Advice needed about our mortgage can't afford the fixed rate bank are offering

[Anon2013]

Long time lurker on here,first time to post.

Everyone here is so knowledgable,hoping u could advise me..

I think myself and my husband received the worst financial advise re mortgages..
We took out our mortgage in 2005 and received the offers through a broker. We at the time had a two yr old and were anxious to buy before the market spiralled further.
We settled on a two yr new business rate of i think 2.8% roughly with PTSB.
We came off that rate after 12 months and gradually interest rates creeped up.With a new baby iminent we decided to fix for 5 yrs in Feb 2006.

In March 2008 we decided to consolidate a few short term debts etc and we did an equity release.We did this directly with PTSB and were advised not to re mortgage as such due to a fee to exit the fixed rate etc.

Fast forward to early 2011.The variable rates have risen signifacantly while we were fixed
and we cant afford the fixed rate they are now offering.My Husband was made unemployed late 2010and is still out of work to this day.We have 3 kids and i work part time unfortunately we cannot afford the €1600 combined mortgagee repayments and are
paying roughly €1300 interest only.Wat a mess,we havent cleared any capital since 2010 and are now also in arrears of roughly €7000.
I dont know what to do...from reading posts i feel if during our initial loan offer and fixing in 2006 it wud have been unusual to have not been offered a tracker??

I did broach the subject at one meeting with the bank a few yrs ago but it was kinda brushed off by them.How would i word a letter requesting our original loan conditions in 2005 and upon fixing in 2006.i have some copies but unfortunately not all.


any relief/help from the bank with this crippling mortgage would to us be the equivilant of a lotto win.We are literally living hand to mouth and still only paying Interest.

Thanks for reading.

 

[BIC]

Hello

If you don't have all the paperwork tell the bank that you want copies for that reason.

We also went through a broker in 2005 when buying our house and was offered a discounted variable with no mention of a tracker. Due to our limited experience in buying property we took the brokers advice and opted for the discounted variable (for 12 months) as we believed that this must have been the best deal going. Sadly, we all now know that I was not! I wonder if brokers where incentivised to push discounted variables at this time?

For what its worth we are also struggling with a very large mortgage on a variable rate with reduced working hours.

Good luck

 

[peteb]

Whilst I sympathise with you, if you weren't offered a tracker mortgage at the time why do you think there would be something in your paperwork that would change the situation?

A lot of people way down the road seem to look back and think "damn we should have taken a tracker" when they see the ECB rates fall. But if you were offered it, you weren't offered it. There was no obligation for a bank to offer it to you. And holding out any hope for the same at this stage is just fooling yourselves.

 

[wbbs]

Hindsight is marvellous! You have to remember that back in 2005 it was not realised how great a tracker mortgage was going to turn out to be, well unless you were one of the economists if even they knew.

Not all banks offered trackers on all loans, there were different promotions for various categories of borrowers like first time buyers or buy to lets or whatever. There is no reason to believe you were given bad advice, you were given advice suitable to the times we lived in. No one ever hears of the people who had the option of trackers and did not go for them and believe me there was plenty that did not, people are always suspicious of new products which the tracker was and many opted for standard rates. Obviously if we all had a crystal ball then things would be different.

Discounted for year or so mortgages were hard to refuse as most people need a bit extra in the first year so many chose the same option as yourself and I don't think brokers got any more for that type of mortgage, in fact if anything the type a broker would prefer would be longer term fixed as there was usually a claw back of commission if the loan was switched within a certain time frame.

So there is no point beating yourselves up about what you did or didn't do or whether the advice was bad or not, unfortunately this does not help you much now but you are far from alone in your present predicament.

 

[elcato]

My Husband was made unemployed late 2010and is still out of work to this day.We have 3 kids and i work part time unfortunately we cannot afford the €1600 combined mortgagee repayments and are
paying roughly €1300 interest only.Wat a mess,we havent cleared any capital since 2010 and are now also in arrears of roughly €7000.

Paying 1300 a month is about the same as paying rent for a house (in general) so I wouldn't go beating your self up about it. As long as you keep paying the interest only you will not lose the house. In ten or twenty years time you can take stock and see what turns out. In the meantime just content yourself with the fact that it's just part of living.