3 September 2002: Despite the so-called 'single market' Irish motorists are being robbed blind by Irish finance houses when it comes to loans for cars, compared to their European cousins.

In a detailed study for Irish Car magazine of Irish and French banks, the French motorist can be more than E1,100 better off after paying back a E10,000 loan, thanks to more competitive charges and loan insurance offered by the French institutions.

The study was carried out by Paris-based Dawn Reilly, who concludes there will be really no such thing as a single Europe until Irish motorists have the opportunity to avail of a wider choice of European lending facilities.

She says Irish banks are 'lagging behind' their European counterparts in reducing the prices of 'extras' such as commission and bank charges. "Although the EU have attempted to harmonise lending facilities, the ability of the banks to set charges at different levels to the customer allows for differences in prices to persist, generally to the detriment of the paying customer," she says.

In Ireland, the lowest APR she found was from TSB Permanent. "It also boasts the lowest monthly payments available from the lending institutions in our study," she reports. "This certainly shows that it pays to shop around."

But comparing TSB Permanent against the most expensive in France, BNP Paribas, showed savings of almost E840 on that E10,000 loan.

The most expensive bank in the study was AIB in Ireland. The least expensive was Cetelem in France.

Full details of the study are available here, courtesy of Irish Car magazine.