# Advice please regarding "suelo" on my mortgage



## leedsutdgem (Jun 3, 2010)

I dont know if anyone else has been affected by this but we signed for a mortgage back in August 2008. Interest rates at the time where 5.5%. We were delighted when we seen that the mortgage rates were dropping. After 6 months when our mortgage was revised we thought they would apply the new Euribor rate of I think 1.2% thus saving us 200€ approx on our mortgage each month.

To our surprise we were wrong! Turns out the bank (Unicaja) had applied a minimum interest rate of 3.5% and a maximum of 15%!!! We could not believe it! At no point when we negociated our mortgage was this mentioned. We have been to the bank on numerous occasions to see if we can get this lifted but they will not. So basically they are robbing us on 200€ each month.

Then, about a month ago it was on the news that AUSBANC (its like the bank ombudsman) had successfully denounced 3 banks and a judge in seville had ruled against BBVA, Cajamar and one other bank and told them to lift the suelo on their clients mortgages and not only that but pay back all the money that they had charged en exceso with interest. The banks involved have since appealed so I will watch this space.

So my question is, what would you do in my situation? We are thinking about joining AUSBANC and via their lawyers do a denuncia against Unicaja but then if we win what will future dealings be like with them. Will they grant me a loan if I need one? Will they charge me things that they didnt charge me for before for eg. credit cards? I think to be honest I have the strongest hand as we have health insurance, house insurannce, life insurance and also pensions and some savings with them. We looked into moving banks but the charges to move the mortgage are rather high. There are approximately 500,000 families in Spain affected by this suelo.

Here is a link to the story for those of you who read spanish

Un juez obliga a eliminar la cláusula suelo de las hipotecas · ELPAÍS.com


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## gus-lopez (Jan 4, 2010)

leedsutdgem said:


> I dont know if anyone else has been affected by this but we signed for a mortgage back in August 2008. Interest rates at the time where 5.5%. We were delighted when we seen that the mortgage rates were dropping. After 6 months when our mortgage was revised we thought they would apply the new Euribor rate of I think 1.2% thus saving us 200€ approx on our mortgage each month.
> 
> To our surprise we were wrong! Turns out the bank (Unicaja) had applied a minimum interest rate of 3.5% and a maximum of 15%!!! We could not believe it! At no point when we negociated our mortgage was this mentioned. We have been to the bank on numerous occasions to see if we can get this lifted but they will not. So basically they are robbing us on 200€ each month.
> 
> ...


Yes, the same thing exists with some mortgage providers in the UK, it's called a collar or cap. Personally I'd wait to see the outcome of the appeal & if it goes in favour of removing the cap then I'd approach the bank again stating that if they don't alter it you'll denounce them & get it removed that way . The other trouble with most spanish providers is that if you do want to change the mortgage in some way they want to charge you 000's to do it , so re-couping there money that way. I'd wait , see the outcome & then approach them with a view to removing it voluntarily .


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