CAM Mortgages

Having completed on 23rd July 2008, my mortgage went through its 1st revision on 23/1/08. 1st rest is 6mths, thereafter every 12mths.

The rate for the 1st 6mths was 5.75% (I'm presuming they were using the 3mth Euribor rate +1%)

Latest revision is 5.45% which bears no resemblance to any Euribor rate + 1%, with repayments only falling by about 30€ p/m on an 82,000€ mtge.

I have an e.mail out to CAM Bank and will be calling in next week to discuss with them.

Patrick (Smiley) advises that the only thing that could be in place is a floor which is effectively a minimum rate although this was never pointed out by either CAM bank or my Solicitor. The mortgage market in Spain is also unregulated so i don't think there is much redress re mis-selling - buyer beware seems to be the Spanish way.

Will advise further, but for anyone else going with CAM then check this specific area out before signing.

Hi Dave, as you know we completed in July 2008 and were expecting our payments to come down around 190 euro's per month, have'nt heard anything from them yet and the next payment is on the 16th, e-mailed them today to push them to give us our new figures, thought it would be euribor +1% like we agreed which would be 3%. Will be gutted if it only comes down 30 euro's, let us know how you get on.

                                                  Chris.

Hi Dave... We're also with CAM and also completed in July 2008. Our mortgage rate has just dropped from 5.75% to 5.35% saving around 20Eur/mth- a move in the right direction, but we were hoping for a little more..... let us know what response you get from CAM please.... cheers.

Chris... If you're with CAM, and you have internet access to your account, you can view the 'repayment table' for the loan and it will tell you all of your future payments. I did this when the rate changed... Initially I got very excited, as it showed my monthly payment dropping by 220Eur/mth... But after closer inspection, I noticed that my mortgage had been revised from a 13yr term to a 30yr term!!! Don't know why... But a couple of emails to CAM have returned it to 13years. (hope this doesn't happen to anyone else.... Would be quite a shock to reach what you thought was the end of your mortgage term....... only to find you had additional 'x' years to pay!!!!)

Regards, Brian.

You might need to check your deeds for this but another explanation of why your mortgage rate didn't come down as much as you thought is -

We purchased our apartment in October 2007. Our mortgage was agreed in September 2007.

We are on an annual review & I was told that the new interest rate starts being charged on the 1st November & the 1st new payment starts on the 1st December. When I got the figures through for the new payment, they didn't, as in Shampers case, bear any relation to the Euribor on or around the 1st November.

When I queried this I was told that although the new rate is charged from 1st November, the rate actually applied is the rate from 2 months previously, 1st Sept. I did check my deeds & it does quite clearly state that the rate as at 1st September is the rate that will apply.

Unfortunately this meant that we did not benefit from the rate reductions that occurred between Sept & November!

Noreen

We also completed in July and was expecting to see a decrease in our monthly bill but was disappointed when I checked our online account to find it had only dropped by 0.4%.  not alot considering the Euribor has dropped consideriably in the last few months. Not too sure how easy  it would be to change mortgage provider, knowing Spain it will cost an arm & a leg.

Paul

Hi Brian, thanks for that, just waiting for my card to come through from cam to check my online account and still waiting for a response to my e-mails, as you know their not to quick in replying.

                                                           Chris.

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We have had a couple of mortgage offers through, I asked them to confrm the basis of Euribor.  Cajamurcia is based on a 12 month Euribor, with Euribor based on an average rate 2 months prior to the renwal date. So if renewal is Feb 09 the Euribor rate will be the Dec 08 rate.

It seems that this is the norm with Spanish banks

Dave & Carol

Thanks all.

No response yet from CAM, but suspect given what's being said that it's going to be based on the date when the mortgage was agreed or the average rate between agreeing and drawdown seen as Euribor has only reduced substantially in the last couple of month..................... c'est la vie, mañana, hey ho and all that

Hi All,

Noreen / Dave and Carol are right; revirews are normally based on the 2 months prior to effective date. This means that many people will be caught at the high rates that we saw towards the end of 2008.  Hopefully the Euribor will stay at a very low level and these people will benefit in the next review period!

Hi All,

We're in the same boat and I contacted CAM straight away after I noticed that it hadn't gone down much. Here is the response from Antonio:

it is true taht the rates in Sapin are going down as well but your checking date has been on January and as we must use always the rate from two months before we have used the rate for November and it was not so low. I´m sorry but we can not do nothing with this. Now is fixed for 1 year moreWe're in the same boat as yourselves and I contacted CAM over this when I seen it. Here's the response from Antonio:

Not much we can do about it until next year!

Hi all, just had an e-mail from Sven Ottemeier from Cam bank and just to confirm our interest rate was set in November, he says the Spanish bank interest rate, which i assume is the euribor, was 4.35% which means we add the 1% and get a rate of 5.35%. Only dropped 26 euro's and is locked in for 12 months, gutted. Hope rates stay low until November.

                                                            Chris.

LIke others, I was expecting a larger reduction in monthly payments given the big reductions in Euribor late in 2008.  When I spoke to CAM on the phone, I got the same explanation about the revised rate being set based on Euribor 2 months prior to the revision date.

I am still waiting to get a response from Sven who I emailed over a week ago, but I presume that the explanation will be the same as Chris got below.

Michael

if that idiot trichet finally puts his brain in gear he will cut euribor by at least 1/2% to 1 1/12%  in first week of march but should do 1%.did you see the gdp figures from europe on friday.horrendous.if that happens it may be worth switching to the halifax deal.do the numbers.and remember you get free transfers of money from halifax uk to halifax spain.

I have just received notification that my monthly repayments from March 09 until Feb 2010 are coming down from €351 to €275.  Delightful.

 it is defintely completion date less two months....

We have a slightly bigger benefit from our mortgage change but only because we have been paying 6.461% since August...and now we are at 4.45%...over the 18-24 months there are going to be winners and losers in the interest rate wheel of fortune....at some point they have to come back up!!