I was never induced to give up my tracker mortgage!

todo, my point is that it looks like the availability of trackers made by the BOI in 2008 appears dicretionary. You said, "On the 22nd Aug I was offered a tracker". You see, in late July the very same BOI told me that a tracker was no longer available, even though I had below 80 LTV and was good all around guy. So I ended up with SVR instead when I signed the papers then in July 2008. Anyway, do not want to distract from your query you have here. But it brings the point home that one and the same bank made trackers unavailable in July to some people, then available in August, then unavailable again in September.

Good luck with the quest, hope you can get your tracker back. Although personally i would prefer if all of us on trackers, fixed and svr alike, paid low rates alike.
 
I drew down my BOI mortgage in July 2008 - about 90% LTV... offered tracker...actually decided myself on a fixed rate for 2 years and spent 2 years regretting it as the ECB rate subsequently went down (after rising once after drawdown). I remember reading on here all the PTSB people allowed off their fixed rates. I cursed BOI at the time as I asked to do the same only to have to pay a breakout fee of about 20k. Needless to say I stayed on fixed till my 2 years were up and then lo and behold I was offered my tracker back which is what I am on now. Nobody from bank ever tried to entice me off this rate - only correspondance I ever got from them was the recent letter that was supposed to have been sent out in error.
 

That was before the policy change, the difference is I got a call to entice me off the tracker onto this new great fixed rate offer. But no disclosure came with it, that explained the difference from previous fixed rate offers was that it reverted to a variable rate rather then a tracker rate.
 
On the precise timing of the withdrawal of tracker offers, Monbretia (who was at the coalface, so to speak) reported as follows:

"Can only speak for where I worked but remember very clearly when trackers finished being offered on applications. July 2008 I was off sick for 4 weeks, before I left trackers were there when I came back they were gone for new loan application other than loan offers already issued or in the pipeline. Those customers were given some time to draw them down, couldn't say exactly how much but feel it was until around the end of September that year. It was a hectic few months trying to get as many drawn down as possible.

That sort of space for existing offers to draw down could explain why even though trackers ceased to be offered they were still being issues to cases in the pipeline for several months until the pipeline was cleared and then they were totally finished."

It's certainly possible that there was something of a transitional period when formal tracker loan offers were issued in some branches and drawn down in July, August or even in early September if they were already in the pipeline (AIPs issued, paperwork being gathered, etc.).

To put the timing into perspective, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on 15 September 2008 after weeks of uncertainty in the financial markets and I guess we all know what happened next...
 
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BOI mortgages told me themselves that they had a policy change on the 11th of Sept. The policy change was to no longer sell trackers. I would imagine you could get one up to that point if requested.
Coincidentally the 15th was also the day they called me!

I would not think that the individual branches had any say in it.
 
The official policy change in the BOI I believe was early October, not to sell trackers, period. I was offered a choice between a tracker and fixed on approval in principle, perhaps May or June, can't remember now. The official mortgage offer, all docs in place, that came through in late July was a choice between SVR and fixed. The officer said a tracker was not available. I asked for it, and it was unavailable. They also said that SVRs and trackers covaried together, not that different. So you could say I was in the pipeline in July already, and drew down in August. I have no clue what it means and why would they make trackers unavailable to some but not other customers July to September period, I cant think of anything wrong with me then or my finances. The only possible reason is the general mess or miscommunication in branches that cost me dearly. Like few months ago I asked at the BOI branch if I could fix for one year only, they said absolutely, and then few days after got back to me that one year fix was for new customers only. I think it is more incompetence or the lack of knowledge than a conspiracy. Maybe.
 
But it is all so bizarre, cant think of anything comparable. In a normal economy, you make mistakes you fix them later if you can, in case of mortgages refinance or something. But in Eire trackers no longer resemble contracts between economic agents and are more like something else, like a knighthood or a
desirable citizenship, you either have it or not. And if somehow you do not have it you end up paying more for life. Would be an interesting experiment if those on trackers but unable to meet the payments somehow could sell trackers on an auction to people without, how much people on svr like me would have paid. In a low interest rate world the difference is enormous. Exhibit 1: with current rates I pay 550-600 per month over what I would have paid had I been in their pipeline few weeks earlier and if ended up on a tracker. If the banks did not exploit svr and fixed customers we would not even have all these threads about losing trackers or never being induced from a tracker and so on, would not be an issue.
 
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