# Should the Bank have offered me a Tracker Mortgage?



## Seamus

I took out a mortgage in 2005 with Bank of Ireland and was initially on a discounted variable rate for the first year.
At the end of the first year the bank wrote to me and offered me 7 different options including a variable rate, a number of fixed rates, and a Tracker rate (ECB+1.3%). I opted to go on a fixed rate for 3 years.
At the end of the three years (2009) the bank wrote to me and offered me 3 options – a variable rate, a 2 year fixed rate or a 3 year fixed rate. I opted to go for the variable rate.
My question is this: - Should I have been offered the tracker (ECB+1.3%) as well as the other 3 options when my fixed rate ended.
I ask this as I’ve read in the National Consumer Agency website the following:-

*At the end of a fixed rate term, your lender will write to you and outline your options, which may include:
•	moving to a standard variable rate
•	fixing for another term, perhaps 1,3 or 5 years
•	moving to a tracker rate - but only if this was offered to you at the time you signed up for the fixed rate. Look at the documentation your lender sent you when you signed up to a fixed rate, as this will detail what your interest rate will revert to after the fixed rate term ends. If a tracker mortgage was one of the options, then your lender must offer you the tracker rate, even if they are no longer widely available. If you do not have the documentation, contact your lender and ask for a copy. *

If I had been offered the option of going on the tracker when my fixed rate term ended in 2009 I would certainly have opted for that option as the rate would have been well below the other options offered. Given that a tracker was offered to me at the time of signing up for the fixed rate, was the bank wrong not to offer me the tracker again at the end of my fixed rate?

Do I have any grounds now in going to the bank and asking to be put on this rate now?


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## Brendan Burgess

You answer your own question with 

*	moving to a tracker rate - but only if this was offered to you at  the time you signed up for the fixed rate. Look at the documentation  your lender sent you when you signed up to a fixed rate, as this will  detail what your interest rate will revert to after the fixed rate term  ends. If a tracker mortgage was one of the options, then your lender  must offer you the tracker rate, even if they are no longer widely  available. If you do not have the documentation, contact your lender and  ask for a copy. 

*From your own description, you never had an option of a tracker rate, so you have no right to one now or at any stage in the past.


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## wbbs

I would not think so, this would only be relevant if you had initially been on a tracker rate.  Trackers were already discontinued in some banks from August 2008


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## PadKiss

*Should the bank have offered me*

The answer to this question rest with the original loan offer and the margin charge on your interest rate this will tell u if you have a case if I can help let me know at info@kissanefs.con good luck Padraic


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## Bronte

PadKiss said:


> The answer to this question rest with the original loan offer and the margin charge on your interest rate this will tell u if you have a case if I can help let me know at info@kissanefs.con good luck Padraic


 
? Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do, you've only 9 posts after all so people need to be careful about who they respond to.


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## Mrs Vimes

Hi Bronte,

BB recommended Padraic Kissane in this thread - I'd assume he's safe enough!


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## PadKiss

Hi Bronte and all other readers a little about me Padraic Kissane Independant financial advisor currently in the middle of a major comapign regarding this whole tracker issue. Have been in papers and on RTE Radio 1 regarding the issue and there is a thread from Brendan Burgess explaining where i come from on this issue (see Mrs Vimes above). I have had alot of success (but not without a fight) in retrieving trackers for people, initially my clients, and since i went in the papers, originally in November last year i have had a large number of people contact me from all different lenders. I have researched each lenders terms and conditions attaching to their loans in extreme detail and am challenging individual cases initially through the Bank itself and then if needed the Office of The Financial Ombudsman. Not sure how much more i can do or say on this thread but Brendan might clarify who i am. If you wish to contact me you will get me on info@kissanefs.com and we can have a deeper discussion. My website which should have been constrructed at this stage is still not complete mainly because this issue is getting bigger by the day and it the focus of all my time at present. I have a number of people who you can contact to verify who i am many who had not met me until seeing the article in Navember but have now got thier tracker mortgage rate restored. The battle is not easy and to summarise what i do, you will have someone who is independant with expertise battling for you in any challenge that may take place. Just email me your number and i will personally call you to give you more detail on how i came to be in this space. For info check This Week RTE Radio 1 31/03/2013 and also same programme 25/11/2012 as well as various articles in Irish Indo/ The Examiner. Any who contact me can rest assured of a professional approach to the probllem as i am at all times aware of the importance of how the case is put forward and the financial consequences of retreiving the tracker margin i will even tell you if there is no case worth battling. Hope this helps Padraic


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## markwalsh01

hi we purchased in 2009, did we miss the tracker and so cannot get it??


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## peteb

Yes you missed it.  And no you can't get it.


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## morganf16

Hi , I took out a mortgage in 2007 and was on the tracker rate...in June 2008 we fixed half of the mortgage and kept the other half on tracker....for 5 years

We are coming off the fixed rate now and have not been offered the tracker on the half that was fixed?
We have asked the ombudsman to investigate?
Anybody been in same position?


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