My recent experience with two of the Australian banks
indicates that they both either discriminate the pensioner and or are ignorant
of what a foreign pension income really is. This applies to two of Australia’s big four
banks Commonwealth Bank and the ANZ Banks. Since I banked with the ANZ bank for
over 30 year I will discuss the issue with regards this bank but it equally
applies to the other bank.
I had recently applied for a home loan for X K dollars
for the purchase of a house to the value of 2x K dollars. For the first time I used the help of a
broker, I am not sure whether this was a mistake. The reason that I even applied for a loan was
because of Brexit the GPB had lost its value against the AUD and I needed time
to rearrange my finances.
1.
Both my wife and I are UK pensioners
we each have three UK pensions.
a.
A works pension from the NHS.
b.
A Private Pension.
c.
A state pension.
The combined annual pension of both me and my wife is 0.2X
K AUD. Our pensions are paid directly to
our banks in the UK. The ANZ bank initially required that our pensions be paid
directly to our ANZ account. This was not acceptable to us since we would lose
that ability to transfer the money when the exchange rate was favourable to us.
The ANZ then stated that they would only consider one third of our pension
income in their calculation. This is
discrimination against the pensioner and no explanation was given as to why
only one third of tour pension would consider in the calculation.
2.
Rental Property Income:
At the time of our application I
owned two rental properties in the UK and we owned a rental property in Spain
and three rental properties in Australia. The combined rental income was 0.12X
K AUD
3. Credit
History
a. ANZ mortgage for 0.1X K AUD in 1990 repaid in
full by 2001.
b.
ANZ mortgage for 0.6X K AUD in 2002
repaid in full 24.2.2011.
c. ANZ
mortgage for X K AUD borrowed on the 4/3/2011 0.45 X K AUD paid at the time of
application for the loan.
d. A business
loan with Llyods Bank UK to the value of 1.75X K AUD on the 3/11/2003 this loan
was repaid in full on the 17/6/2005.
e. Loan to
purchase home from Yorkshire Building Society UK to the value of 0.5X K AUD was
repaid in full by 11/8/2011. This was an endowment policy but was repaid even
before the maturation of the endowment policy.
f. Loan from
Bank inter in Spain to the value of 0.6K 1000 AUD in 2005 . This loan was
completely repaid by 11/08/2011.
3. Properties Owned at the time of
application for the loan
a. Four
bedroom residential house in Prescot valued at 1.75X K AUD. The property is
mortgage free.
b. Business
property in Liverpool UK valued at 2X K AUD. This property is also without and
mortgage
c. Holiday
property in Spain valued at 0.5X K AUD also mortgage free.
d. Property
in East Melbourne valued at 1.6X K AUD also without Mortgage.
e. Property
in Hawthorn Melbourne valued at 1.1X K AUD there is a outstanding mortgage of
0.5X K AUD
f.
Residential property in West Lakes Shore Adelaide valued at 1.5X K AUD which is
mortgage free.
g. Rental
property in West Lakes Shore Adelaide valued at 0.8X K AUD which is also
Mortgage free.
4. Cash
in Bank.
a. We had two
accounts with the ANZ a savings account and a mortgage offset account we had
0.6X K AUD in these accounts.
b. We had two
UK bank were we had the equivalent 0.6X K AUD in GPB.
Despite this strong credit history and assets worth several
times the X K AUD that we wished to borrow the loan was denied by two banks. I
fail to understand their decision. I felt it was insulting since in the UK my
Bank’s Business Manager would ring my office and make an appointment to see me.
That meeting would take place in my office and not at the bank.
Complaints
Procedure:
We went through the complaints procedure of both the
banks but were unsuccessful. The complaint was then escalated to the banks
customer advocate. The customer advocate
claims to be independent of the bank. They were neither independent nor an
advocate for the customer.
Finally the complaint was taken to the Australian
Financial Complaints commission. Their response was that they cannot deal with
the matter since it was for the bank to decide their lending policy. They did not look into the matter of
discrimination against pensioners. My understanding to Australian law is that
no organisation can discriminate based on sex, gender, religion, sexuality or
age. The Australian financial authority was as useless as udders on a bull.
Thanks to their ignorance or discriminatory policy I
have saved several K AUD in interest payments. I have now built my new lake
front house worth 3X K AUD which is nearing completion.
Comments
Post a Comment