Bank of Ireland increase differential on tracker rates

@John,
Interesting.

Bear in mind that the hidden motivation for the BOI is likely to be that they want those clients off their books.

You will see evidence of this in previous posts where BOI offered those customers £1000's worth of incentives to change lender.

They are likely to be using the clause for the sole purpose of reducing their books, which is unconnected with the reasons they are claiming.

ie We are invoking this special clause because "we are performing badly and therefore need to raise % rates" translates into "We want you off our books"

@Richard, @Maria
You have received sound legal observations above from Justin and you say “to hell with the law” and “I am quite confident that we can win this case at the stage of FOS…”

These remarks seem to me to be very naïve and also ungrateful to Justin and Mark who are putting in the effort here to give everyone the best chance of success in a proposed action against BOI.

I am not a B&W or BOI customer, so am currently not affected by this action (unless other banks follow suit). However, if I were affected I know I would want the best brains working for me and would take their advice seriously.

@WatcingWithInterest

Thank you for your comments.

I am a qualified member of the mortgage industry and although I have a BOI mortgage it is not affected.

However, I have submitted a complaint to the FOS for a slightly different reason and the results look positive so far.

As a result I offered some advice in this forum regarding the FOS procedure etc.

I don't quite understand your "These remarks seem to me to be very naïve".

That aside, I will see what developments come as a result of this forum and the kind help and input that has been offered therein.

@WatcingWithInterest

I seemed to have misunderstood who you were directing your comments at.

Please ignore my comments above.

Maria states " If BOI is in trouble, they will need to be bailed out by the taxpayer and not not by individual customers. The rate increase MUST BE REVERTED BACK TO 2.25 and compensation sent to all affected customers. The longer they leave it, the more expensive will be for BOI."

Which tax payers are these, Irish or British?

Haven;t tax payers suffered enough? Ideas like this will make the economic mess worse.

Either challenge in court, win or lose, remortgage elsewhere or sell. If banks or their customers have been reckless they should take the hit and not the taxpayer.

End this keep the profits and socialise the loses poppy cock.

Just a thought; would it be possible to address this issue to Which who could raise a SUPER COMPLAINT!?
I know BTL is unregulated and therefore Which may not be able to raise such a COMPLAINT.
Whilst this seems to be a parochial issue as far as BOI customers are concerned; i believe as has been alluded to that other mortgage lenders will be trying to find ways of doing what BOI.
As MX customer i am presently sitting; somewhat nervously hoping that this case goes to court so that a precedent is set.
It is in govt interest that mortgage agreements are trusted and they do not need their low interest rate policy to be ignored by lenders who then proceed to bankrupt LL and possibly even residential borrowers.
We cannot have a situation where mortgage lenders can change their interest rates at a whim unless it is in their terms and conditions.
NOT may mortgage borrowers would sign up to deals like that.
so even though I am not a BOI customer where to I contribute to enable a class action to be taken.
We are ultimately talking about potentially ALL mortgage borrowers here.
BOI has been the wake-up call.
They will be leading the charge but the rest of us need to be backing them up to ensure that never again can a lender make such supposed valueless conditions; which essentially seem to say we can do anything we like; when we like for how much we like;no matter what the description of the mortgage you have with us!!
CRAZY!!??
How can a business operate like that!?

@ WatchingwIthnterest
Just to let you know that everyone is very grateful for the work Justin and Mark but we must try to resolve this matter before reaching the Courts.
Maybe I am too naïve to think FOS is an independent body with impartial views because only 26% of cases are on favour of the consumer so far this financial year. ~This statistics on FOS website under Publications.
Maybe I am too naïve to have signed up for a 25 year tracker without reading the T & C, which might allowed the bank to terminate my original agreement and replace it with a variable.
Maybe I am too naïve to think that if a few thousand people lodge a complaint with the FOS and OFT, the FSA will do nothing on our favour. The OFT cannot help individual cases but if a few thousand people lodge a complaint , this matter should be a general consumer issue .
Maybe I am too naïve to expect to be treated fair with honesty and transparency in the financial world.
You are welcome to help us to strength this case, instead of watching.

@watching with interest and @simon

Completely agree with your points.

If LLs are to be crippled by an increase to standard rates, business model is wrong and you need to make alternative arrangements. You absolutely cannot expect tax payers to be bailing out LLs.

I just want to make another point. I am a LL with 6 mortgages, 3 of which are on a variable rates with HBOS and RBS of approx. 5%. There are a lot of landlords out there who are struggling and are not on tracker rate mortgages. Being a landlord is not for the faint hearted and it's a lot harder and expensive then I think the general public realise. I think there is very little sympathy for LLs and would expect there to be little support for LLs on this issue. To be honest, I think LLs who are not on tracker rates mortgages to also have little sympathy. They may be struggling on rates a lot higher and would be of the opinion that LLs on tracker rates have been very fortunate and by all means fight against the increase. BUT to expect them to contribute towards costs would be unacceptable and to expect any of the landlords associations to contribute would also be unacceptable. I am a member of the NLA and would not expect them to contribute.

I think Mark and Justin have done a great job and think we should take guidance from them.

@Denise2007

I have to agree with you about a lot of landlords suffering on higher rates and the lower than expected income returns on property. I have been in that position until very recently.

I don't want to encourage a self fulfilling prophecy but it seems that if the BOI decision goes unchallenged it could lead to further rises by them or other lenders.

In this case the BOI could claim that a 10% hike is fair under the circumstances.

This decision by the BOI will damage their reputation and more importantly damage the trust of borrowers.

Is BoI's defence that they need to do this because of the special situation regarding low interest rates / credit crunch effecting the whole market / most of the world?

If so this argument seems to fall down when their peers are offering cheapest motgages ever http://www.lovemoney.com/news/property-and-mortgages/mortgages/19992/hsbc-cheapest-twoyear-fixed-rate-mortgage-ever?source=1000550.

It looks to me like the special conditions / hardships that BoI are referring to are self imposed and not generic to all lenders ie they screwed up and got their sums wrong.