The One account Flexible mortgage option conditions January 2003 edition [version 2]
Your One account flexible mortgage option General Conditions These Conditions govern the operation of your One account. Your One account is a personal current account with The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. It is secured against your home and is administered by The One account Ltd. In these Conditions, you are the customer who has signed and returned an Offer to open an Account and we are The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. If you have a joint Account, references in these Conditions to you include both of you, together and separately. Operation of the Account 1 We will open a One account in your name. 2a We will operate the Account on your instructions. We will communicate with you in English. The use of our Telephone Banking service is governed by the One account Telephone Banking Conditions see page 5. If you have a joint Account, we will accept instructions authorising withdrawals from either of you. You are responsible for the repayment of any borrowing on your Account. With a joint Account, each of you is fully responsible for the whole amount of the borrowing. 2b Subject to staying within your Facility, you may instruct us to make payments from the Account and may make payments into the Account, by the use of our Telephone Banking service. We will not issue you a chequebook or collect cheques for you. 2c Each payment into the Account will repay/reduce the most recent debit(s) from the Account. 3a You may not make any withdrawal which increases the borrowing on your Account to more than the agreed Facility stated in your Offer letter (or any revised Facility we agree with you), as reduced from time-to-time under Condition 6f. 3b You may request a decrease in the Facility at any time or ask us to agree to an increase or an extension of your Term, for which there may be a charge (see Condition 10). If you have a joint Account, we may accept and act on such a request from either of you. Any revision to the Facility, will take effect when we tell you, or under a joint Account, either of you, that it is agreed. 4 In certain circumstances we may refuse to accept a payment into your Account. Interest on borrowing 5a You will pay us interest on your borrowing on the Account by making the Monthly Payments referred to in Condition 6a. 5b The initial Interest Rate is stated in your Offer letter. We can change it with immediate effect at any time, but we will either inform you in writing of each change (at the earliest opportunity and at most within 30 days) or we will publish notice of the change in at least 3 national daily newspapers. 5c Interest will be calculated on the daily cleared balance on the Account on the basis of a 365-day year and applied not less than 14 days after calculation. Interest will also accrue on interest while it is waiting to be applied. The interest periods will be approximately monthly, but may not match the calendar months. 5d In addition to our right to change the Interest Rate, it will vary with your Facility, in proportion to the value of the Property mortgaged to us, as described in the Offer. You can ask us to reduce your Facility at any time. If the Property has gone up in value, you can arrange a new valuation with us, which may reduce your Interest Rate. Details of the range of interest rates are available on request. 5e We may offer discounted or special interest rates to new customers, for which you will not be eligible. Repayment 6a You will make Monthly Payments to us, on the date in each month which we agree with you. The Monthly Payments will either be: (i) of at least the minimum amount (rounded up to the nearest pound) necessary to reduce all borrowing on your Account with interest and charges to zero on or before the end of the Term stated in your Offer letter or any revised Term we agree with you (full capital and interest payments); (ii) the amount of interest due each month on your Account (interest only); or (iii) a combination of (i) and (ii) (partial capital and interest payments). Your Offer letter says which of these options we have agreed with you. 6b You may, at any time, repay any borrowing on the Account without notice or penalty or paying extra charges. If you wish to close the Account and have the mortgage on your Property released, there may be a charge (see Condition 10c). 6c If we have required you under Condition 14 to repay all borrowing before the end of the Term, you will immediately reduce the borrowing on your Account with interest and charges to zero. 6d You will provide us with a signed and completed variable Direct Debit instruction on a suitable account to enable us to collect each Monthly Payment. We will inform you from time-to-time of the minimum Monthly Payments necessary to one account 1
repay the agreed amount of your borrowing with interest and charges by the end of the Term. We will adjust the Monthly Payments to reflect payments from the Account and increases in the Interest Rate. 6e We will not reduce the Monthly Payments where other payments are made into the Account or the Interest Rate decreases, unless you ask us to. If you wish, you may instruct us to increase the Monthly Payments in order to effect repayment before the end of the Term. 6f Where your Offer letter specifies that you are making full or partial capital payments, we will apply an annual reduction in the amount of your Facility so as to keep you on track in order to reduce the Facility to zero or to the amount agreed with you by the end of the Term. If at any time the annual reduction in the Facility results in your borrowing on the Account being in excess of the Facility as reduced, we may specify increased Monthly Payments, after discussing this with you, and may impose special conditions. 6g You must continue to make the Monthly Payments even if your borrowing on the Account is less than your Facility. You may only suspend making Monthly Payments in accordance with Condition 7. Payment Holidays 7 You may suspend making the Monthly Payments or reduce the amount of them, during any period (not being more than six months in any rolling 12 month period) where we agree with you that they may be suspended or reduced (a Payment Holiday). If we do agree a Payment Holiday, we will tell you the date on which we will recommence collecting the Monthly Payments (in full) and the amount of the Monthly Payments applicable. Monthly interest will continue to be applied to the Account during any Payment Holiday. Any Payment Holiday will immediately cease and you must restart making Monthly Payments (in full) if the Facility limit would otherwise be exceeded. Your financial position 8 You will give us any information we request from time-to-time to enable us to assess your ability to comply with your obligations to make the Monthly Payments and repay the borrowing on your Account. Credit balances 9a If your payments into the Account result in a credit balance on the Account, you may withdraw that balance at any time. We will pay interest on a credit balance at our credit rate from time-to-time. Details of the rate are available on request. Interest will be paid after deduction of tax unless you have supplied to us 2 one account the necessary information establishing your right to payment of interest without deduction. 9b If you hold a joint Account, the survivor of you will be entitled to any credit balance on the Account. Charges, fees and expenses 10a Where applicable, you authorise us to apply to the Account our legal fees for the mortgage of the Property and any subsequent mortgage. 10b You are responsible for any valuer s and your own legal fees. 10c The charges affecting your Account are described in our charges leaflet or are available on request. The charges may be revised from time-to-time and details will be sent to you at least 30 days before any increases take effect. Charges are payable when they are incurred. Life policy 11 We strongly recommend that you (or in the case of a joint Account, both of you) take out and maintain life insurance for the amount of your Facility throughout the Term of your One account. For the insurance money to be available on your death to meet your debts, including repaying your One account, you should not deal with the policy(ies) in any way, e.g. disposal by gift or trust, assignment or charge to anyone else, that would mean that the monies are not paid to your estate. The Property 12a You must insure the Property comprehensively for its full replacement value and maintain that insurance. From time-to-time we may ask you to provide us with evidence of the insurance cover. 12b You must occupy the Property as your only or main residence, unless we agree otherwise. Use of the Account 13 Your One account is a personal account and may not be operated for the purpose of any business or profession and you may not borrow on the Account to finance any business or profession. Our right to require early repayment 14 We may write to you (or your personal representatives) (i) to forbid any further withdrawals from the Account; (ii) to reduce your Facility; and/or (iii) to require immediate repayment of all or part of the borrowing on your Account, with interest and charges, if: a without our prior agreement, you exceed the Facility, fail to make any Monthly Payment or otherwise breach any requirement contained or referred to in your Offer letter, these Conditions or the One account Telephone Banking Conditions;
b c d e f g h i you breach the Conditions of the Mortgage you have signed of the Property or any substitute Property or circumstances arise which adversely affect our Mortgage; bankruptcy proceedings are commenced against you or you enter into any arrangement with your creditors; any information you have provided to us is, in our opinion, materially inaccurate; any procedure is used against you to attach or take possession of any of your assets for payment of a debt; you sell the Property without immediately purchasing another which is acceptable to us as security and is mortgaged to us; the Property is destroyed and we do not reach agreement with you regarding its reinstatement; you, or, with a joint Account, either of you, die; we become concerned that the Account is being operated for illegal purposes or you (or with a joint Account, either of you) are convicted of a serious criminal offence. The One account Ltd 15 You will deal with The One account Ltd regarding your Account and you authorise us to reveal to them details of your Account and affairs. They have accepted the same duty of confidentiality regarding your affairs as we have as a bank. Your information Using and sharing your information 16a The One account Ltd is the data controller of your account. For the purposes of Conditions 16 and 17 only, references to we and us mean The Royal Bank of Scotland plc and/or The One account Ltd and where we refer to Group, we are referring to The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc group of companies. 16b Your information may be held on a Group database and used by us and any Group company for the purposes set out in this Condition 16. This includes any information which we or any Group company obtains from, or which relates to: application forms or other dealings with any Group company; third parties, such as credit reference agencies and parties associated with you; your products and services from any Group company; 16c We and other Group companies will use, analyse and assess your information to maintain and develop our relationships with you. This will include using it for the following purposes: i considering any applications made by you and helping us make credit-related decisions about you; ii operating and administering the services we, and/or other Group companies supply; iii servicing your relationships with Group companies; iv financial risk assessment, money laundering checks, compliance and regulatory reporting and fraud prevention; v helping us and our insurance underwriters to make decisions on insurance proposals and claims such as motor, household, credit and life, for you, members of your household and others connected with your insurance proposals and claims; vi helping us and other Group companies to identify products and services which may interest you (unless you have asked us not to), and vii helping us and other Group companies to understand and develop our respective businesses, including new and innovative products and services. 16d For operational uses such as in i, ii, iii, iv and v of Condition 16c, we may link your information between your accounts and other products and services you maintain with us. We may also link your information with that of others with whom you have a financial connection. We will not use the links for marketing purposes without your consent. 16e During the time that you have your One account, the way we look at, record and use information about you may change. In most cases these changes will result from improvements in technology and we believe that you will be comfortable with them. Where we feel the changes may not be obvious to you, we will tell you before we introduce them. When you open your Account, you are agreeing that, by continuing to maintain your Account, for at least 60 days after we have notified you of a change to the way we may use your information, you will be happy with that change unless you write to us at the following address, telling us that you do not wish your information to be used in this way. The One account, Woodland Place, Pinetrees Road, NORWICH NR7 9EJ. one account 3
16f We do not disclose your information outside the Group except: for operational reasons described in i, ii, iii, iv and v of Condition 16c; where we have your consent; where we are required or permitted to do so by law; to persons to whom we may transfer rights and obligations under our agreement with you; to any persons, including insurers, who provide a service to us, who have agreed to keep your information strictly confidential; to any persons, including insurers, who supply benefits or services to you under or in connection with your Account, or to credit reference and fraud prevention agencies as set out in Condition 17. 16g In order to provide the services you have requested or may request from time-to-time, it may be necessary for your information to be transferred to someone who provides a service to us in other countries. If this happens, we will ensure that anyone to whom your information passes agrees to treat your information with the same level of protection as if we were dealing with it. 16h You have the right of access to your personal records held on our files by written request to the address in Condition 16e and on payment of a fee. Credit Reference and Fraud Prevention Agencies 17a An association between any account holders who are financial partners, will be created at credit reference agencies. This will link your financial records. You and anyone else with whom you have a financial link should understand that each other s information will be taken into account in all future applications by either or both of you. This linking will continue until one of you successfully files a disassociation at the credit reference agencies. 17b We may make periodic searches of Group records, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies to manage your Account and, to take decisions regarding credit, including whether to continue or extend existing credit. The searches will not be seen or used by lenders to assess your ability to obtain credit. 17c We may give details of your Account and how you manage it to credit reference agencies. If you borrow and do not repay in full and on time, we may tell credit reference agencies who will record the outstanding debt. You have the right of access to your personal records held by credit reference and fraud prevention agencies. We will supply their names and addresses upon request to us at the address in Condition 16e. Transferring debts 18 We may allow another person to take over any of our rights and duties under our agreement with you and you authorise us to give that person any financial or other information about you. Notices and Statements 19a We will send statements, notices or other correspondence to you at the Property or any other address of which you have given us notice. Notices and correspondence from us will be effective two days after we have posted them, or if we send them by hand, when delivered. 19b We will send you a statement every three months. With a joint Account, you agree that we need only send the statement to the first named holder of the Account. Governing law and changes to the Conditions The Conditions mentioned in Condition 20 cover the General Conditions and Telephone Banking Conditions and any other conditions relating to the Account. 20a English law applies to your Offer letter and these Conditions unless the Property mortgaged to us is in Scotland, in which case, Scots law applies. 20b We may vary these Conditions from time-to-time and we will write to give you at least 30 days notice of any changes, unless a change is to your advantage, when we may make the change immediately, but we will still tell you about it within 30 days. 20c We subscribe to the Banking Code and apply the Code to all our dealings with you. Any changes we make to these Conditions will be in accordance with the Code. Copies of the Banking Code are available on request. Complaints 21a If you wish to make a complaint, you may do this either by telephone or in writing. We have a formal process in place to ensure that your concern is dealt with promptly. 21b If we are not able to resolve the matter to your satisfaction, it is possible for you to contact the Financial Services Ombudsman who may be able to investigate the matter for you. We will provide you with contact details on request. 4 one account
Your One account - flexible mortgage option Telephone Banking Conditions These Conditions govern the use of the Telephone Banking service for your One account. In these Conditions, you are the customer who has signed and returned an Offer to open an Account and we are The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. If you have a joint Account, references in these Conditions to you include both of you, together and separately. A banking day is any day (other than a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday) on which banks are open for business in Great Britain (ignoring telephone or electronic banking). 3b 3c Instructions received by 5:00pm on any banking day will normally be initiated that day. Instructions received at any other time will be initiated the next banking day. Provision of the Telephone Banking service will not give you any right to make withdrawals beyond your Facility. Recording of telephone calls 4 Telephone calls are recorded and may be monitored. Authority 1a You authorise us to provide information over the telephone and to accept and act on telephoned instructions and to pay to and from your Account the amounts involved when the transaction has been authenticated by the use of the security procedure we require. 1b If you have a joint Account, we will act on the instructions of either of you and you will each have a password and passcode, but you are each responsible for all transactions carried out using the Telephone Banking service and for repayment of any borrowing which arises on your Account. Security procedure 2a You must keep your passwords and passcodes secret. 2b You must take all reasonable precautions to prevent fraudulent use of your passwords and passcodes. 2c You must never write down or record your passwords and passcodes in any way which could be understood by someone else. 2d You must never disclose your passwords and passcodes to anyone except to the limited extent required by our Telephone Banking staff. 2e If you have kept your passwords and passcodes secret, you will not be liable for any transaction on your Account which you have not authorised. If you suspect someone knows your passwords and passcodes, you must telephone us immediately on 08453 01 01 03. If you fail to do so, you will be liable for any unauthorised transactions on your Account. Transactions 3a Details of the operating hours of our Telephone Banking service are contained in your One account flexible mortgage option guide or are available from us on request. one account 5
The One account is a secured personal bank account with The Royal Bank of Scotland plc. The One account Ltd is an appointed representative of the Royal Bank of Scotland plc which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. The One account Ltd. Registered office: Waterhouse Square, 138-142 Holborn, London EC1N 2TH. Registered in England no. 3414708. One account, Make one day today and associated logos are trademarks of The One account Ltd. Address for correspondence: The One account, Woodland Place, Pinetrees Road, NORWICH NR7 9EJ. TOA315D-10.04