Much appreciated pal.
If itâs any consolation, Iâve worked in banks since 2007 & I donât know what any of it means either.
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Since early 2007 I take it.
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Actually that should have said 2006. 
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LTV is loan to value. If youâve a BER of B3 or better theyâre offering 4 year fixed at 3.75% or 3.95% depending on your loan to value. Either is a reasonable punt Iâd say.
Long term rates being less than short term rates is an inverted yield curve and is a recession indicator. Apparently.
Sure I donât know. A lad told me that. And Iâve been repeating it now for a while.
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Do EBS have the best fixed rate? Ours up next year and dreading the switch.
Donât know. Iâm already with them and need a top up so itâs just easier to plough on for the time being.
@Appendage whatâs your best guess of when/if we return to the low rates we had for much of the late 10s.
This is US rates, Euro isnât around long enough to do similar and make it meaningful.
We were in an absolutely freak period in history in terms of interest rates.
We will hopefully never see interest rates below 1% again because that will mean the world has gone to shit again.
US rates average over 5% historically.
ECB rates average much lower. Mostly because the Eurozone has been in an almost never ending crisis since the euro started and because the mental interest rates in the 70s that the World had, werenât under the ECB. Iâd say 3% would be good going in the near term assuming shit doesnât hit the fan.
Irelandâs interest rates should have been way way higher for the last 5 or 6 years. We can thank the Italians, Greeks and friends for not being able to get their houses in order for the leniency.
They might save mortgage holders again yet.
Yep.
Commercial & Asset Finance kicking the opposition asunder.
The yield curve Inverted before covid but covid allowed a load of capital to hit the market. A massive recession incoming to balance the market. Thats what the fed is aiming for with hige interest rates in the IS. The ECB are aiming for the so called soft landing, which we all know how the last soft landing went
Would someonmind with an Irish Times sub paste this article up? @Fagan_ODowd ? Our mortgage was moved to Pepper by ptsb and i have a feeling we are being rode.
âWe were not in arrears and never had beenâ: PTSB sold this readerâs mortgage - now she pays hundreds more each month
A reader we shall call SiobhĂĄn is enraged at the effect of PTSB selling her mortgage. Pricewatch contacted the bank for its take
Pepper Finance does not offer any fixed rates and typically charges among the highest variable rates on the market. Illustration: Paul Scott
Two single mothers who took out a mortgage with PTSB have been forced to pay hundreds of euro more each month in interest repayments after their bank sold their loan to another company without any explanation and no apparent justification.
In an era of surging interest rates, hundreds of thousands of homeowners in Ireland have found themselves substantially out of pocket, but one reader who contacted Pricewatch recently feels particularly aggrieved after being forced to pay a very high price for a boardroom deal over which she had absolutely no control.
This reader, who we shall call SiobhĂĄn, has been left enraged by the decision of PTSB to sell her loan to Pepper Finance, which is now charging her almost twice what she would be paying had the loan stayed where it was.
SiobhĂĄn bought a property in Galway with a friend called Meabh seven years ago. They are both single parents and have known each other for more than 30 years.
The idea was they would rent it out for a spell and then use it for their children when they went to college. For most of the time they have owned the property, everything has gone according to that plan.
[ Mortgage servicer Pepper Finance sees Irish profits drop despite big revenue rise ]
Then last year news broke â if that is not too grand a phrase â that Permanent TSB had reached an agreement to sell a portfolio of its loans to another financial institution, with the loans sold to be managed on a day-to-day basis by Pepper Asset Servicing. While the news made headlines on the business pages of Irish newspapers, it was pretty niche and might otherwise have escaped the attention of SiobhĂĄn and Meabh.
It was, however, soon to become far too central to their world.
As it stands, SiobhĂĄn and Meabh have about âŹ105,000 left on their mortgage, and the property they bought for less than âŹ200,000 is now valued at about âŹ300,000.
While their investment has clearly been a success, what matters more is that it has also provided a stable home for their children as they complete their studies in the west.
âWe are both single parents and have five children between us, of whom four have [attended] or are attending university in Galway and are living in the property,â SiobhĂĄn says.
But things started to go awry from the beginning of this year, with their interest rate almost doubling for no other reason than their loan was sold and is now being managed by Pepper Finance, a company which does not offer any fixed rates and typically charges among the highest variable rates on the market.
As a result, SiobhĂĄn and Meabh are now paying hundreds of euro more each month than they would have been had the loan not been sold from under them or if it had been taken over by another provider. Over the course of a year, they will be worse off by about âŹ3,000 through no fault of their own.
âFor data protection reasons, the bank is not allowed to disclose confidential information relating to any individual borrowerâ
â PTSB
They are now paying an interest rate of just over 9.5 per cent, which is wildly out of sync with the rates on the table from pillar banks.
âIf we had stayed with PTSB we would be paying 5.65 now,â she says. âThis was an involuntary transfer of our mortgage. We were not in arrears and never had been. We did avail of the six-month Covid mortgage break, which was advertised at the time as having no negative future consequences for credit ratings.â
SiobhĂĄn says that an updated FAQ on the PTSB website says the bank is ârequired by regulators to reduce the percentage of loans which are classified as non-performing loans (NPLs) or are at risk of becoming NPLs as defined by European regulatory guidelines. Your loan is being transferred in order to continue to meet these regulatory requirements. Your loan is unaffected by the transfer to Pepper and all terms and conditions transfer with your loan.â
The FAQ also says loans which are meeting the agreed terms and conditions with payments up to date are included in the transfer if the loan is âbeing repaid on an interest-only or part-capital and interest basis. Whilst these loans are currently meeting their monthly payment terms, there is a significant risk that the outstanding capital balance of loans in this cohort may not be repaid in full when the loan reaches maturity. That is why such loans are included in this transfer.â
SiobhĂĄn says this paragraph was ânot included on the PTSBâs earlier version of the websiteâ.
She also points out that PTSB says in the FAQs, in response to a question as to whether a monthly loan repayment would remain the same after the transfer to Pepper, that the âmonthly payment will continue in line with current interest rates and the agreed terms and conditions applicable to your loanâ.
It also says there would be no impact on the amount of money owed or on the loan contract. âYour mortgage balance and terms and conditions will not be affected by the transfer to Pepper.â
Our reader says the lines above âclearly imply that there should be no negative consequences of the transfer of our mortgage from PTSB to Pepperâ.
She says that if PTSB âis so concerned about loans becoming non-performing, what percentage of loans that they have sold to Pepper [is] now in danger of becoming non- performing as a result of paying 9.55 per cent interest? What is the role of the Central Bank and ombudsman in protecting people in this situation?â
She points out to us and in a complaint she has lodged with the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman that the loan is not non-performing â and never has been â and is not in negative equity or anything close to it.
[ PTSB sells further âŹ700m of buy-to-let mortgages ]
She stresses that they are also paying both interest and capital on the loan.
She and her friend are â as she noted â single parents, and both have successfully battled significant health challenges. She wonders whether other borrowers had their fully-performing loans sold on to Pepper and are experiencing this radical shift in interest rates.
She asked us, if herself and her friend apply to PTSB to move the mortgage back to them at the lower rates of interest, âunder what circumstances are they obliged to accept our application and who will bear the costs associated?ââ
We could not really answer these questions, but we went to PTSB in search of an explanation as to what happened, and to see if it believed these former customers had been treated fairly.
PTSB responded with the following statement.
âFor data protection reasons, the bank is not allowed to disclose confidential information relating to any individual borrower,â it began.
âThe FAQ document to which you refer relates specifically to sales of non-performing loans (NPLs) and it does not relate to sales of other loans. Loan sale transactions undertaken by PTSB in recent years have included transactions involving both NPLs and performing loans. This means it is incorrect to infer that a loan is a non-performing loan solely on the basis that the loan was sold by PTSB.â
The fact that the bank has acted in this fashion without any justification or explanation to the customer is shocking to me and will be shocking to our readers
By way of example, in September 2022, PTSB announced the sale of a portfolio of predominantly performing Buy-To-Let loan accounts and in February 2023, the legal title and servicing of these loans transferred to Pepper. The bank notified all affected customers in September 2022, enclosing an FAQ booklet.
âAs this transaction was not an NPL transaction, it did not include reference to NPLs, unlike the NPL FAQ document which you cite. The terms and conditions of all loans within the portfolio transferred with the loan. After a loan has been sold, the interest rate applicable to the loan is determined by the new lender and not by PTSB.â
The statement concluded by saying that âin respect of former PTSB customers whose loans were sold and who wish to switch their loan to another lender, the bank invites applications from home loan and Buy To Let customers and will consider these applications in line with its lending criteria. Customers who are seeking more information on switching to PTSB should contact the bank or visit our website for further information.â
We will let readers judge whether this statement addresses our readersâ concerns.
We did, however, point out to the bank that, in our view, the response completely fails to address the fact that this customer has ended up being penalised by in excess of âŹ3,000 a year directly as a result of PTSBâs decision to sell her loan.
The fact that the bank has acted in this fashion without any justification or explanation to the customer is shocking to me and will be shocking to our readers.
We also wonder how could any PTSB customer or would-be customer have any confidence the bank will not treat them in an equally shabby and costly fashion in the future?
It is also interesting that PTSB declined to discuss the specifics of this case on GDPR grounds when it has discussed and dealt with issues connected with many of its customers who have contacted Pricewatch on many, many occasions in the past. We canât help but wonder why GDPR applies now but not in the past?
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Thanks for that
Can you not switch?
My Ulster Bank mortgage was sold to PTSB; I may look into stitching before the deeds are handed over to these Pepper cunts
Theyâve done very well out of an investment. Not sure what the problem is here.
Iâm in the same boat but I fixed with them last year for 5 years
Not really. We have 90k of it warehoused from the property crash. We bought 6 months before things went tits up. I think we can only switch if we clear the warehoused amount which is not an option at the moment.