HAVE YOUR SAY: Bank passes on rate cuts slower than increases

A reader from Dublin took out a tracker-rate mortgage with Permanent TSB in June 1996 and has noticed something about how the new interest rate is applied when the ECB base rate changes. She thought she would pass this information on.

“Basically, when the ECB rate goes up, the bank passes on the rate change very quickly; generally between zero and seven days. However, when the ECB rate goes down, the bank takes much longer to pass on the change; between 23 and 30 days.

“It usually writes to us about a month after the rate change, so it may appear to be the same time delay each time, but when I have examined the date from which the new rate is charged it tells a different story.”

She has looked into it “and it would appear that they are not breaking the law. The terms and conditions of the tracker mortgage state that they must pass on the rate change within 30 days.

“So, they are covered. But it does seem to be quite a cynical way of doing business – to pass on the pain quickly but delay passing on the savings to customers. How much are they making per year from this practice? Are all the banks doing this?”

She says the requirement to pass on the rate change within 30 days is open to interpretation “and, in my view, abuse. Surely a fairer way of doing this would be to pass on both rate increases and decreases within the same length of time? Is this a hangover from the bad old days of the Celtic Tiger?”

Faulty phone repeatedly sent for repairs

Francis Bradley, from Greystones, contacted us in connection with a problem his son has been having with his phone.

“The first problem surfaced in December 2010 when the phone stopped working and the battery would not charge,” he writes. “The phone was returned to Sony and it was repaired.”

However, a couple of months ago the problem recurred and the phone was repaired again. In August, the phone crashed again and the battery would not recharge.

Our reader’s son then contacted Sony, which told him that he would hear from the company by email or telephone within three working days about the next steps to be taken.

However, seven working days passed with no contact, after which our reader rang and was told that the phone would be given “a priority repair”.

On each occasion that the phone was sent to Sony for repair, our reader’s son had to stump up the cost of packaging and postage.

Consumer law is clear in this respect. All goods sold have to be fit for purpose and as advertised. If not, a consumer is entitled to a repair, a refund or a replacement, but it is not the consumer who gets to decide; it is the manufacturer. Typically, manufacturers will first attempt to repair the item – unless it is beyond repair – but what they cannot do is continually repair the same fault.

A spokesman for Sony Ericsson said that the handset had been sent in on two occasions and for two separate faults eight months apart. On both occasions, it was fixed and returned to our reader’s son. “In this circumstance the handset was not eligible for replacement. However, as an act of goodwill Sony Ericsson Ireland will be delighted to send him an Xperia Neo, our latest imaging smartphone.”

Same old story of rip-off prices in the Republic

Niall Doherty contacted us last week after reading “with disgust” a story about prices in the Republic being 18 per cent higher than the average in the rest of the EU last year.

“How can this be?” he asks, before suggesting that it might have something to do with “the large number of British multiples who supply us with the goods we purchase. They appear to have discovered over the past 20 years that we never haggle and accept almost any level of mark-up.”

We find it hard to disagree with this idea.