ACC Bank

I currently bank with ACC and have a mortgage with them. I am currently in the process of claiming mortgage interest relief.

I recently spoke to the revenue and they told me that not all interest relief is refundable to your current account but that the bank may decide to put it off your house instead or lower your monthly payments.

Surely the mortgage holder should decide where the refund goes? Am I being rational??

So, I am wondering does anyone know how the ACC handle the above.

Yes, ACC do not refund TRS into customers current accounts. They apply it to your loan each month, which has the effect of decreasing your repayment installment.

So instead of having a debit of the full repayment amount each month from your current account & a credit for your TRS amount, they just debit the net amount from your current account.

It doesn't really make any difference, apart from the fact that you dont actually physically see the exact TRS amount being applied until you get your loan statement. No matter what way it's done the TRS amount is still being applied to your loan, as you would have paid the larger amount out of your current account anyway, so basically the only difference is you have one transaction instead of two on your current account.

I presume the reason they do it this way has something to do with the way their computer/accounting systems are set up.

Oh no! I had set my sights on a nice refund. Not going to happen now

Before I read your reply I rang one of their branches asking them the same question and they said they possibly could refund two years and then hold onto the remaining two years.

Having dealt with them for some time I only take the person on the phones explanation with a grain of salt

Thanks for explaining.

I'm just looking at your other post - if you're referring to a backdated refund of TRS due for previous tax years I don't know how this would be handled, but I agree that you should be able to decide where it goes, as this is a refund due to you from Revenue - not to ACC, though it would be in your long-term best interest to pay it off your mortgage anyway.

Thanks Papercut.

Maybe so as it is quite a considerable sum.

On the other hand cash has been tight and I would have paid off existing debts leaving me with only a mortgage to pay.

Definitely quite annoying that they get to choose where this money goes - leaving me the interest payer with no say.

I'm not certain but doesn't the TRS start from when you apply so that year 1 on your mortgage is now 2010 as oppose to 2005 ? Maybe someone can clarify.

I truly hope that is not the case or I'm up s. creek!

For some unknown reason I never applied for TRS when I took out the mortgage.

I only got around to doing it this week.

I'm now in the process of trying to claim for years missed and hoping upon hoping I'm issued with a cheque refund!

elcato said:

I'm not certain but doesn't the TRS start from when you apply so that year 1 on your mortgage is now 2010 as oppose to 2005 ? Maybe someone can clarify.

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Year One is the tax year in which the mortgage was taken out - that's why Revenue provide the facility to claim for previous tax years, which have to be filed separately.

The only 'grey' area is when someone takes out their mortgage in December but makes their first repayment in January of the following year. Some people have been advised that Year One is the 'December year', & others have been advised that it's the 'January year', & this is why some people delay drawing down their mortgage until January. Revenue say they go by the date of the first repayment as supplied on the application form & class that as Year One, but, like everything else, people have been told otherwise.