Avant Money - new entrant

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That is interesting.

I know that MBNA was a dreadful company to deal with. I would not recommend them to anyone. I don't know if they have improved under Avantcard.

Key Post - How best to deal with MBNA if you can't pay the balance due

I am having problems with MBNA. I have a credit card with a limit of €4,000 which I havent used for 2 years. I was making weekly repayments for months but wasnt getting anywhere with it. The interest they are charging is massive and I just cannot keep up with it anymore. I have on numerous...
www.askaboutmoney.com

There certainly is an opportunity for someone to provide low Loan to Value mortgages at much reduced rates.

Lending high LTVs such as in excess of 80% is too risky in Ireland when attempts to recover your money are frowned upon.

Brendan
 
I had a look at their credit card and was surprised to see that


  • Built in and always-on cashback rewards without any hidden costs or any strings attached.
    • 1.25% cashback every month on purchases. There's a few exceptions but not many.4


That looks great until you see that it's limited to €12 per statement.

This sort of restriction should be highlighted up front and not shown as a footnote.

It it says "always-on cashback" it should be always on and not off whenever you spend more than €1,000

Brendan
 
Not great on customer service. Two hours on the phone waiting to do a charge back

Avantcard chargeback link

Does anyone know how to do a chargeback on an Avantcard creditcard? Ive fallen victim to Ryanairs no refund decision after they cancelled flights and I want to do a chargeback.
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I had a look at their credit card and was surprised to see that


  • Built in and always-on cashback rewards without any hidden costs or any strings attached.
    • 1.25% cashback every month on purchases. There's a few exceptions but not many.4


That looks great until you see that it's limited to €12 per statement.

This sort of restriction should be highlighted up front and not shown as a footnote.

It it says "always-on cashback" it should be always on and not off whenever you spend more than €1,000

Brendan
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That's exactly what I spotted today on their website today! "Always on" is surely false advertising here! An upper limit and a restriction on what counts is not always on!! Not giving me confidence at all.
 
Hard to see these guys disrupting the market - more likely to be a niche player, with mid table lending rates.

Their card services are okay, but little more than that. Limited online services, while their customer support is only available by phone and not 24/7 etc. Rates and benefits are hardly fantastic.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
I had a look at their credit card and was surprised to see that


  • Built in and always-on cashback rewards without any hidden costs or any strings attached.
    • 1.25% cashback every month on purchases. There's a few exceptions but not many.4


That looks great until you see that it's limited to €12 per statement.

This sort of restriction should be highlighted up front and not shown as a footnote.

It it says "always-on cashback" it should be always on and not off whenever you spend more than €1,000

Brendan
Click to expand...
You could complain to the CCPC. They should really be doing more about this sort of thing
 
I have a credit card and personal loan with advantcard. Can only say good things about both experiences and also best rates on the market. Also one of the best rewards and balance transfers on market. Customer service has been very good anytime I contacted them. I dont think a big Spanish bank are coming to ireland to be a niche player!!! Welcome 2% rates and below. The other banks will have to react so all good news
 
DeeKie said:
You could complain to the CCPC. They should really be doing more about this sort of thing
Click to expand...


Apparently they are on board:

"Cashback Reward
Cashback is earned on retail and entertainment transactions. Cashback is credited to your account a month in arrears to a maximum value of €12 per statement. "Ireland's best always-on cashback rate on credit cards"; correct as of 10th March 2020, source: ccpc.ie."

 
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I've used them since the tesco card moved to them. I can't remember why I changed to their version of the reward card but the €12 limit per month wasn't hidden. I get the €12 most months as I put everything through the card.
Some transactions don't give cashback but again it was easy to find out which ones were excluded.
Obviously if you don't pay the full amount every 2 months then the reward is pointless as you'll be paying cc interest.

Always found the customer service fine. I wanted to change my due date (to align it to just after pay day) and it was painless enough.
 
They're mentioning sub 2% fixed rates, that IMO would be a shake up. Breaking 2% barrier IMO would be significant, as it seems to be a floor at the moment. I believe 2.2% is current lowest rate available in Ireland.
 
They are likely to get off to a rocky start on the mortgages front if their past history is anything to go by. They launched a new product a few years ago (Chill Money) which fell flat on its face and never really took off. Their systems for loan applications are in essence still paper based and cumbersome. The company has zero experience in the mortgage market which is considerably more labour intensive and technically complicated than issuing unsecured credit (for example with mortgages, the company will have to take physical possession of deeds, deal with registering charges on properties, closings with Solicitors etc). I’m not one bit convinced they will make the grade if and when they pass muster with the Regulator and are permitted to issue mortgages.
 
Hi Jay

If they introduce a mortgage below 2% , it would be a great help. Even if their systems are poor and there is very little take up.

I hadn't realised that they were Chill Money.

Brendan
 
Ah, that explains it.

I would have thought that they should now be promoting one name or the other.

I had forgotten about MBNA and Avantcard.

Brendan
 
Jayom75 said:
The company has zero experience in the mortgage market which is considerably more labour intensive and technically complicated than issuing unsecured credit (for example with mortgages, the company will have to take physical possession of deeds, deal with registering charges on properties, closings with Solicitors etc). I’m not one bit convinced they will make the grade if and when they pass muster with the Regulator and are permitted to issue mortgages.
Click to expand...
I find your entire post strange. Bankinter have a 76bn euro asset base. They're the 4th biggest bank in Spain, and recently launched an entirely digital mortgage product over there. I can only guess that they understand a thing or 2 about mortgages.
The whole legal piece and registering charges, etc. believe it or not, that's what the borrower's solicitor does. All the bank really does is check up on it.
To base assumptions about how they might launch a mortgage product on a personal loan product offered through an intermediary, while under different ownership and during a period when the entire personal loan market in Ireland has collapsed is a bit naive.
If they price this product right, they will cause serious disruption in the market. As for their systems, and central bank regulation - just look at the existing players.
 
RedOnion said:
I find your entire post strange. Bankinter have a 76bn euro asset base. They're the 4th biggest bank in Spain, and recently launched an entirely digital mortgage product over there. I can only guess that they understand a thing or 2 about mortgages.
The whole legal piece and registering charges, etc. believe it or not, that's what the borrower's solicitor does. All the bank really does is check up on it.
To base assumptions about how they might launch a mortgage product on a personal loan product offered through an intermediary, while under different ownership and during a period when the entire personal loan market in Ireland has collapsed is a bit naive.
If they price this product right, they will cause serious disruption in the market. As for their systems, and central bank regulation - just look at the existing players.
Click to expand...
Naive?! I know more about the internal workings of certain institutions and property deals than your post suggests I do. But time will tell.
 
In fairness bankinter only took over Avant card 13 months ago and this is their start into the wider market. I don't think you can take the practices of a previous owner who probably knew they were selling and thus put zero investment in IT infrastructure and assume that a totally new owner would continue such archaic systems

I would suspect that they will be at the forefront of digital banking rather than laggards as if they are going to have market leading rates they will have to ensure as much digitisation of the process as possible.
 
It’s hardly a revolutionary stance to take into consideration a company’s past performance when assessing whether or not they will likely be successful in the future. Irrespective of the ownership.

I wish them well, because Lord knows we need a competitive competent provider in the market.

But -

1. Avantcard are launching into a highly unstable market where the economic effects of Covid are unknown, but not at all promising at best.
2. Bankinter might well know their stuff about mortgages in the Spanish market, but that does not automatically translate into their Irish subsidiary knowing their stuff in the Irish market, especially where the Irish company has no background in issuing mortgages. Moving (logistically) from issuing unsecured credit to mortgage credit is no small matter.

3. Unless Bankinter manage to attract some exceptionally experienced staff to work for their Irish subsidiary who actually know about mortgage lending and business startup, and which staff are inclined to either relocate to Leitrim or use Leitrim as their business base, then they’re up against it.

Just sayin’.
 
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