TIME WE GOT TO GRIPS WITH DUAL PRICING

Any reader of these pages won’t be surprised by a Central Bank report this week into dual pricing – i.e. having one price for loyal customers and another for savvy switchers.

It found that loyalty could cost the typical home and motor insurance customer €161 a year because insurers reward new customers with lower prices and penalise existing ones with penalties. This is not only unsurprising, it is endemic across providers from energy and health insurance to TV/broadband.

So what are we going to do about it? Dual pricing is not against the law and making it illegal might leave some people worse off. In the meantime, we should help older people meet digital challenges, make switching easier, and clamp down on companies that use bad customer service to deter switching.

The pandemic is hitting the nation’s coffers... but the news is not all bad.

The economy bounced back by a massive 10% in the third quarter, our disposable household income rose, and we have saved an extra €2.3bn, CSO’s latest figures show.

The country is set to rebound in 2021 when vaccinations are rolled out – fingers crossed!

Repossession remain notably low considering the huge amount of mortgage arrears. New figures from the Central Bank show five residential repossessions in the third quarter of 2020.

Yet in the same period 5,014 mortgages over ten years were in arrears – up 313 on the second quarter – with missed payments averaging €140k.