Friday 6 March 2009

Ulster Bank and National Irish Bank withold some of the ECB rate cut

Ulster Bank and National Irish Bank have announced that they are only passing on 0.25% of the European Central Bank's 0.5% rate cut announced this week. This applies to their Standard Variable Rate products only - Tracker Variable customers will get the full rate cut, but only because they have a contract that compels the bank to do so.

This is bizarre logic - if you've got a Standard Variable Rate mortgage with Ulster Bank for example, this rate cut may bring your rate down to 4.69%. Depending on the value of your home, you could get a variable rate from AIB from 2.75%. That's a huge difference and if your mortgage is anything more than about €200,000 the savings on interest would recoup the cost of switching in under a year.

So what exactly are Ulster Bank and National Irish Bank trying to achieve? Encourage their Standard Variable Rate customers to switch lenders? So that all they'll be left with are those who can't switch because they no longer qualify for the size of mortgage, have a bad credit rating or are in negative equity?

Answers on a postcard please...

1 comment:

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