Tracker mortgage holders may be considering their position as the ECB raises rates but they should not rush to step away from their current arrangement. Photograph: iStockI bought a house in 2006 at the height of the madness for €320,000 in Dublin.
With interest rates at a set margin above European Central Bank rates, tracker mortgages ensured those who held them enjoyed some of the cheapest home loan rates in the history of Irish banking — especially as ECB rates languished below 1 per cent for the past decade. That’s why, quite correctly, they seek various bits of information from callers to satisfy themselves they are whom they say they are.
Anyone who has recently contacted a bank knows that getting appointments for in person meetings is next to impossible given the pressure of people looking to move bank from the departing Ulster Bank and KBC, so why this seemed like a good idea to them is also beyond me. ECB rates have been as low as 0 per cent and as high as 4.75 per cent over the past 23 years. The market had been expecting ECB rates to settle somewhere around 2 per cent but with core inflation — inflation which strips out the effect of price rises in energy, food, alcohol and tobacco — now comfortably ahead of the ECB target of 2 per cent and not looking like moderating yet, the suspicion has to be that they might go higher at least a for a short period.
Leaving “green” to one side, Permanent TSB will offer 2.05 per cent for four years while Avant has a 2.25 per cent rate, also over four years.
IrishTimes A good piece of advice. Never give up your tracker Mortgage. Banks would love this. Then they have you at their mercy. I think it’s poor advice by some who recommend walking away from trackers
ad in collaboration with all the Irish banks?