Campaign Focus- Lobby Your TD and Senators

I just texted and emailed The Pat Kenny Show to ask Noonan what his plans for the future are re vmr. He doesn't reply to emails sent to his office. Let's see what happens. Very little I'd say.
 
Response from Terence Flanagan TD I received from an email I sent him recently:

QUESTION NOS: 263,268

DÁIL QUESTIONS addressed to the Minister for Finance (Deputy Michael Noonan)
by Deputy Terence Flanagan,Michael McCarthy
for WRITTEN ANSWER on 14/07/2015

* To ask the Minister for Finance the actions being taken to reduce standard variable rates (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter.
- Terence Flanagan T.D.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 14 July, 2015.

* To ask the Minister for Finance the action he is taking to ensure that Irish mortgage holders are not paying unfairly high interest rates on their mortgages; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
- Michael McCarthy T.D.
For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 14 July, 2015.

REPLY.

As the Deputies will be aware, I met with senior management of Ireland's six main mortgage lenders, including Permanent TSB, on 19th and 21st May to discuss the issue of mortgage interest rates. The meetings focused on the mortgage market and specifically the comparatively high standard variable rates currently being charged by the banks.

I outlined my view, that Standard Variable Rates being charged in the Irish market are too high. There was agreement from all lenders that customers should have access to more competitive mortgage products as per my recommendation.

The banks agreed to review their rates and products and, by the beginning of July, to have simple options to reduce monthly mortgage payments for SVR customers. The position of home owners who are in negative equity was also discussed and assurances were sought and received that these homeowners will be able to avail of options to reduce their monthly repayments. The main banks have since announced a range of new products offering customers lower monthly mortgage repayments.

In addition to the issue of rates I also outlined the need for greater competition in the market and the need for a more active and well-resourced campaign by the individual banks. This should focus on promoting awareness of their best offering and how easy it is for customers to take up new products and switch between different institutions if they wish to avail of better rates.

In relation to switching, I understand that the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission is planning to provide more information to consumers to encourage switching. I expect that if financial institutions are convinced that there is a threat that they will lose these customers, they will reduce the rates that they currently charge existing customers.
The Government made a commitment in the Statement of Government priorities 2014 to 2016 to applying downward pressure on mortgage rates by increasing and supporting competition in the market and it will continue to work to fulfil that commitment.

A review of what progress has been made is now taking place. The main lenders have initiated new measures ranging from lower Standard Variable Rates to new loan to value products and fixed rate products. These new offerings could result in monthly savings for mortgage customers and I urge customers to see if there is an option available which would suit their circumstances and also save them money on their repayments. The Central Bank is also continuing to conduct research in this area following its earlier report.

As I have previously made clear, a follow up set of meetings with each of the six banks will take place in September in advance of the Budget.
 
After 2 months I got an email from Michael Noonan today. In short it referred to his meeting with banks and that they have applied changes that will make payments easier for customers and that he is reviewing the changes at present. I honestly don't believe his so called pressure on the banks have brought any significant changes for the majority of customers and I replied to him stating this. I also said that if he continued to drag his feet on this matter that the electorate will eventually have their say. I also noted in my response that as a customer of ptsb I have had no correspondence from them re changes in their rates up to this date. I await a response and I hope it doesn't take another 2 months.
 
Slighly off topic but maybe please read comments in the Depths Forum , should State sell AIB.
...........................................................................................
Ideologically our Government will ensure that the (market) trumps the citizen should the (market) be at risk.
The Government know that you 300,000 won,t really do anything ,other than huff and puff.
 
Gerry Canning said:
Slighly off topic but maybe please read comments in the Depths Forum , should State sell AIB.
...........................................................................................
Ideologically our Government will ensure that the (market) trumps the citizen should the (market) be at risk.
The Government know that you 300,000 won,t really do anything ,other than huff and puff.
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If the 300000 use their vote in the general election it won't be a huff or a puff as it will show the government we have had enough.
 
I've also sent Michael Noonan an email a few weeks ago, no response so far.

I'd like the other 299998 svr mortgage holders to individually email him also.
 
todo said:
I've also sent Michael Noonan an email a few weeks ago, no response so far.

I'd like the other 299998 svr mortgage holders to individually email him also.
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Yes and keep mailing him. It's important to keep this campaign alive. I've also cc all my local tds.
 
Just an update. I've had 3 responses to emails I sent this morning. Two fg tds said they would revert back to me after their meeting with minister which takes place on 10&11th of September. If enough people keep emailing their government tds the pressure may tell eventually. Don't forget they are on election footing at the moment and maybe they will start to realise we are not going away. It's now or never so let's keep the pressure on.
 
The points made in the posts above are accurate for me. I have emailed local tds who happen to include 2 senior ministers and only Ruth coppinger replied to me. She advised me that she did vote for the most recent motions on svrs and assured me she will continue to campaign on this. Unfortunately though she's highly unlikely to see high office unlike her constituency colleagues. Leo varadkar did reply to me and made representations to the minister on my behalf but they appeared to be party line based answers, i even suggested a solution based on an extension to the interest relief scheme seeing as we are more than doing our state service by saving the state having to bail out the banks for a 2nd time and get them ready for privatisation. I asked Joan Burtons office why they failed to reply they said I sent my letter to the wrong place, Dail eireann and that it shouldve gone to the social protection dept. Imagine Dail eireann was the wrong place. Agree totally that the pressure needs to be applied and I will email again but I feel we need to do two things, decide which party the 300,000 people should be encouraged to vote for and secondly a more public form of protest needs to happen. I would gladly help out with planning such a protest but I feel as I've said in previous posts that there are at least 298,000 of the svr people who won't do anything because either they cant be bothered or prefer to huff and puff and do nothing .I certainly wouldn't want to do anything that would embarrass the campaign, imagine maybe 150 of us outside the Dail alongside 20,000 water protesters, 150 being the amount of people who turned up at the burlington. For all we know a lot of these people are taking part in the water campaign unawares that what they'd pay in water charges in a year they're losing in excess interest in a month.
 
I agree we must vote for the parties that are fully supporting our campaign.To date Fianna Fail is the only party doing anything constructive which is thanks to Michael McGrath.Lets see over the next few weeks what the others will say.
A public protest should also be considered as we get closer to the election.
 
I have contacted umpteen TD's and have received no response. I encourage others and myself to keep pestering them for answers.

Tonight I sit here a very worried man and only for a poster on this website I'd be probably in a further conundrum. Some months ago I seen my mortgage rise by approximately €300.00 per month I thought it was interest rate fluctuations. I contacted my bank and I was informed the variable rate had not changed. I was busy with work and I never got a proper chance to investigate the matter further. Each month went by and the mortgage would slightly rise again by a few Euro. I contacted the bank again and was informed that no trs was applied to the account as I had missed a mortgage repayment and in lieu trs ceased. When I noted this error I immediately cleared the debt and reapplied for trs. It has been some months and trs has not been applied to my main mortgage and a top loan I have. I went into discussions with the bank and was informed that yes they had received my file from the revenue but returned it marked (error) and said their system was not compatible and the revenue will need to resend instructions in a different format. This will take another couple of months.

I sit here tonight on a variable 4.4 repaying over 2k per month with no trs and no way of moving my mortgage. I am mortgage product illiterate and pray this campaign for Variable Rate Customers gets a just hearing.
 
I contacted constituency TDs multiple times but the only one how replied was Leo Varadkar. Admittedly, he or his ghost writer who replies to emails was very nice but he must have copy-pasted some standard response about Noonan's July meeting with bankers and September review.

I also suggested "If the government is not in a position to implement policy to reduce very high SVR rates, please consider extending TRS beyond 2017 for those who bought in 2004-8, or consider taking toxic non-tracker mortgages drawn in 2004-8 off the bank books and applying a lower rate in a "mortgage nama" fund. If not, house ownership is probably over for me in December 2017."

I raise this issue in conversations with colleagues who work in other countries and I constantly feel like an idiot. A german colleague pays at 2.25% fixed rate. One person I know in the states had just refinanced his mortgage from 2.5% 30-years to 1.65% 20-years, fixed, because he said 2.5% was too high. Imagine we could fix our mortgages at 1.65% here in Ireland. Not at 3.8% for 10 years - "the only 10-year fixed product from the BOI" like they advertise. Screw you, bank of ireland.

I get it about tracker mortgages, people were lucky getting them, good for them. But what do we do, contracts notwithstanding the fact is that one half of the population is charged circa. 1-1.5% and another half is charged 4-5%. I would have accepted if we were charged 1% over prevailing tracker rates because of their better contracts, i.e., somewhere below 3%, but 4.5% is ridiculous especially if one cannot switch.
 
visigoth said:
Imagine we could fix our mortgages at 1.65% here in Ireland. Not at 3.8% for 10 years - "the only 10-year fixed product from the BOI" like they advertise. Screw you, bank of ireland.
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Bank of Ireland must have pretty good intelligence that variable rates are going to be lower then the 3.8% over the long run.
They certainly never do a good deed. I wonder how many they will suck into it.
 
Kerrigan said:
I have contacted umpteen TD's and have received no response. I encourage others and myself to keep pestering them for answers.

Tonight I sit here a very worried man and only for a poster on this website I'd be probably in a further conundrum. Some months ago I seen my mortgage rise by approximately €300.00 per month I thought it was interest rate fluctuations. I contacted my bank and I was informed the variable rate had not changed. I was busy with work and I never got a proper chance to investigate the matter further. Each month went by and the mortgage would slightly rise again by a few Euro. I contacted the bank again and was informed that no trs was applied to the account as I had missed a mortgage repayment and in lieu trs ceased. When I noted this error I immediately cleared the debt and reapplied for trs. It has been some months and trs has not been applied to my main mortgage and a top loan I have. I went into discussions with the bank and was informed that yes they had received my file from the revenue but returned it marked (error) and said their system was not compatible and the revenue will need to resend instructions in a different format. This will take another couple of months.

I sit here tonight on a variable 4.4 repaying over 2k per month with no trs and no way of moving my mortgage. I am mortgage product illiterate and pray this campaign for Variable Rate Customers gets a just hearing.
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This is actually a very important point for those in arrears Revenue guidance and the law in relation to TRS is that interest relief is applicable on amount paid so as long as you are paying something you should get relief.. Not the first time i heard a bank crediting someone with zero
 
Hi Raging Bull, funnily enough the bank admitted this was not the first time it had happened and I wonder how many more out there are unaware they have no TRS.

What do you think of their response i.e revenue will need to resend instructions to them in a different format as their system cannot take it in its current format!

Apologies for going off topic. Maybe Brendan Burgess can set up a thread on this please.
 
I wrote to Michael Noonans re svrs etc and made a suggestion about a solution around trs but was told it's been gone for people who have bought since 2013 and it's not proposed to change the plan to abolish it completely in 2017. For me there is a solution around trs and that is confine it to the portion of interest above the average tracker. I don't think it should be only confined to people who bought between 2004-08 although I do acknowledge that they paid the most, others are paying higher svrs than they should be too. I think it should be linked to the amount paid above the average tracker which would mean that people who paid the most would get the most. I also feel we need to be getting together to start planning a more public campaign as an election could happen anytime between Oct and March and we need to be ready. I'll certainly wait for a week or two to see how much support is out there in this forum for this but even a small group of us to link up in the city centre to plan something would be a start.
 
I am certainly up for a public campaign.

Kerrigan I have diverted your thread to a thread in the mortgage arrears section. I am in a similar situation.
 
tonymac said:
I wrote to Michael Noonans re svrs etc and made a suggestion about a solution around trs but was told it's been gone for people who have bought since 2013 and it's not proposed to change the plan to abolish it completely in 2017. For me there is a solution around trs and that is confine it to the portion of interest above the average tracker. I don't think it should be only confined to people who bought between 2004-08 although I do acknowledge that they paid the most, others are paying higher svrs than they should be too. I think it should be linked to the amount paid above the average tracker which would mean that people who paid the most would get the most.
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As a taxpayer, I would consider the proper funding of mental healthcare services (amongst many, many other matters) to be a much higher priority than subsidising the mortgage repayments of any group of homeowners.

Sorry.
 
Agree with you're sentiment regarding things that you're taxes could be used for in a more worthy way but as my suggestion relates to trying to find a solution for my sense of unfairness regarding svrs along with the many other people who I'm sure have that same sense, maybe there's a different one that u could come up with to solve this. After all our taxes have already been used to bail out these same banks and now they're taking advantage of the fact that they can do what they want with svrs so that they can recoup losses from elsewhere in their portfolios, eg bailing out on the double. Maybe when they get into greater profit they'll do a decent thing for a change and compensate us for the money they're currently stealing on us and for helping them out but that of course would be too naieve of me to think such a thing.
 
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