Marketing Fund for our Class Actions against tracker mortgage margin increases

Several people have left comments on our forums or emailed me personally to say that they are not affected by any of the tracker mortgage rate rises at the moment but want to contribute to a fund to help discourage other lenders from following suit.

I am concerned that the Class Action against BoI appears to have stalled and I am keen to get this re-started at the earliest possible opportunity.

The starting point for this is to promote what we are trying to achieve in order to reach the remaining 12,300 borrowers affected by the BoI increases.

We need to put a lot more pressure on the FCA to seek their own advice based on our barristers opinion and the defence presented to them by the BoI.

We believe the FCA’s response was a whitewash.  They have simply used the BoI response to our case as a reason not to pursue it.  They have not obtained their own independent advice so the FCA is not acting as an independent arbitrator.  The BoI response is a note from their barrister who they asked to find ways round our argument.  It is not an independent review of the actions of BOI. The FCA has not given us a chance to respond to the BOI arguments. They have simply taken their version and gone with it.  Much of their arguments are shaky to say the least.

I am confident the announcements from West Bromwich Building Society and the outrage from borrowers and associated press coverage will strengthen our case to FCA to reconsider their position but I also feel we must press on with matters ourselves and recruit more support from the industry by reaching out to more affected BoI borrowers.

To raise the game I would like to post a letter to every mortgage broker in the UK to let them know about our Class Action campaigns against West Bromwich Building Society and the Bank of Ireland. I can rent a database mailing list of all their names and addresses from Experian or Equifax and I have an established relationship with a company which will mail-merge and print the letters, put them into envelopes and post them for 39 pence each including postage. There are thousands of brokers, I will find out exactly how many tomorrow when I hear back from Experian/Equifax.

Most mortgage brokers will have received telephone calls from concerned clients but may not know about our Class Action campaigns. The best most of them will have been able to do is advise their clients on the viability of remortgaging and in most cases this will not be justifiable even with the rate hike to the tracker margins.

Having been a mortgage broker myself I know the value of being helpful to clients in distress as it results in goodwill and referrals. Brokers will also be concerned about loss of credibility and the potential of losing business and income if they are not seen to be able to help. If brokers know about our campaigns they will refer their clients to us.

Once we have a lot more people signed up a new plan of action will be formulated and details of costs to take part will be distributed. The Class Action funding for the West Brom case has been costed out to £240 per property. To keep things fair to all those who have contributed so far, existing contributions will be deducted from the amount due at the next round of fund-raising.

Ideally I’m hoping that you will donate £50 to the marketing fund mentioned above, less is fine if you can’t stretch to that, more is obviously much better.

Would you be prepared to help fund this?

If so please PLEASE CLICK HERE

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