# Moving UB Tracker to a UB Home Mover Mortgage - but seems bank can change rate at any time?



## hogg (22 Jun 2015)

Hi
Has anyone experience or advice on the Ulster Bank Home mover mortgage
We have an existing tracker mortgage of €130,000 @ 1.05% above ECB with 12 years left
(We reluctantly are giving up our great Tracker mortgage as we need to move to larger home.)

We have Sale agreed on our home  €303,000 & using equity towards purchase/renovations of our new home which we are sale agreed @ €222,000 

We are looking for a home mover mortgage for the same amount we are currently paying over the same term (€130k over 12 years) 3 months ago we met with Branch manager to go though the process of moving our mortgage over to the new HOME MOVER 5 YR ECB +2%.

We finally got our offer on Friday with the following in the Loan offer conditions:
_Notwithstanding the generality of our right to vary the agreement as contained in the General Conditions to this loan and in addition to such right as contained therein, the _*Bank may, at its sole discretion amend the terms of this agreement, including increasing the Tracker Rate Margin with immediate effect anytime within the aforementioned 5 year period where there is a material adverse change in: 

The business, operations, property, condition (financial or otherwise) *

It had been our understanding from the start that this 2% was fixed for the 5 years and after the 5 years we would move to whatever the best deal for us was, This was the incentive to get us off our 1.05 % tracker. But it seems if we sign up to this then Ulster Bank can at any time change their rates so what is the point?

We are so angry that at this late stage when we need to close the sale of the house, that this is the first we have heard about this , It was our understanding though the whole process that the offer was fixed for the 5 years (unless we defaulted) 

Has anyone any experience of the Home mover mortgage, or have any advice to give?
thanks 
hogg


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## Aini (24 Jun 2015)

Hi Hogg,
We are in the process of applying for the home mover with UB also. Haven't received T&C's yet but will  check if the clause is present when we receive them. Would also be disappointed if they did not honor the ECB+ fixed rate for the tracker for 5 yrs as this is what makes having to move off the tracker attractive. We were told that UB are extending the tracker portion from 5 to 10 years.


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## hogg (28 Jun 2015)

Hi Aini
It was our solicitor who highlighted that the offer wasn't watertight, our Mortgage advisor in our branch was away so we queried it with the "Mortgage Team" in Scotland they said that the ECB+ margin was NOT fixed!! 

Then we eventually got to query it with our branch Mortgage advisor, she said it was an error on the terms & conditions (one of many errors & typos!) and the ECB + margin was fixed. So we are now waiting for a new Offer to be issued and all errors corrected. 

I'd advise you read terms of your offer carefully!

I would be interested to know where you heard about the 5yr being extended to a 10yr? I would hate to sign for the 5yr of a better offer was coming down the line!


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## dibbles (28 Jun 2015)

hogg, UB told me last week the tracker-porter mortgages will be offered for a 10 year term, this is happening at the moment and it will be on the table within a fortnight, so we were told.
Hold off on signing for now.


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## hogg (1 Jul 2015)

Hi /Aini
were you made aware the 5yr home mover is not a fixed margin, we had a lot of confusion on this as it was our understanding that the %margin was fixed for the term. We only found out it wasn't when we read the terms of our offer,, then queried it our local bank said it was a mistake on the offer but after further investigations by the bank THEY discovered from the UB legal dept that the 2%margin we were told we would have for 5yr is not fixed and can changed at the discretion of the bank at anytime!! Im sure this will probably be the same for the 10 yr too


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## picturehouse (23 Jul 2015)

hogg said:


> Hi /Aini
> were you made aware the 5yr home mover is not a fixed margin, we had a lot of confusion on this as it was our understanding that the %margin was fixed for the term. We only found out it wasn't when we read the terms of our offer,, then queried it our local bank said it was a mistake on the offer but after further investigations by the bank THEY discovered from the UB legal dept that the 2%margin we were told we would have for 5yr is not fixed and can changed at the discretion of the bank at anytime!! Im sure this will probably be the same for the 10 yr too



Thanks for the tip. It is changed to 10years on the UB website. I think the new tracker is more favourable too: ECB+2% for LTV <80%.  Mortgage advisor said the uptake of tracker movers was very low. I wonder is it worth waiting to see if they start offering 15year trackers?!


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## Bronte (24 Jul 2015)

It's quite amazing how these mistakes can happen.  Cynical me says it's delibarate.  Those bankers are sneaky.  Always and forever.


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## picturehouse (24 Jul 2015)

hogg, did you have any trouble with this clause from the UB website: "For existing Ulster Bank personal mortgage customers who are either on a Tracker interest rate or have a Fixed/Variable rate with a loan to value ('LTV') above 100% and wish to move home." 

When we enquired, the 100% mentioned above was 90%, and the mortgage advisor said it meant we couldn't use the tracker porter if we had <90% LTV on our current house. I think this was an incorrect interpretation, since your LTV is <90% and you were offered this product.


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