Trackers....

Burnbaby76

Well alike many others I have finally figured out what one is... and now I am wondering how long will I get to keep it for!

Was in the local over the weekend and a rather smug individual informed me that come this time next year my beautiful tracker mortgage will be a thing of the past!

Is that possible? Can that happen?

I was of the opinion that the contract was iron clad... you get as much protection as the lending society if the shoe was on the other foot... ie.. if both parties don't agree then no changes/amendments can be made???

So of you may know and please if you could advise me so that I can return to said smug individual i would deeply appreciate it!

Sarn

I think most people would agree that a contract is a contract. Once you are fulfilling your part there is nothing that they can do. There is no evidence to date that anything could be done to remove the trackers.

If you search this forum you should come across similar discussions. The consensus view is that the tracker can't be touched (unless there is a clause in the contract to allow it).

Jaysoose

I hope you told this "financial Expert" he was talking sh1te. Always makes me laugh when people that dont have a scooby doo what they are on about decide they are subject matter experts.

The only way you will lose your tracker is if the bank makes you an offer to come off it and you accept, otherwise keep paying the thing and there is nothing can be done.

dan_d

Tell the smug individual that he needs to go and look up the definition of a contract.

You can also tell him that teams of lawyers with far more experience (and intelligence, I'm imagine) than him, have been investigating ways to break the contracts for some time now and haven't had much success so far, so I think he'll be waiting a while yet.:rolleyes:

TheInquisitor

They cannot change your tracker unless you miss payments etc. If you hold up your side of the contract they can't touch you. I still to this day can't believe people sold their trackers. Absolute lunacy. The amount of money people on trackers are saving is ridiculous compared to fixed or variable rates.

DO NOT SELL YOUR TRACKERS!

careca11

some banks will offer to buy you out of your tracker,
I read somewhere that PTSB where offering €10,000 and they'd stick you on a variable rate


do not consider these offer's .
if it is one comfort I can take with regards the tracker is that the Banks are getting screwed for a change.

I've my tracker with BOSI/HALIFAX

D1stant

From this

http://peewa.com/what-would-happen-to-your-money-if-ireland-defaulted.php

'If you’re lucky enough to have a cheap tracker mortgage, some believe you might have to kiss goodbye to it if Ireland leaves the eurozone. “The interest rates on your mortgage would be set to the Irish punt,” said Mr O’Doherty. “That means your ECB tracker would disappear.”
Your tracker mortgage is a contract which you have with your bank, so whether or not you would lose it if Ireland left the eurozone remains to be seen. However, if the interest rates on mortgages were tied to the Irish punt after an Irish exit of the eurozone, interest rates could soar.'

dan_d

So it's a hypothetical outcome to a situation, based on another completely hypothetical situation. The second situation being one that would have a huge impact on Europe as a whole - it wouldn't be a neat little "Ireland takes back it's own currency and the EU continues as is, with it's current interest rate" situation.......

Super. If that's what the smug individual in question used as a source, he needs his head examined.

Conclusion OP, is that the individual in question is entitled to think what he likes, but a tracker mortgage is a contract and for the foreseeable future, is unlikely to change. And hang on it to with both hands.

D1stant

Well... I was just quoting the journalist

But I think if anything is smug its to assume that trackers cannot be touched. 2 months ago people would have said that about pension funds too.;

If we default then everything is up for grabs as per Argentina. The tracker will be down the priority list

dan_d

Oh yeah...that wasn't directed at yourself personally, sorry.

You're right though, trackers will be low priority if the Euro crumbles.

Godge

A contract is a contract.

Assume first that the Euro does not collapse. Then they cannot take away your tracker as long as you keep up your side of the deal - make regular payments. Look at the developers who tried to challenge NAMA. While they won some small battles over the procedure, basically they lost the war over two issues, firstly they had not kept up their side of the deal and made payments and secondly, there is a national crisis so the government/banks were entitled to do what they did. So no problem, your tracker cannot be taken away. Even if your bank collapses, the debt would be sold on and the new bank would have to honour the contract so long as you made payments.

If (or when as some suggest) the Euro collapses, then an interesting situation arises. There is a national crisis. Is your mortgage denominated in Euros or new Irish punts? Is your interest rate pegged to the ECB rate or the new Irish punt interest rate? It would seem to me that you can't have both. There is also the question of who decides, bank, government, ECB, EU, IMF or customer?

If it is the customer who decides, what decision? A mortgage in Irish punts linked to the Irish interest rate or a mortgage in Euros linked to the ECB rate. A higher principal with a potentially lower interest rate or a lower principal with a higher interest rate? I don't think they would be able to change your link - i.e. rate plus 1%, rate plus 0.6% etc. But the option you choose is likely to be influenced by a number of factors - which currency your income is denominated in, how much and how long left on your mortgage, your ability to make higher repayments etc. etc. The decision would be different for everyone.

Will the Irish government want to maintain parity with the Euro and bring in higher interest rates or will it devalue the currency to maintain competitiveness with slightly lower interest rates? Decisions, decisions.

Pure speculation on my part, but FWIW I am sticking with my tracker mortgage. The split in the Euro may not happen for some time or not at all. In the meantime, I am preparing for higher repayments one way or the other and cutting spending and saving as much as possible.

dan_d

+1

And what happens if you're like me and have a tracker with BOSI....who are now really just BOS?

That throws another spanner in the works....anyway suffice to say, I'll stick with what I've got and not worry about smug individuals.

Daegerty

I don't think I'll ever be completely sure what a tracker mortgage is