Advice re financial situation

tamara25

our mortgage that we had with Ptsb was sold to Pepper as we were paying interest only for a period of time. I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel a while back as I thought we would be able to switch to a new lender. There was no longer arrears showing up on our credit history as we went past the 5 year mark in May. My daughter had to open a bank a/c recently in AIB and I foolishly mentioned about switching my mortgage. Once they heard we were with pepper & that our mortgage was restructured in the past they didn’t want to know. My local credit union only does variable rates where my a/c is & we are looking for a fixed rate. I have used up all my savings too in the credit union as we have been so stuck for money. It is a huge struggle for the last while. It has got so bad that I can’t do a full food shop now at weekends. We’re paying an extra €400 on our mortgage monthly, it’s not sustainable. My daughter will be doing her 2nd year in college in September & we will probably have another sibling in college in 2025. My husband makes my blood boil as he is like a camel with his head stuck in the sand & doesn’t want to face up to how serious things are getting. He’s self employed so his work can be quite or busy at times and he doesn’t always get paid weekly. I think my only option now is to contact Pepper & go on lower payments which will result in us going back into arrears… please any advice would be really appreciated.

Henry Ford III

I'm sorry about your predicament.

It goes beyond the pages ability to help though.

Have you considered engaging the services of a P.I.P?

tamara25

thanks for your reply, what is a P.IP? How would it benefit us?

Jim2007

As @Henry Ford III has already said, this is way beyond what we can do on this page. You need proper financial advice on a one2one basis. I would advise you to contact your local Citizens Information Centre or Money Advice and Budget Service (MABS). Or send an email to the people on this page.

https://www.charteredaccountants.ie/about-us/who-we-work-with/CAVA/do-you-need-advice

Nigzcurran

To be honest MABS mean well but are fairly useless unless you literally just need help managing your bills. If your not actually earning enough to pay all your bills you need to speak to a P.I.P.

Nigzcurran

We are in the process of switching from pepper to our credit union. Currently on 8.6% and going to a 4.5% so a big saving. Why don't you want a variable rate?

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305621#Comment_122305621

I would disagree with that

They were very smart when i was dealing with creditors

Furze99

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305353#Comment_122305353

This: https://mabs.ie/blogs/what-is-the-personal-insolvency-practitioner-service/

You need to engage with this type of service but have your husband on board first! Being self employed is a complication as often no regular income is a problem from a lenders perspective. However that depends on the nature of his business and he may have solid contracts that are provable.

LastApacheInjun

I would go to the credit union for a year - variable rates are going to come down over the course of 2024 anyway.

Once you are on the credit union books for the year, try and see if you can move to a fixed rate with a retail Bank (if that's what you still want to do). The fixed rates will also likely have come down over the next 12 months, so overall I don't think you'd be much worse off.

Mrs OBumble

Start with MABS, they will refer you to a PIP if appropriate.

tamara25

We’re on a tracker already and I like the idea of a fixed rate as I know our repayments won’t change. Isn’t variable the same as a tracker? As mentioned already we are not in arrears at present but for the last 2-3 months we have been a week to two weeks late paying it. Will that go against us when trying to switch does anyone know?

Padre_Pio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305773#Comment_122305773

There is no guarantee of that.

Henry Ford III

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305353#Comment_122305353

A Personal Insolvency Practitioner. A good one might ease your financial situation.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306744#Comment_122306744

Variable and tracker are 2 very different things.

The definition of "I don't know what a tracker mortgage is"

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306744#Comment_122306744

Do not give up a tracker mortgage without careful consideration.

What is your tracker margin?

ECB rates have been cut once this year, and look like they will be cut again, so that will help.

I suggest you post your query on AAM.

apache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305895#Comment_122305895

I've been to MABS a while now and they referred me to a PIP advisor. Never knew what one was before last week. Have a load of online forms to fill in for them. PIP I think could be most helpful. There was no mention of payment for services. How do they get their fees? A bit worried about that.

Op this advice. MABS is your first port of call.

tamara25

we are currently paying an interest rate of 7.75. Before the interest rates went up a broker did say that we should hold onto our tracker.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305621#Comment_122305621

Really and you have a wide range of experience in dealing with them on different issues or just your own situation???

I have no experience of dealing with MABS as a client, but I have provided advice to people referred to us by MABS and I believe getting access to a number of professional accountants who volunteer their time to help people is worthwhile.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307050#Comment_122307050

It is free and in addition has a relationship with many of the professional financial bodies whose members volunteer their services.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307162#Comment_122307162

There's no such thing as free. (You knew that 😉 )

There is some government funding via various programmes. And there are sometimes fees deducted from settlements.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306744#Comment_122306744

You need to have a proper assessment of your situation in totality. Only after a comprehensive review can someone advise you if a fixed rate is even advisable. If you are not meeting your debts as they fall due, you are in arrears (although perhaps not technically) and you are very much struggling, so it may well be that some form insolvency declaration may be the best option at this stage. But you need to get proper professional advice on this, so start with MABS.

Nigzcurran

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307145#Comment_122307145

Just speaking from our own experience in the last 12 months. Seemed to just offer budgeting advice which we didn't need. Nice to deal with and I'm sure they are helpful to some people but not our situation.

Nigzcurran

And a PIP can be pretty expensive. Mabs can offer a voucher depending on your circumstances but we didn't get one and the PIP we spoke to was so expensive they actually offer payment plans

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307200#Comment_122307200

They saved me a fortune with specific advise on negotiating with creditors

Maybe it depends who you get

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307118#Comment_122307118

Are you sure you are (still) on a tracker? That rate implies a margin of 3.50% based on current ECB rate which is very high and probably changes the advice about being careful about giving it up. If you can get an improved rate elsewhere I wouldn’t factor in keeping a tracker.

OP you said your husband is self employed, and sticks his head in the sand for this stuff. Is he up to date with his taxes, income tax and VAT? It's worth sitting down with him to find out, in case this is worse than you know.

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307118#Comment_122307118

You are on an absolutely ridiculous crazy high 3.25% tracker.

There is no value whatsoever in this. Get away from it asap. Do not even think twice.

Ptsb had this utter ripoff tracker % that cost customers tens of thousands - even over the standard variable rate.

Credit Union or Bank of Ireland are the two that will consider you.

But dump that stupidly high rip off tracker now!

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307295#Comment_122307295

Ptsb had 3.25 rip off tracker and because people didn't understand that it was a rip off, ptsb profited hugely from the lack of understanding of how high the tracker was.

dam099

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307601#Comment_122307601

The OP's broker probably gave bad advice too telling them to hang onto the tracker before the rate increases unless Pepper pass on all rate increases in their variable. Many variable rates absorbed some of the increases (not familiar with Peppers rates but given their business model might not be true of them).

JVince

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307620#Comment_122307620

Pepper have to continue the tracker. But it's likely the 3.25% ptsb tracker that some people still have.

Even if ECB eventually drop to 2% (2+ years possibly) the op will STILL be paying one of the highest mortgage rates in the country.

Op needs to contact credit union or bank of Ireland first thing tomorrow - they will be saving hundreds every month in a few weeks

tamara25

I will contact credit union tomorrow & see what they say. Will bank of Ireland really consider us as AIB definitely weren’t interested in us….

drury..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307870#Comment_122307870

Get some financial advise before you start dealing with banks etc.

Unknownability

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307870#Comment_122307870

I don't understand why AIB wouldn't be interested in taking you on if there are no arrears and you can afford the mortgage.

I can't think of any reason why they wouldn't want to grow their loan book.

Did you formally apply?

tamara25

I mentioned it to one of the staff in AIB and she asked me 2 questions who were we with presently & why was our mortgage sold? The minute I mentioned pepper the expression on her face changed. She said a man over mortgages would give us a call. That was a few weeks ago & we got no phone call 🙄

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307870#Comment_122307870

In your first post, you said your husband is sticking his head in the sand and not dealing with the situation…. but you are doing the same thing! Now I'm speaking with over 35 years experience of doing this stuff: you have young people depending on you and you are in serious financial situation. Get proper financial advice because you can't afford to get this wrong.

whelan2

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122308059#Comment_122308059

Aib are terrible, you're better off away from them.

Henry Ford III

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122307050#Comment_122307050

PIP charges a fee, which you'll be expected to pay.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122313149#Comment_122313149

MABS has vouchers for some circumstances.

If there's a fee to the client, they will be advised before the service is provided.

Buddy Bubs

Banks have as much work as they can handle with Ulster bank pulling out, they're not pushing for business really let alone risky business. They've exceeded targets very quickly with the transfers from Ulster and others that have withdrawn.

apache

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122313491#Comment_122313491

Yes I have a voucher but I think it's only for one consultation. My understanding is any additional fees would come out at the end when/if an agreement is reached.