Should the Bank have offered me a Tracker Mortgage?

Seamus26 · 10-02-2013 09:55PM #1

I took out a mortgage in 2005 with Bank of Ireland and was initially on a discounted variable rate for the first year.
At the end of the first year the bank wrote to me and offered me 7 different options including a variable rate, a number of fixed rates, and a Tracker rate (ECB+1.3%). I opted to go on a fixed rate for 3 years.
At the end of the three years (2009) the bank wrote to me and offered me 3 options – a variable rate, a 2 year fixed rate or a 3 year fixed rate. I opted to go for the variable rate.
My question is this: - Should I have been offered the tracker (ECB+1.3%) as well as the other 3 options when my fixed rate ended.
I ask this as I’ve read in the National Consumer Agency website the following

At the end of a fixed rate term, your lender will write to you and outline your options, which may include:
• moving to a standard variable rate
• fixing for another term, perhaps 1,3 or 5 years
• moving to a tracker rate - but only if this was offered to you at the time you signed up for the fixed rate. Look at the documentation your lender sent you when you signed up to a fixed rate, as this will detail what your interest rate will revert to after the fixed rate term ends. If a tracker mortgage was one of the options, then your lender must offer you the tracker rate, even if they are no longer widely available. If you do not have the documentation, contact your lender and ask for a copy.

If I had been offered the option of going on the tracker when my fixed rate term ended in 2009 I would certainly have opted for that option as the rate would have been well below the other options offered. Given that a tracker was offered to me at the time of signing up for the fixed rate, was the bank wrong not to offer me the tracker again at the end of my fixed rate?

Do I have any grounds now in going to the bank and asking to be put on this rate now?

uberwolf · 10-02-2013 09:58PM

certainly have nothing to lose, but it doesn't read to me like you'd be entitled to it. The tracker was an option at the end of year 1 and you decided not to go for it. The wording in bold is sufficiently ambiguous that it's worth chancing your arm

Scortho · 10-02-2013 10:37PM

Do you not have to have been on a tracker rate previously in order to go back on a tracker? Had he been on the tracker then went fixed, then he should have been offered an option to either go fixed variable or tracker. If he was on variable, then went fixed I was under the impression that the bank then didn't have to offer the tracker?

Maybe and I hope I'm wrong.

peteb2 · 11-02-2013 10:00AM

No. Just because they offered it beforehand, doesn't mean they have to offer it again. The product didnt exist in 2009 and you had never selected the option to be on a tracker.

So there is no entitlement to a tracker. No point in fooling yourself with this and attempting to take it any further.

goldenhoarde · 11-02-2013 10:12AM

Check out here and search on boards as there are people in similair situaions who got to go back to the trackers eventually.

Not sure if you are in the same boat as most of them started on tracker then went fixed! As you started on discounted then fixed and never it appears were on a tracker not sure they would need to offer you one in 2009

Best you can do is gather up all your docs and go through them and then maybe contact the bank and take it from there. But from my reading of a few threads before chistmas most if not all had to get a final letter from the bank and then off to the ombudsman!

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=153377

peteb2 · 11-02-2013 10:26AM

His situation is nothing like anyone's else's who got their tracker back. He was never on one to begin with. So there is no tracker to go back to.

Lets make this this clear.
1. You started on a variable rate
2. You were offered a choice a choice of rates that included a tracker
3. You made the conscious decision not to choose a tracker
4. When your fixed rate ended again they offered you the rates that were available in 2009. Trackers were not one of those

So you made a decision not to a tracker. Life's a bitch but you can't turn back the clock so move on with life and don't bother giving it any more thought.

Sorry for being harsh but no point in you having false hope. And anyone that says sure it only takes a letter to the bank and what's the loss? It's months of your time to get a response from the bank and then more months to get a response from the ombudsman saying no!

goldenhoarde · 12-02-2013 02:13PM

peteb2 wrote: »

His situation is nothing like anyone's else's who got their tracker back. He was never on one to begin with. So there is no tracker to go back to.

Lets make this this clear.
1. You started on a variable rate
2. You were offered a choice a choice of rates that included a tracker
3. You made the conscious decision not to choose a tracker
4. When your fixed rate ended again they offered you the rates that were available in 2009. Trackers were not one of those

So you made a decision not to a tracker. Life's a bitch but you can't turn back the clock so move on with life and don't bother giving it any more thought.

Sorry for being harsh but no point in you having false hope. And anyone that says sure it only takes a letter to the bank and what's the loss? It's months of your time to get a response from the bank and then more months to get a response from the ombudsman saying no!

peteb2 is right but i was just pointing out that checking all your docs etc needs to be done and if you find something that supports your case then by all means pursue it. If there nothing then ain't much point in going down the route of making a complaint

The_Morrigan · 12-02-2013 02:18PM

I got my mortgage in 2008 with BOI and at that point they had stopped providing the tracker mortgage as a product.

Sorry, OP, but by opting for the three year fixed rate in their second offering you lost out. The product was no longer available when they wrote to you again therefore you are not entitled to it now.

Should the Bank have offered me a Tracker Mortgage?

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