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THE REPRESENTATIVE BODY for Ireland’s main banks has apologised for confusion in relation to the Covid-19 mortgage break, as customers report being told by bank staff at the end of last week that they do not qualify for the deferral.
Customers have reported being told that in order to qualify for the break they need a certain level of savings, some were told they were only entitled to an interest-only arrangement and others said they were asked by bank staff whether they could guarantee they would get their job back after the three months.
One customer told TheJournal.ie that her bank told her she would only qualify if she had enough savings to pay for the next two months.
“Most people live paycheck to paycheck. This is crazy,” she said. Another woman said her bank was not offering the mortgage break at all, but instead was offering interest-only payments.
“It’s not an affordable option,” she said.
Several customers also called RTÉ’s Liveline today to express their concern about not being able to avail of the break.
Brian Hayes, CEO of the Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI), the representative body for the five main banks in Ireland, told TheJournal.ie that “misunderstandings were clearly there”, particularly among frontline bank staff last week.
He said a lot of work had been done by the banks over the weekend to put systems in place and get their staff up to speed.
“We are getting there, there was confusion at the start and apologies for that,” he said.
He said there had been an “explosion of calls” to banks, that the financial institutions themselves had workers out sick and that they were changing their own working operations to follow public health advice.
In relation to the requirement for a customer to have savings to qualify for the break, Hayes said “that is absolutely untrue”.
He said he believes this came mainly from one bank and its subsidiary and the CEO of that organisation has told him it is “completely untrue and everyone was annoyed that was said”.
“That’s one of those teething problems,” he said.
A spokesperson for AIB clarified the situation today:
Customers impacted by Covid-19 who contact us are entitled to a three month payment break or moratorium today, regardless of savings. The simplest way to avail of this is to fill in the form on our website. Some calls may have taken place while we were putting our system in place for Covid-19.
Hayes said most of the banks have now made a short online application like this available to customers, but added that it will take time for the banks to get back to people.
He also said there is potential for a refund back into a customer’s account if the mortgage payment has been taken out in the meantime.
Hayes said he wanted to apologise to customers who were given the wrong information last week and advised them to go back into the process, using these online applications.
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Just off the phone with EBS and was told I do not qualify for a 3 month moratorium because I restructured my mortgage over 5 years ago. They are doing everything they can NOT to help their customers in their time of need. The government should just take it out of their hands and do what Italy and other countries did, suspend mortgage payment until this crisis is over.
@phil balfe:
Fine Gael have been playing PR on this stuff. Pretending they’re doing radical things when really they’re not.
- The mortgage freeze is basically up to the banks
- Pubs and restaurants can remain open if they choose (insurance won’t cover losses for good business owners who choose to do the responsible thing and close)
- Licensees, rent-a-room, digs, and students aren’t affected by the ban on evictions
- Landlords “advised” and “urged” to be nice, but no help for renters made jobless
As usual, they’re all spin, no substance.
@phil balfe: same here Phil….ebs are doing nothing for me . Same as last week nothing has changed. 1 a mountain of paperwork. 2 interest only….. this needs to be sorted and quickly….. Hayes is an absolute disgrace
@windbag: He gets horrid vexed when people call him out for the lies and nonsense he spouts. How he was ever made a CEO I will never know.
@phil balfe: Ring Hayes he has all the Answers???,??,,
@windbag: if you have a look at EBS Facebook page, it looks like they’ve changed their Mind again and offering the 3 months moratorium to everybody that requires it. You can apply online, save you spending hours on the phone.
Brian Hayes again the political waffle is never ending
@William Bryan: He is the greatest waste of space the world has ever known.
@William Bryan: A total plonker .
@David Corrigan: cynical move by CEO’s of the Irish banks – hire a mouth piece to deliver all the bad news on behalf of banks and by being one step removed from the public the CEO’s do not get as tainted as they did during the banking crisis.
Banks are pulling the same usual stuff they did when people had to “apply” for compo after the tracker mortgage scandle.
Yes they “offer” something but make it damn difficult to apply.
Govt needs to enforce a blanket freeze without application, otherwise banks will wriggle out. The “advice” approach has been shown to fail. Business still remaining open, landlords still demanding rent from people made jobbless. Meanwhile responsible & socially concious business owners, landlords, and people are the ones losing out.
@: Yes..Financial institution/Bank customers are in difficult circumstances, but banks are not facilitators or charities. Use savings or deposits to pay regular debts (the rainy day fund???) . You borrow money from a lending institution, you should pay it as agreed, as much as you can.
@:
Take a look at any bank’s twitter feed right now. Tons of people with the same issues, can’t find the page to apply, or waiting on hold for hours and then dropped (by the way, those numbers they make you ring usually cost you per minute).
They’ll hide behind the usual “large number of calls” as if they didn’t expect it, but still make it hard to apply. It could easily be implemented as an online form with some kind of 2FA confirmation text, but they choose to make it slow and difficult. Eventually they’ll pull out some nonsense about people “missing the deadline”.
@Mark Johnson:
That’s funny Mark, I remember only 12 years ago we gave these banks quite a lot of charity. In fact, we’re all still paying for that charity today.
Funny how it’s all about personal choices when people need something from banks, but when the banks need help suddenly banking is an important public institution that can’t be separated from anything else.
Right now the ECB is issuing NEGATIVE INTEREST loans to banks. They are literally getting free money to stay afloat. It’s called quantitative easing, look it up, it’s the most bizzare policy around but it’s current policy of foolish western central banks. Banks get free money for nothing so they can keep going, meanwhile they still pretend to be independent private sector businesses who owe nobody nothing.
tl;dr: the ECB is printing money right now and giving it to banks through QE. EU countries are freezing mortgages, the banks are safe if we do the same.
@: Exactly. The sooner the better the people of this country wake up the better. The banks WILL NOT help the people. It is as simple as that.
@Mark Johnson: ya either are the people of Ireland, banks acting a disgrace as usual.
@Mark Johnson: This is truely a unique global crises both from a Public Health and one that has triggered an almost immediate global economic crises in every country in the world simultaneously , the of which has being not seen since 1929 if ever ?
…. when this is over it will make 2008-2010 financial crisis look like a tea party !!!
People cannot magic money up from nowhere …. this crises is already getting away from Governments of some of the most developed countries … so how are normal folks supposed to suddenly find the resources to deal with it …. it’s ok if work the public or civil your job & salary are protected ( at least for now)
Please get down from your very High Horse … before you fall off … and risk breaking your neck !!
@XvSv:
But there is magic money, the ECB prints it and hands it straight to the banks. Quantitative Easing, look it up.
It’s only reasonable to regulate the banks and order them to freeze rents since we prop them up. We’re still paying for bank bailouts. Time to get real and demand they behave themselves.
@Mark Johnson: Jesus Mark…your a cold fish what if your out of a job and money.were talking about a deferral here they will get their money …
They got 64 billion from the state your wonderful rules of capitalism did not count then,,,,
@Mark Johnson: Bank bailout! They didn’t mind taking our money then now did they?!
@Mark Johnson: our government should call in our loans they we gave them in the bailout completely nationalize sub and boi and leave the rest go to the wall ecb print money write of gov debt then we can all get back to normal when this finnishes
Says Brian Hayes ,the man who would give Pinochio a good run for his money!
Just cancel all direct debits and standing orders. Simple. Let them come looking for money that’s not there.
@De Green Parrot: This is the way to go don’t bother your arse ringing them ptsb are absolute dirt bags no online facility to apply for a deferral and impossible to get through to on the phone so I’m just cancelling my direct debits to them end of flocking story.
@patrick o keeffe: send a letter by registered post. Then you are completely covered from a legal perspective and they will have to reply.
@Eddie Kelly: Thanks Eddie that’s very helpful advice much appreciated.
Question: did the banks ever make an error of have a problem that favoured the customer?
They all seem to have one thing in common!
The government should step in & give a 3 month moratorium across the board whether you want it or not. If you don’t want it then just make a manual payment yourself & you’ll be in the same situation as paying it. They should also freeze utilities for 3 months & spread the payments over the following 24 months. Just force them to do it rather than telling the lenders or people will just default!!!
@Danny McCarthy: totally agree, it’s not as if they will not get paid, as we will all have to pay back the money over a period of time. The banks are also going to charge interest on the freeze so they will actually make money out of us in the long run.
@Danny McCarthy: Absolute bang on agree Danny , that is the way it should be administered.
Everyone gets the payment deferral automatically. Those who are in a position to continue can call the bank and seeking the exception …I’m guessing they will in minority certainly by next month..
So Mortgage payment deferral should be the “Rule and not the Exception “ until the crises is declared over!
The Banks will still get their money by extending your mortgage term by length of the deferral period ..
This is a no brainer !!!and would dramatically cut the admin overhead for the banks
Bank Ireland just announced today they are closing over 100 branches … so if the phone queues were long today they will simply be impossible later this week ..
Paschal & Leo ; Please Act Now !!!
Time for the government to step in and force the Banks hand.
Don’t ever expect anything from a fg man.
An FG man leading the lying banks… Filth…
AIB “Backing Brave”
Now they have to ” Walk The Talk”
They are without doubt the biggest wank_rs in history – they have screwed us over in numerous ways, we are paying them 1000′s each year in USC’s and yet they feel like twisting their heels on the back of people…Complete and utter Bast..rds
And Bank of Ireland are shutting down some of their branches that will help…. not!
What a horrible little pox of a man another school teacher just like his party colleague the one who made sure the jnr bond holders got paid.
Has he even any qualifications to hold the position he has or is it the nod and wink for doing the nasty work for the banks that him and Noonan did.
@Dave Byrne: Love that word Pox of a man reminds me of the famous graffiti “Bono is a pox”
Look will you all ever wake the f**k up and get it into your heads. The banks are not doing a bloody thing during this crisis. All this talk of 3 months payment holidays is just optics to make it appear that they’re actually going to do something. Most, if not all mortgage agreements already had an option for at least one 3 month payment holiday anyway. Mine offered these holidays 4 times over the duration of the mortgage. I availed of it once back in 2007. But as always it’s at the bank’s discretion. So all this talk about suddenly offering these payment holidays is all horse s**t.
And even if they do give a 3 month stay on the payments they’re STILL adding on interest. So either way they’re going to profit from this crisis. Until we all say enough is enough they’re going to keep on taking the pi$$. Business as usual with the banks.
Teething problems!!! Go away! The banks in reality don’t actually give a foook!!
An important thing to clarify if you could please Michelle…
Will this deferral affect people’s credit rating?
@Sequoia: I am not a banker but it absolutely should not negatively affect credit rating. We took a vacation from our mortgage for 4 months a couple of years ago and they basically increased our monthly payment slightly over the rest of the term of the loan. I would imagine this deferral will be something similar. If agreed upon by yourself and the bank then it will (should) not negatively affect credit.
Different than if you just stopped paying for 3-4 months with no notice.
Cancel your direct debits… Mass cancellations. Make it an issue to be dealt with in 3 – 4 months.
We as a nation have to stand up to these money grabbers. The government should step in and automatically freeze morgage repayments immediately. Otherwise I would advise all morgage holders to cancel their payments themselves and let the banks go to fck. If we all sing off the same hymn sheet here , what are the banks going to do, take all of us to court, I doubt it. AIB, who I deal with are making it next to impossible to get the relief, looking for 3 years of P60s, recent payslips etc. Lying b%%tards!!!.
@Michael Byrne: This is the best time to put manners on the bank i.e. when the country is on its knees during this awful crisis.
we can sort this by getting out on the streets and protesting…in small groups
X fine gael brian hayes given the top job for one reason only
Is this going to be used to take peoe off trackers?
An absolute orifice of a human
Arrogant x fine gael snot aiding and abbeting the banking cartel
My wife and me had a meeting once with Bryan Hayes and while we did not get our query solved I was of the opinion that the man was not listening to our explanation. he appeared to finish with us as he said he had other business to attend to.
The banks are focked! People now looking closer at the bank guarantee and realizing its “€100k guarantee cover per individual per institution”. Client of mine tried to transfer €75k to another bank today but was told he was not allowed as there’s a block on transfers. There’s going to be a bank run!
@Jordan Salanger: that’s Olney the start just like in Cyprus in the crash ecb promised no one would lose thier savings they took 20% of all buissness accounts some people couldn’t even pay wages after it don’t think it won’t happen here by and ff would have no problem doing it once they have 5 years in power secured where not friends with the banks how many bankers have gone to jail how many dept of finance regulater at the time couldn’t even remember a single meeting what does that tell you get your money out now
Hes ao full of shit i can smell it from here…
If you pay something that reasonably looks to be as much as you can due to your circumstances , you won’t lose your house in court and the banks know this , what they want is for you to get into an argument with them and pay nothing in protest and then they’ll bring you to court . People who have had houses repossessed make no payments when they can , same with rent really , if you pay a percentage with a view to catching up there’s no point in a landlord pursuing in court as they won’t win .
@Lapsy Pa: Not true, you’re either being naive or just repeating a fallacy. I was paying what I could for over 5 years. The bank still started legal action for possession. The bank’s solicitors lied in court that I wasn’t paying anything. I was able to prove as much to the judge immediately by actually showing copies of payments, receipts and bank statements with each payment set off against the mortgage by the bank itself. The judge adjourned the case rather than have it struck off despite acknowledging that the bank’s solicitor had misled the court. Subsequent judges didn’t want to know. The solicitor got away with lying in court and the bank got its possession order.
@Liam Ryan: sounds unlikely , you represented yourself ?
@Lapsy Pa: ‘Sounds unlikely’. Ah the voice of denial from someone who doesn’t have a clue what they’re talking about. I was in the court when these things happened – right in front of me. This isn’t some made up story or second hand account.
@Liam Ryan: well maybe you’re not declaring your true income , they know family associates
@Lapsy Pa: Did you even read what I said happened in court?
What a bitter tit
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