarah W (15 May 2006)

I've mailed FA to make them aware of this thread......

Sarah

www.rea.ie


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## mold (15 May 2006)

Hi folks, 
Sorry to come across dumb, can someone please explain this to me, I also have a current account mortgage but have not received any letters, does this also affect me, please explain to the dizzy one in the corner


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## Betsy Og (16 May 2006)

*Legal Term allowing them to make changes*

Inevitably there is a provision for them to change the product. 

Condition 44 in the terms and conditions booklet say they can change and will inform customer.

This condition is unsurprising but may not be effective, I'm sure the same type of provisions are included in insurance contracts but they cant exactly say they are changing the conditions so that they wont pay out. i.e. I dont think something fundamental to the product can/should be varied by the provider, it would mean that the consumer has been sold something which then becomes unavailable to them.

There is a whole plethora of regulatory acts, codes of conduct, ethical codes etc which, I believe, this amendment goes against. e.g. bankers code of conduct that should have "integrity" & "loyalty" - basically that you should do as you said you were going to do.

As it happens I had written to them asking, amongst other things, for confirmation that the borrower could switch between planned and standard repayment as required by the borrower. The response I got was that this switching could take place as long as appropriate life assurance (level term) was in place.

Its amazing that with all the 'ass covering' provisions they wrote it that they didnt take the time or effort to spell out fairly fundamental points like the one I asked. & worse I got a fairly condescending "do you understand the product" message back via the broker from them. 

One would think that if an institution is happy to blather on about the benefits of their product in promotional literature that they would take the trouble to spell out the conditions for the few souls willing to wade through them.

p.s. did you know that its a condition that you inform the bank within 2 months of getting married, someone tell the wedding magazines to put it on their checklists !!


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## ClubMan (16 May 2006)

*Re: Legal Term allowing them to make changes*



			
				Betsy Og said:
			
		

> Condition 44 in the terms and conditions booklet say they can change and will inform customer.


Thanks _Betsy Og _- some hard facts at last!


> There is a whole plethora of regulatory acts, codes of conduct, ethical codes etc which, I believe, this amendment goes against. e.g. bankers code of conduct that should have "integrity" & "loyalty" - basically that you should do as you said you were going to do.


Perhaps one or more _FA _customers affected by these changes could make a complaint (based on the facts of the case) in the first instance to _FA _and, if necessary, to _IFSRA_?


> p.s. did you know that its a condition that you inform the bank within 2 months of getting married, someone tell the wedding magazines to put it on their checklists !!


You mean that this is a stipulation in most or all owner occupier mortgage loan agreements?


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## Guest107 (16 May 2006)

*Re: Legal Term allowing them to make changes*

once you marry its a family home under the Family Home Protection Act 1976 and you cannot simply sell it out from under t'other ......even if you bought it. Arguably it makes it a far dodgier proposition and risk for a bank or lender and that would be a material change in circumstances. 

a short act, so read! 

[broken link removed]


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## Betsy Og (16 May 2006)

*Re: Legal Term allowing them to make changes*



			
				ClubMan said:
			
		

> You mean that this is a stipulation in most or all owner occupier mortgage loan agreements?


 
Well I cant say that, I'm not in that line of work so I only know my own mortgage agreement but its in there as a condition for First Active. I'm not too bothered re that, its just a weird one that wouldnt occur to punters. If say, you got divorced, then I suppose the bank would arguably be entitled to know since it might affect the level of risk you pose - but on the other hand if the payments keep coming in then what matter it to them - I'm sure civil libertarians would have a crack at this one.

Re complaining, I certainly do intend to have my say on this one - nothing to lose and genuinely think they are renaging on a material feature of the product they sold. Sloppyness in the original documentation (see below) I can get over but just rewriting the product is, I think, a step too far.


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## ClubMan (16 May 2006)

Thanks _2Pack _and _Betsy Og _for the additional info. I no longer have a mortgage but think I have my _EBS _loan agreement somewhere and must check it out of curiosity.


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## Guest107 (16 May 2006)

The FHPA 1976 is hardly on Bridezillas radar as she colour co-ordinates her prize labrador for its photos outside the church or the 'big day'


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## Shakespeare (16 May 2006)

All
Thought I'd add what I've heard. I received a call from my branch manager to discuss the letter sent out and looking for my feedback. Apparently the standard repayment option is less frequently used than the planned one. Nothing is to happen immediately and I got the impression that they are unsure as to the response likely. They were looking for people's opinions to escalate general feeling so I would suggest contacting your branch manager to express and escalate your annoyance.
The argument being used is that RBS are moving FA onto their platforms and the RBS systems cannot handle this type of product. Apparently, although there are CA mortgages available in many other countries, they do not offer the kind of standard repayment option that FA do.(I'm sceptical to say the least but that's what I've been told).
S.


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## Guest107 (16 May 2006)

Tell them to buy a calculator and do the calculations manually.

What does the IFSRA have to say about FA abolishing a product where the punters are contracted in for 20 years ??

I reckon that FA will be told to do it manually if you complain or maybe manually in a spreadsheet ..........or else maybe pay you to move to NIB who still seem to do a CA mortgage like FA used to....as well as pick up compo for the hassle and a few squids from NIB towards the mortgage .


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## Darrenm (17 May 2006)

Well if they are looking for an opinion they are going to get it from me! 

EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES (UNFAIR TERMS IN CONSUMER CONTRACTS) REGULATIONS, 1995

REGULATION 3

Subsection (2) For the purpose of these Regulations *a contractual term shall be regarded as unfair if*, contrary to the requirement of good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties' rights and obligations under the contract to the detriment of the consumer, taking into account the *nature of the goods or services for which the contract was concluded* and all circumstances attending the conclusion of the contract and all other terms of the contract or of another contract on which it is dependent.

SCHEDULE 3
Subsection ( k ) enabling the seller or supplier to alter unilaterally without a valid reason any characteristics of the product or service to be provided; 

Subsection ( m ) giving the seller or supplier the right to determine whether the goods or services supplied are in conformity with the contract, or giving him the exclusive right to interpret any term of the contract;


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## pennypincher (17 May 2006)

It looks like the standard and planned repayment options have been removed from their web site as well.Well it might be time to move elswhere as I can get a lower interest rate elsewhere,and was only with FA because of this particular product.


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## Betsy Og (17 May 2006)

As a minumum I think everyone here should print out this thread and post it to:

The Complaints Officer
First Active Plc
Broker Services Centre
First Active House
Leopardstown
Dublin 18.

I've done so with a Post-it attached to let them know I'm an unimpressed customer.

Plenty of time yet before need to throw off veil of anonymity and formally write to them. One hopes they will see sense and not make every one of us have to get into a legal wrangle with them. - Is there a precedent for a class action against a bank??

If they want a view as to the feeling on the issue then I think this is a genuine thing to do and not as "gimmicky" as sending a nappy to Micheal Martin. (and I know Sarah W has already emailed FA to alert them to this thread).


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## ClubMan (17 May 2006)

I have mentioned this thread to one journalist who might be interested in taking up the story.


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## nestor (17 May 2006)

I think it is disgraceful!!  The only reason I got the product was to keep the payments down and they are turning around now and screwing me with this. 

  The sales man repeated to me yes this is great because you can keep the payments down. I asked in several branches to cross check to make sure I had a proper grasp of the product.

  Reducing the term is not as valuable as in the future the amount owned will not seem like that much because of inflation.

  How could you ever buy something from these guys again? They say one thing when they sell it to you and turn around then and change the whole agreement. There is a word for this dishonest!!

  I am sure it is covered in a book of small print but changing something as big as this is just a cheap card trick pulled on hard working mortgage payers by a gang of suits in First Active.

  I am going to switch the first chance I get if they try and push this through.


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## Darrenm (17 May 2006)

Absolutely, I strenuously questioned the sales person about the product they were selling – and I was assured on many occasions in front of a witness that my monthly repayments would reduce as per the balance offset against my current account!

I would never have signed up to their product otherwise!!!

Remember this:

[broken link removed]
The Sunday Business Post, October 03, 2004
By Louise McBride


“Some of the main sellers of endowment mortgages, including banks acting exclusively for certain insurers, could face legal action for mis-selling them.”


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## Betsy Og (18 May 2006)

Got a call to ask did I get the letter and what did I plan to do.

I asked what the options were?

Laughably told I could pay off a lump sum against my loan to bring back my repayment to what it was  , and how might I do that except make a payment out of my current account and surely isnt that my issue with the change, that I dont want greater sums going out of my current account. No messing but I had to go through sample figures to explain how that was a nonsensical "solution".

Asked did I want to speak to manager I said theres no point in me having a discussion with a list of people in a chain of command telling them the same thing - I said go and find out at the appropriate level (i.e. where it can be fixed) as to how its going to be fixed or what is going to be done for us.

Their line is that its the systems that cant accomodate the continuing standard repayment but I pointed out that that is their issue to deal with and that it was wasnt on to go expecting customers to be at the loss of this.

I'm fairly sure something will have to be done for us as I, and no doubt others, will be willing to publicly make noise if we dont get satisfaction.


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## Guest107 (18 May 2006)

Betsy Og said:
			
		

> Their line is that its the systems that cant accomodate the continuing standard repayment but I pointed out that that is their issue to deal with and that it was wasnt on to go expecting customers to be at the loss of this.



They can use their existing or old systems to make the calculation and simply input the results of the calculations into the new systems. If they threw  a programmer at it for a week it would work just fine.

Alternatively  they could load the lot of ye into  a single spreadsheet every month and then input the result of its deliberations  into their other 'systems' .

A week of programmer time is peanuts to them given their profit margins.


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## Darrenm (18 May 2006)

I have been mis-sold a 40year mortgage, and I dont need this grief at the moment, I should be compensated for inconvenience, interest lost and stress due to time wasted on this issue.

I will be taking legal action for breach of contract if they dont honour my original agreement!


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## Guest107 (19 May 2006)

40 years worth of *stress and uncertainty* is a big number in my book.


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## Seagull (19 May 2006)

2Pack said:
			
		

> They can use their existing or old systems to make the calculation and simply input the results of the calculations into the new systems. If they threw  a programmer at it for a week it would work just fine.
> 
> Alternatively  they could load the lot of ye into  a single spreadsheet every month and then input the result of its deliberations  into their other 'systems' .
> 
> A week of programmer time is peanuts to them given their profit margins.


The whole point is that they want to move the accounts over to their new system. They want to decommission the old system.

This is significantly more than one week's development. I've been involved with similar projects, and you're looking at several months to get this done.


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## Darrenm (19 May 2006)

How many months does it take to decide on a mortgage and get it processed???


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## A C Abbott (21 May 2006)

Yet another disgruntled FA customer here.  I was horrified when a call from FA's Branch Development Manager informed me that my mortgage repayments would go up by 1420euro PM under FA's decision to force me to move from the 'Standard Option to the "Planned Option'. 
My mortgage broker was flabbergasted and knew nothing about this.  It goes to show the contempt FA has for those to sell their products.  While reference to the 'Standard Option' may be absent from FA's website I walked into 3 branches and was handed the brochure offering both options.  
Could it be that some executives in FA are being set up to loose their jobs
through their involvement in this debacle as part of Royal Bank of Scotland's efforts to streamline operations in Ireland?


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## Betsy Og (22 May 2006)

There was an article in the Tribune about it yesterday, cant but help. 

Hopefully First Active will try to find a reasonable solution to this. If, as was said, its only a minority affected then a manual "bolt on" to the new system shouldnt be that onerous. I could do it myself on Excel in 5 minutes using the PMT function which calculates monthly repayments on a given mortgage at a given interest rate.

It aint rocket science, especially for a bank which already has a system which can cope with it, why not run the old system, or a part of it, in parallel for this "minority"?


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## liosbourne (26 May 2006)

Have to agree with everyone who fells annoyed. What else are they going to change just to suit them in the future.


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## ClubMan (30 May 2006)

How many affected customers (here) have made a formal complaint to _FA _and/or _IFSRA_?


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## Resident (30 May 2006)

I haven't gotten my call from FA yet, but I'll be one of the complainers. That's pretty much the only reason I took it out and paid higher rates!.


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## bambino (30 May 2006)

I don't understand why they won't adapt the system to cope with the existing T & C's, NIB have recently done a take over where they transfered to the new parents systems, and clients on existing products still get to keep their old T & C's. They must be on real dodgy ground legally speaking.


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## A C Abbott (30 May 2006)

I can confirm that I have written a formal letter of complaint to First Active, I have not received any reply yet, indeed they have gone remarkably quite about the matter.  My mortgage broker asked them to write to me to explain the reasons for the change of option and as yet I have received no letter of explanation.  In my complaint I asked that an additional letter of complaint that I drew up, be forwarded to the Chief Executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland (Sir Fred Goodwin) on my behalf.  My next step this week will be to write to the Financial Regulator asking him to uphold my best interests in accordance with the Irish legislation. I envisage inviting the Regulator to order FA to withdrew all intimidating letters, even for those customers who have signed up in ignorance and send out a new communication to all 'Standard Option' holders, explaining in detail a person's rights, options, and financial consequences, by way of worked examples.


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## bambino (30 May 2006)

If FA have signed up to the IBF code of practice, I would be reporting them to the IBF aswell, the regulator can't actually enforce the codes as the are voluntary.


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## Darrenm (31 May 2006)

Well I received my phone call from First Active, they offered me a 10year interest only loan - but as I said to the manager - how can i trust that!!! - same terms and conditions right? She agreed so she has escalated my case to the regional manager. I haven't received the call from him yet.

I will be writing my formal letter of complaint today.


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## Betsy Og (6 Jun 2006)

Met with FA. Offered to run my gross loan account as a tracker variable @ 3.25%, .75% over ECB of 2.5%, over the full original term. Cheaper than CAM 3.79%

Offered a good rate of return on the balance in my current account. (PM me if you want detail - I dont want to put up too much info at this point in time).

So I have to think about it but it does seem to address some of the problems in that I'm not forced to repay early as would have to do on the Planned Repayment Option. The monthly repayment is much the same though under both options so if thats the major crux then maybe their extended term or int only for 10 years might be of some value.


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## Resident (7 Jun 2006)

After mailing the branch to complain, they've come back to me and also offered a .75% tracker.
On the current a/c they were offering a money market account, keep a minimum of 5k in there, max allowed is the mortgage amount. FA person wasn't positive of the rates, so I'll wait to confirm when they come in the post.

This rate is better than their site advertised tracker rates too, and I've too small a loan to qualify for their best rate t's & c's.

if anyone else knows the money market rate being offered, post it please, impatient for the postman.

This seems to be a standard offering from them now, as I hadn't mentioned Betsy Ogs previous mail. Ring and ask for it if you like it.

R.


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## ClubMan (7 Jun 2006)

Resident said:
			
		

> On the current a/c they were offering a money market account, keep a minimum of 5k in there, max allowed is the mortgage amount. FA person wasn't positive of the rates, so I'll wait to confirm when they come in the post.


Do you mean a high rate current account no longer linked to the mortgage? If so then I would be surprised if they offer a better rate than [broken link removed] 3.45% gross _CAR_.


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## jfmurphy (22 Jun 2006)

Hi,

These are the options I was sent.

01. A Tracker Mortgage offer of ECB plus a 0.75% margin - this is 0.54%
below the present Current Account Mortgage rate
02. Any fixed rate option from our suite of new business fixed rates (*)
03. Extend the term of the mortgage - ease any short term cash flow issues
04. Avail of an interest only facility on the Tracker mortgage of up to 10
years
05. I can now offer you a Money Market Deposit Account rate of ECB plus
2.25% to be maintained for the term of the mortgage. The balance in the
Money Market Account should not exceed the mortgage balance and requires a
minimum balance of ?5K This will allow you to transfer any savings you have
in the current account to a deposit account attracting a rate of ECB plus
2.25% for the duration of the loan.
06. Any legal fees, to a maximum of ?1K, will be paid by First Active. You
can choose your own Solicitor or opt to go through our legal option using
First American Title Insurance.

I assume everybody is getting the same offers.


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## Betsy Og (25 Jun 2006)

Yip, I think thats a comprensive list of the options. There was an article in the Times or the Indo recently, some arty type guy again giving out about First Active. 

The one thing that irks me a bit is how its been said a few times by FA that the standard repayment option was confusing for potential customers so thats why it was dropped. Apart from being condescending to the public, if that was the only problem couldnt they simply not issue any more new ones - are they afraid to publicly admit their IT systems cant cope - or might someone in the know come out and rubbish that line. 

In fairness I think they've probably covered themselves with the Financial Regulator - I threw this in at my meeting, were they worried about the Financial Regulator, and the guy said they thought they were ok, they had their homework done/checked it out.

I presume any poor sod who sent their FA approval form straight back wont be denied this new deal.


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## alc66 (28 Jun 2006)

Hi,
Got the same offer from FA. It did'nt mention the the 1K limit for the solicitor but did mention a fixed rate of 3.75% for 1 year.
Even allowing for DIRT, the Money Market Deposit Account (MMDA) of ECB plus 2.25% looks good. 
Would it be a good idea to go for the interest only option? Instead of paying the principle back to the bank every month you could stick it into the MMDA? Does anyone think that the options offered by FA are not fair? 
Any advice welcomed.

Thanks
A


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## liz1246 (4 Jul 2006)

Sorry for being a dimbo here but could someone explain in  about this 
I ahven't received any letter
I have a CAM 
We have a  large sum on deposit , and pay our mortgage every month  at a variable rate  
which has gone up a bit over the last few months ( of course)
Is there another option we could look at
You all seem to know the  ins & outs of all this
and i'm not even sure what i'm missing out on
CAn you explain in the simplest of terms
Thanks


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## ClubMan (4 Jul 2006)

From the first post in this thread it seems to me that they are effectively cancelling the linkage between the mortgage and the current account - i.e. the only way to reduce your capital outstanding is by committing the funds to it as a capital repayment and not by simply leaving the money on deposit in the current account attached to the mortgage but still having it easily available.


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## liz1246 (5 Jul 2006)

Thanks Clubman
had read that but was not sure if there were to ways to pay 
and whether it affected us or not.
Does that mean that we have eur250 mortgage with eur70 on deposit
that we are paying interest on eur250 and not eur180 every month?
Thanks


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## Strasser (5 Jul 2006)

Up to now you had two options with a CAM, you either 1 - paid the same amount every month and any interest savings you made went towards reducing the term or 2 - the term stayed the same and the interest savings were used to reduce your monthly payments.  
There is no change to the first option, and in the example above you pay interest on the 180 not 250.  If you were on this option you will not have heard from First Active because there is no change in your current situation.  
What is changed and what is the main subject of this thread is that First Active say their new IT system can no longer support the second option and are trying to get people to change away from it.


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## Sago (5 Jul 2006)

Hi, another pee'd off FA customer here.... my situation is a little different.  I was approved for my mortgage with FA based on a 2 year discounted rate (first time buyer). So my prob now is :  just as I go about drawing down on it - they inform me that this package is no longer available as I had not yet drawn down on the money - I was not sent any letter alerting me of this.  I've signed my mortgage contract with my solicitor (based on the 2 year discounted rate). Where do I stand with this - the next best rate is 1 year discounted with them but will cost me an additional 100 pm in repayments.


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## Marianne (5 Jul 2006)

I'm not a solicitor but I think the T&Cs of your loan offer give FA room to withdraw a particular product before drawdown.  Have a look.  

Did you deal with a broker?  If so, the broker would have received communication from FA confirming that the product was being withdrawn.  

Even if you were dealing directly with FA I agree that it would have been nice to be told that your chosen product was being withdrawn, but I don't think there's any legal obligation on them to keep open a particular product until all loan offers issued on that product close.


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## Marianne (5 Jul 2006)

JFMurphy said...



> 05. I can now offer you a Money Market Deposit Account rate of ECB plus
> 2.25% to be maintained for the term of the mortgage. The balance in the
> Money Market Account should not exceed the mortgage balance and requires a
> minimum balance of ?5K This will allow you to transfer any savings you have
> ...


 
Can this be right?  What rate are they taking "ECB" to be?  ECB + 2.25% would be 5% gross interest, if it's the same ECB rate as used for mortgages, i.e. currently 2.75%.  

Seems too good to be true - borrow at ECB+0.75% and invest at ECB+2.25%.


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## Sago (5 Jul 2006)

Marianne said:
			
		

> I'm not a solicitor but I think the T&Cs of your loan offer give FA room to withdraw a particular product before drawdown. Have a look.
> 
> Did you deal with a broker? If so, the broker would have received communication from FA confirming that the product was being withdrawn.
> 
> Even if you were dealing directly with FA I agree that it would have been nice to be told that your chosen product was being withdrawn, but I don't think there's any legal obligation on them to keep open a particular product until all loan offers issued on that product close.


 
Contacted my broker when I was about to draw down and was told then - he said he knew nothing about it - but I'm not really buying that.  Really pee'd off.... don't need the stress of all this.


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## murphyjdg (10 Jul 2006)

This thread has gone a bit quiet. I was wondering whether previous posters are going to accept FA's deal?

I'm no financial whiz but for me:

PROS:
1. You can keep your monthly payment low (probably lower than at present) by taking the interest only option for up to ten years.

2. The interest rate offered is very competitive on the tracker mortgage offered (ECB + 0.75%).

3. You can invest your lump sum in Deposit Money Market Account at an excellent rate of interest (ECB + 2.25%).

4. There's no cost to changing. Legal fees are paid (up to a grand).


CONS:
1. If you invest lump sum in deposit account, you must give one months notice to access your funds .So you can't dip in to it as you could with the facility account on the CAM. You also lose the laser card and (I think) internet banking.

2. You cannot pay monthly mortgage from the deposit account so must keep enough funds in another account to pay it.

For me, the interest rates offered both on the tracker mortgage and deposit account more than make up for the loss of flexibility. 
In particular, as was mentioned before, by going interest only for the ten years on the tracker,  and saving the balance of what you would have paid, there seems to be a considerable saving to be made.

Have I missed something? What do others think?


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## alc66 (11 Jul 2006)

CONS:
3. You will pay DIRT on the interest from the Money Market Deposit Account.


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## nestor (31 Jul 2006)

Hi I got the same offer as everybody else above. And I have a few questions if anybody knows the answers

  1.
  Does any body know if First actives offer of with their Deposit Money Market Account (ECB + 2.25%) is better than rabo bank, northern rock and Aib and all the rest of the safe investments for your money?


  2 since they are offering ECB+.75 tracker mortgage and ECB+2.25 for the Deposit account wouldn’t I be better off keeping as much money in the deposit account as possible and not pay down the mortgage.? As you would always be ahead by 1.5%

  3.Out of pure interest is this offer better or worse that the original Standard CAM option if you happened to have a few quid in there? 

  Thanks


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## Shakespeare (1 Aug 2006)

Hi, to clarify,
As someone who's just swapped over, if you take a +.75% tracker mortgage and the money market deposit account you are no longer using the current account mortgage product and thus you can build up your deposit/savings account all you like but it won't make any difference to the amount that must be paid monthly off your mortgage, they are not offset accounts.
Also I figure even after DIRT, you're earning currently 4% net in the money market account and paying 3.5% on your mortgage so at least for a change it's the right way around!! The money market account also has a one month notice period for withdrawls so you cannot use it as a banklink type of account.
S.


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## Betsy Og (4 Aug 2006)

Shakespeare said:
			
		

> Hi, to clarify,
> and thus you can build up your deposit/savings account all you like


 
Just to clarify, theres a condition on mine that the money market account cant exceed loan left, so check out if this is a limiting factor for you as well - it could well be.


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## Vanilla (6 Oct 2006)

I am currently in negotiations with First Active in relation to the changes to my CAM. Suffice to say I am not being offered the same deal as others who have posted here- I am only being offered a 0.95% tracker. For the purposes of working out the disadvantages to me/ advantages- can anyone explain to me how to work out the saving per month if we put our matured SSIA- approx 40K into the CAM current account and offset but use it to reduce the mortgage repayments per month? I.e how do I work out how much the mortgage repayment would reduce per month?


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## Strasser (6 Oct 2006)

As far as I know the reduced monthly repayment option is no longer available, you best check it out with them.


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## Vanilla (6 Oct 2006)

Sure, I know they are trying to remove the option but that is my very point. I am trying to work out how beneficial this would be to me in order to effectively bargain with FA.


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