Just a line to confirmed that we have formally started the swap from TMW (4.79%) to the Ethical Bank (2.59%). The process will be completed within 3 to 4 weeks. The new mortgage interest rate we have now is 2.59% (2.09+0.50) so, even lower than the one we had at BOI. There is no transfer fee but there is a 1% cancellation fee for the next 3 years (only if we cancel the mortgage). We had to open a new account though and will be closing the one at BOI. Unfortunately we need to pay the redemption Fee to TMM (less than £200) It is a great relief to know that we will not be robbed £1000 this year (£16.000 till the mortgage is over).

More progress from our side (steps below): - We called TMW and ask for the cost of transferring our BOI (nowTMW) mortgage out and it is £195, which is the cost of the redemption fee. The person on the phone was very polite and correct, (which makes you think that those who work for a company are not always the same as those who make their policies) - We have now decided to move our mortgage out and we are looking for an ethical bank as any of the others are 'the same dog with a different collar'. - We googled for an 'ethical bank' and we found a few listed on the wikipedia definition. Called one of them (don't want to give you the name in case you think we have something to do with it) and we got a couple of quotes for their mortgage products after quite a lengthy verbal questionnaire. - Option A: The best one for us is one with variable rate (don't give you the name of the product either), which is a 2.69% above Bank of England's Base Rate (currently 0.5%) so 3.19%, which makes our mortgage less than £10 higher than what we currently pay. We must open an account with them and transfer salaries etc but we wanted to do that anyway as we do not want any further banking business with Bank of Ireland as a result. Cancellation fee is 1% for the first 3 years then zero as it is a lifetime product. Yesterday we received the mortgage conditions on the letterbox. The problem I see in the long run is if the BOE raises the Bass rate in the future (they are historically low) but this would affect any other variable rate mortgage. - Option B: As for fixed rate options, there is another option which is 3.39% or 3.59% for the next five years. The problem is that there is a £999 initial fee (£150+£849%) which we are not willing to pay (alongside theTMW £195 mentioned above). - A final option that we are evaluating at the minute is to put the house on the market and say bye-bye to our banking 'friends' for life (as we own 2/3rds of the estimated property value). This means that we will have to rent/let for the next few years but that's alright. So we are having a proper property evaluation next week but the mortgage. The mortgage swap to the ethical bank (we hope they are so) is going to happen yes or yes though and then we will see from that.

We hope this information could be of some value to any of the 14.000-15,000 BOI customers in the same situation. Last 8th of November, as soon as we heard about our mortgage being transfer from BOI to TMW and realised that the interest rate was going to increase from 2.99% to 4.79%, we started to send letters of complain which are now leading to legal action against both Bank of Ireland and TMW. Our only hope is that Financial Omsbudsman Service will receive enough numbers of similar complains about this lucrative operation, and will therefore will take it seriously. These are our steps so far: 1- Sent a letter of complain to Mike Joyce, head of UK mortgages at the Bank of Ireland saying that we are not giving consent to BOI to transfer our mortgage even if they improve the conditions (conditions are worse, obviously) We had a letter of acknowledgement and a final letter in response from Chris Borrow, Complains management BOI who referred us to the Financial Omsbudsman Service. 2- Letter to Mr Paul Howard Head of Accounts at The Mortgage Works notifying that we are not providing consent for the transfer to take effect, although by no means we have the intention to stop paying the mortgage to BOI. 3- Sent a formal email complain to Financial Ombudsman Service followed by printed paperwork documenting the complain alongside their form which can be downloaded online. FOS require to fill the form and send it by snail mail, alongside any other documents (correspondence and letters of complain being made first). Important: You need to complain first to BOI before FOS and get the letters of acknowledgement from BOI. 4- We also complained to Consumer Direct, the government-funded consumer advice service but that was a waste of time. The legal base of our complain (this may depend on each mortgage contract) is that section 23 of our BOI Mortgage contract is reads "Our Power to Transfer the Mortgage' in the mortgage conditions 2006 guide for England and Wales (Edition one), Bank of Ireland Mortgages, it states that the lender (BOI) may transfer the Mortgage Conditions, Offer and any separate agreements without the any further agreement from the customer (we), if the transferee (The Mortgage Works) thinks that the policy is no less favourable to the customer (we)" Obviously, increasing the interest rate makes the new contract less favourable for the customer. This is probably why TMW is keeping the same interest rate at the date of the transfer and wait until March to increase it. Peter Jones, Head of Mortgages servicing of TMW UK says in his letter of December 13th, 2011 that they keep 2.99% interest (SVR charged customers) for two months 'as a concession' and that 'they will honour your current interest rate' until March. Of course, Peter Jones is a man with a great sense of humour (or whoever writes his letters). In any case, it is very obvious to anyone that the transfer did result in less favourable conditions and that BOIMortgage might be exercising abuse of power under these circumstances by not consulting customers and by ignoring section 23 ============= Whom to write? ==================Bank of Ireland ================== Chirs Burrow, Complains Manager, Customer Relationship, Mortgage email:lending.resolutions[AT]boipluk.co.uk ---- FAO Mike Joyce, Head of UK Mortgages ; cc/ Customer Relations Mortgages Bank Bank of Ireland Head Office, 40 Mespil Road, Dublin 4, Ireland ================== The Mortgage Works================== FAO Paul Howard Head of Corporate Accounts The Mortgage Works Portman House Richmond Hill Bournemouth Dorset BH2 6EP ---- ================== Financial Ombudsman Service================== Search the URL in google. I can't post this message otherwise. External Enquiries email-> complaint.info[AT]financial-ombudsman.org.uk Financial Ombudsman Service |South Quay Plaza, 183 Marsh Wall, London, E14 9SR T: 020 7093 5500 | Fax 020 7093 7375 ==================Consumer Direct, ================== Search the URL in google. I can't post this message otherwise. =================================================== Note: In the first half of 2011 BOI received 295 cases of complain and Bank of Scotland 13.021