Blue Cat

http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs....NESS/701209869

Have any of you been affected by this? On behalf of a friend who is campaigning with the Central Bank to have this investigated, I would appreciate it if you could send me a PM with your contact information. Thanks

Desert Shaikh

Interesting.

What I would like to know is that, does it explicitly state in the mortgage contracts that the will only use EIBOR for the duration of the mortgage. If so then the customers would win. Else the bank will.

Jeeper

Aside from the rights and wrongs of what Mashreq has done.....why are people complaining about how they can't afford life insurance, school fees etc if mashreq changes their rate calculation.

It's a floating interest rate.....what if the eibor rate had increased anyway. Are people really borrowing that close to the line and if so - they deserve the situation they're in for their idiocy...regardless of how the situation arises or the rights and wrongs therein.

They say their interest rates has increased 30% - the Eibor had already decreased some 50% since Nov '08....surely you'd have to consider the fact it may go back the other way.

I'm not saying what Mashreq has done is right - far from it....just can't understand how people can bring 'inability to afford the increase' in to the argument.

Roadking

It's a play for the sympathy vote. Wouldn't get half the attention if they said I can't pay the increase because I'd need to cut back on my fags and booze, now would they.

I also think Mashreq are a bunch of fewkers...and I bank with them, but I won't ever owe them any money.

Jeeper

Yeah - I bank with 'em too.....no debts with them...no Credit card either....I think they're pretty good (compared to most banks here)
That may be because they have my money - not they other way around.

flares

Few years back CBI bank upped the interest rate on a 'fixed' car loan and told me the payments I was making would not cover. Simple - paid off the outstanding, refused to pay the early repayment charge (they relented) and they've lost any future business.

tarquinn

When we bought our house last year we had planned on receiving salary increases of around 12 % as had been the case of the last couple of years so we thought we could tough it out for a year or two until we got into a more comfortable position. ie we purposefully over extended based on future growth.

As it happened my wife and I have both had salary cuts of 15% meaning we are now down about 30% on what we had planned for.

On top of that we are in negative equity, we've had a second son and all the other bits and pieces that normal life brings along.

and we were thinking of approaching mashreq to reduce the mortgage.
As it happens mashreq have increased our payment by more than 16%.
So we are 30% and mashreq increases our cots by 16%.

The dubai rent committee only allows increases of 5% per year. Mashreq gave two months notice of this raise.

The mortgage was sold to us (and many others) as linked to EIBOR. The silver lining of having purchased our house at the tip of the market 18 months ago was that our mortage was relatively cheap owing to competition.

Now mashreq is taking advantage of our negative equity by dictating arbitrary terms on a month by month basis. We can not opt for another bank and we have been mis sold a product that we were led to believe was associated with Eibor.

I can tell you honestly that I have to calm my wife about the possibility of here going to prison (we are joint morgage and account holders) if we donlt keep up payments. With two small children she seems to find the idea particularly abhorent.

The fact is Mashreq's actions have cast a very bad cloud over our whole experinec in the UAE. It's been a bit like getting kicked in the stomache when you're already down.

This is why we are complaining. We have real practical issues to deal with - we also find the unethical nature of a loan being sold under false pretences completely unacceptable.

I'm sure if you were in my position you would not be so dismissive of peoples real life problems.

Cheers,

Tarquinn

norsk

Nobody doubts that you are in deep sh*t and perhaps Mashreq have missold, but to be honest that's not the main reason for your issues. You have done what countless others did in the UK/US and elsewhere; you spent more than you could afford based on expected salary increases and continued growth...

I wish you the best of luck and hope you'll come out of it still standing (with no jail time involved as I agree that would be horrible with small kids and everything), but ultimately I don't think you've got anyone but yourself to blame for your situation.

Jeeper

tarquinn

I'm sorry - I don't agree that it is reasonable for my wife and I to have the risk of going to jail for not being able to absorb a change in interst rates borugh about by the bank that are contrary to the agreement that I was led to believe I had with the bank (numerous lawyers who are legaly trainied in such matters have similarly been missold this mortgage).

I am not planning to sit around and 'blame myself' as you would suggest. Rather I have raised this issue, along with at least 65 other dissaffected customers, with the central bank. It is our hope that the central bank might step in and take some reasonable measures (as is happening in almost every mature housing market) to mitigate the affects of the financial crisis on everyday end users such as myself. We did not over extend - there has been the biggest recession since world war II -the banks are positioning themselves for their best interests. As individuals we hold very littel sway to negotiate improved terms with the bank. As it happens all we are arguing for is to maintain the agreement we signed.

Yes it is trye that eibor could fluctiate upward. We took a calculated risk that it wouldn't so bought an eibor based mortgage. However, the basis of our decision to buy a mashreq mortage has been changed from an eibor bases arrnagement to an arbitrary arrangement that can fluctuate in any direction by any amount at ny time of the year. ie a completely different risk profile.

norsk

I don't think anybody on this forum thinks it is okay for someone to have to go to jail for not being able to service their debts, and you have shown that you're not going to just sit around and 'take it' by posting on this forum.

As I said previously I wish you and the 65 others luck in your proceedings against the lender. If they have behaved outside of the contract then hopefully they will be asked to put it right.

I do however feel that you are exhibiting some ostrich behaviour (ie head in the sand) by ignoring the main reason why you're in the mess. You took a huge risk by making future salary increases part of your equation. I hope you have learnt that this was a silly thing to do. Kind of compares to the people in the 1990's who took up bank loans they had no way of paying back to speculate in the stock market...

[i just re-read your post and see that you deny having overextended yourself and blame it on the recession instead, but yet in your initial posting you told us all that you were counting on pay increases etc to make this work. Sorry mate, you need to get out of denial]

tarquinn

Please don't patronize me by saying my head is in the sand!

I did not join this discussion when I had a salary cut. I did not join it when I had negative equity. I have joined it because the bank led me and many other customers to believe that we were being sold an eibor based mortage. The bank has changed the terms of the agreement in their favour at a time when we are already under extreme pressure to keep up payments owing to salary cuts etc.

To out it more simply for your understanding - the bank led me and other customers into a position where we were taking a level of risk that was different to what we were being sold. I thought Eibor rates wold drop so I bought an Eibor base mortgage. They have dropped and the bank has but now the bank has changed the agreement. This is something I did not and could not have planned for. If the Eibor rates had gone up instead of down to the equivalent level that we are now being charged by the bank I would not be on this forum as as you would say "I would only have myself to blame". My point is that I bought a product under a description that has now been changed in the interest of the bank. I find it difficult to chalk this up to self denial.

norsk

I understand what you're saying about the EIBOR and yes it does sound like the bank has acted outside of the terms of your mortgage, and if this was part of the contract then I can't see how they can get out of it.

What I was trying to point out was that you probably wouldn't be if you hadn't banked on (no pun intended) those expected salary increases in the first place...

Jeeper

Exactly.
My first post on the issue was 'aside from the rights and wrongs of what Mashreq has done...' you shouldn't be in the situation of being tipped over the edge re: meeting payments.