PTSB - On LTV rate, should I be on the standard var rate?

A

albob

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Hi,
I took out my mortgage with PTSB (damn them) in 2006 and went fixed for 3 years rather than tracker (damn me) or the standard variable rate - which was the only variable rate they had on offer at the time. My loan offer stated that:

"At the end of the fixed rate period you may exercise an option to contract for another fixed rate period (if available) or to move to a variable rate"

When I came off the fixed rate in 2009 PTSB no longer offered the standard variable rate as a product and had replaced it with LTV variable rates. Thus I was placed on the LTV rate which I did not realise at the time....I understood I was going onto the standard variable rate but that is down to a lack of understanding on my part.
Talking to my broker through which I git the mortgage, he is of the opinion that as the standard variable rate was the only "variable" product available at the time I took out the mortgage it would be a fair assumption that "a variable" above refers to that rate and so it should have been offered to me when I came off fixed.

Its 0.46% lower than the LTV rate. The way PTSB are going I'd take anything I can get!

Do I have a leg to stand on? I have spoken to PTSB over the phone and got nowhere so will need something concrete to throw back at them....if it exists!

Thanks
 
Hi there, I came across your post from Google. We are in the exact same situation and only found out today that our variable rate was changed to Loan-to-Value when we came off fixed in 2009 !!! It was only when a letter came in saying the mortgage is going to be on 6.15% from August onwards that alarm bells really started going off. I believe that PTSB deliberately mislead me into signing up for this LTV interest rate as I too believed I was going on the standard variable rate. Out of interest, the letters you have received from PTSB re: mortgage rate increases over the last few years what did they refer to your mortage as? Coz on letters to us they have always refered to our 'Residential variable rate'. We never once got a letter that said it was a Loan-to-Value variable rate. I believe this is false representation for a start. Just wondering have you taken it further and how did you get on?
 
Hi,
I'm afraid I got nowhere. Had a number of phone calls with the bank and with my broker and the more time went on the less confident my broker was in his argument (waste of space if I'm being honest). I agree that the PTSB were very underhanded in all this (in my opinion....can't afford to be sued so avoiding statement of fact!). They claimed that they sent me a letter in 2009 rejecting my request to be moved onto the SVR as it was no longer a product and that instead I was being put on a LTV rate. I told them I never got the letter. They just said that the system said a letter was sent out and that was that! Interesting that you never got anything either.

I'm not sure if it is worth going anywhere with this as the original agreement does say "a variable rate" and I suspect that the ombudsman would just care what that said and nothing else.

The PTSB are really crippling their variable customers.
 
this has just happened to us. Fixed 5 years ago and just coming out now and we got a letter offering us LTV Variable 5.8%, 2 year fixed 7.25% and 5 year fixed 8.75%, no standard variable rate offer, I am raging, i cant remember being informed of this. Does this mean our interest will stay the same or how does it increase or decrease. Our interest rate is now 5.8%
 
What is the PTSB standard variable? Thought it was 6.15%, if so are you not on a lower rate.

LTV rates used to nearly always be a better prospect than going for standard variable as obviously if you had a lower LTV it was cheaper, are they now dearer than the standard variable?
 
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