AIB A good analogy for "We didn't have a prevailing rate available"

tnegun

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Original analogy
If I go to a restaurant and order fish and chips for €15, the waiter may well tell me that the fish is sold out and is no longer available. The price of €15 is still the prevailing price even if the fish is not available. The price was €15 earlier in the night when the fish was available and the price will be €15 tomorrow when they get a fresh delivery. The €15 price will prevail until the restaurant decides to change it.

The template is really good and it's difficult to improve on it, does the following analogy make sense in place of the restaurant one?

If I was to enter into a contract with garage to finance a VW Passat for 12 months in December 2008 and at the end of that period, I had the contractual right to choose a new car from one of the following models - Polo, Passat or a Touareg.

Approaching the end of this period I contact the garage and request my options. In the interim, despite having the ability to supply, the garage has decided to stop offering the Polo as it made a financial decision that it is no longer economical to do so. I am offered only a Passat or Touareg. The garage is still contractually obliged to offer me the Polo but has chosen not to thus breeching our contract.

Further the model is I’m entitled to is the current model at the time the 12 month period expired in December 2009 as that is the model which prevailed.

Therefore, it is our position that at the end of the Fixed interest rate period of the mortgage the Tracker rate that was “then prevailing” i.e. “existing at a particular time” was the ECB rate + 1.5% which prevailed until the Bank changed the rate in 2013.
 
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I like that.

The garage is fully entitled to stop offering Polos to new customers.

But if they have offered the customer who bought the Passat a contractual right to a Polo after 12 months, then they must offer a Polo.

Of course, the garage could have written to original contract as follows: " At the end of the 12 months, you can choose from a Polo, a Passat or a Touareg - provided we are still offering those models to new customers".

Then the garage would have been fully entitled not to offer the Polo.

Likewise, if AIB had said, "You will be offered a tracker mortgage at the prevailing rate, provided that we are still offering tracker mortgages to new customers.", then AIB would have been entitled not to offer you a tracker on expiry of the fixed rate.

Brendan
 
Will include your comments in my reply too as it circles it nicely back to the prevailing rate.
 
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