Bank of Ireland's mortgage rates leap off the charts!

Had been approved for the Bank of Ireland's "Breakthrough" mortgage for a property under the affordable housing scheme. Was going for a 2 yr fixed rate. At the start of May, the interest rate was 4.65%, then it went to 4.85%. Then last week it went to 5.95% for new customers. That's an eye watering 1.3% increase in the space of about 6 weeks!

Might be looking for a new lender! Can you change your mortgage provider before you sign contracts etc. Isn't it true you can't change your mortgage after payments begin?

You'd be charged a penalty for changing a fixed rate mortgage before the time is up, so if you're going ahead with BOI with the intent to change, go for a variable rate option.

mayo exile said:

Had been approved for the Bank of Ireland's "Breakthrough" mortgage for a property under the affordable housing scheme. Was going for a 2 yr fixed rate. At the start of May, the interest rate was 4.65%, then it went to 4.85%. Then last week it went to 5.95% for new customers. That's an eye watering 1.3% increase in the space of about 6 weeks!

Might be looking for a new lender! Can you change your mortgage provider before you sign contracts etc. Isn't it true you can't change your mortgage after payments begin?

Click to expand...

I think you will find that this is the same for all lenders for the 2 YEAR FIXED. However, as you can see here [broken link removed]

2 year euro rates are at a 7 year high. In fact even since that article, 2 year rates are now around 5.37%, and that is before even adding on a Bank's credit margin! So if you can find a lender that has not recently increased the 2 year rate, then maybe get the deal there.

I would suggest shopping around on either ECB tracking or 5 year fixed, where the rates are not quite as high as the 2 year. Either way, lending rates are on the way up all across the market for both personal and business.

3;

I'm in similar situation same Bank but had loan approval fixed at 4.6% but they had address wrong so when i recieved it again they had jumped everything up.Fixed rate for first 2 years now a massive 5.950%. Can Banks just get away with this sharp practice ?
cheers Fran

We were very lucky to miss the scenerio u describe Mayo exile and hivas9. According to my lender it wasn't the interest rate that increased it was the Euribor rate...my lender had to explain it a couple of times before I understood....but I'll try! Basically the banks borrow money from other countries to give u a mortgage and the % extra on top of the ECB rate usually covers this BUT because the US had such problems lending to people that had neither the means or the intention of repaying....it drove this % up. Banks in turn passed on this increase to the mortgagers. Essentially they're paying more to borrow and in turn so are you.....and here's the big rub....its not interest as such so your mortgage relief doesn't increase.

As suggested by other posters...the only thing to do is to shop around.

Yes. First Active seem to have a 2 yr. fixed with a rate of 5.05% at the moment.