I can't specifically remember but I know at the time I wasn't aware you could break for free. Think there was maybe an advertisement, definitely something to prompt me. What was unusual at the time a friend had a fixed mortgage at ptsb. I told him that I could break out for free & advised he do the same. He rang & was told he would have to pay several thousand to break early. I always thought that was strange. Anyway since this Ptsb scandal has occurred I spoke again to my friend & asked him what type of loan he had. He fixed with option to go to fixed or variable on expiry. So there you go. One example of him being treated differently as he didn't have a tracker to loose. I have informed my solicitor of this.
I think you are on to something Bronte!
I got a call out of the blue from the local branch to see how we were getting on and to request a meeting. We met him and he suggested we break the fixed rate without penalty. We asked if we would be offered a tracker rate and he told us they were "gone". We had made every payment up to that point so were puzzled by the call. We subsequently rang him and again asked him about the tracker but he said we would never be offered one because the bank were losing so much money on them. We were naive enough to then accept the svr offered and break out of fixed rate. We queried his cold call with complaints dept in 2011 and were told he did not deliberately trick us out of anything...nor did he keep any minutes of our meeting!! We did but to no avail.It would be helpful to know how it came about that so many PTSB customers broker their fixed rates, took a fixed rate, moved to a very low variable and lost their trackers.
So how exacly in the first instant did it come about that customers broke their fixed rate. It is no easy thing to break a fixed rate. It's nearly unheard of to not have to pay a penalty.
So first question. How did you become aware that you could break the fixed rate for free. Was it an advertisment, a telephone call out of the blue ?