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A VICTIM OF the tracker mortgage scandal has expressed her frustration at her treatment by Bank of Ireland after it informed her she had been overcharged for years on her home loan.
It emerged last year that financial institutions in Ireland had charged thousands of customers denied tracker rates and charged higher interest rates than stipulated in their agreements. The Central Bank estimates almost 10,000 accounts have been impacted.
The woman, who does not wish to be named, told TheJournal.ie that she was first told of the overcharging on her account in December last year.
“In my case, it had been for a little over eight years. It was the usual story, I switched to a fixed rate in 2006 when interest rates were rising. When they came back down, I asked to go back on it, but I was denied the right to return to a tracker,” she explained.
The bank’s initial letter, seen by TheJournal.ie, states the customer had “been charged an incorrect rate of interest on your mortgage for a period of time”.
It adds that it will move her to the tracker rate set out in her mortgage documentation “to ensure that you do not experience any further detriment as a result of our failure”.
The letter also said the bank would write to update her in February 2017 to provide an update on:
The explanation of the exact circumstances that caused our failure in the first place
Any redress and compensation that may be due to you once finalised
Details of a payment towards the cost of independent professional advice that you may wish to seek
The independent appeals process that will be available to you.
The letter she received in February contained none of this information.
Instead, it stated that, “given the scale and complexity of this examination, your mortgage account remains under review and this work is still ongoing”.
The bank informed her that once her account had been fully reviewed, it would write to her with an update on the four points it referenced in its initial letter.
“I was eagerly awaiting that letter in February but there was nothing in it, it was just a fob-off. There has been nothing in the way of an update since. So, I thought I’d give them six months [from the first letter] and I rang last week looking for an update. There was no information, I was just completely stonewalled,” she said.
“They said it may not be until the end of this year now. I just got so mad, they just don’t seem to get the disruption it caused in people’s lives – there doesn’t seem to be an urgency to refund people’s own money.”
‘Struggling’
The woman has estimated she is owed as much as €15,000.
“It’s a load of money that I could have earmarked for other things,” she said. During the period of time she was overcharged, her mother was suffering from dementia and she had to pay for home care for two years.
“I’m a public sector worker, so I’m not badly paid, but I wouldn’t have spare cash to spend. From month-to-month I was genuinely struggling I had enough stress going on at that time without having to worry about my finances. And my story is nothing compared to what some people went through – some people lost their homes.”
She said she believes financial institutions who overcharged their customers need to be held to account, both by the Central Bank and by the country’s politicians.
“If I owed them that amount, or was six months in arrears, they’d be ringing me every day. When I ring them once in six months for an update, they treat me like an inconvenience,” she said.
“It’s frustrating when you consider how much money we put into those banks.”
In response to a query from TheJournal.ie about progress with its redress scheme, Bank of Ireland referred back to a statement in made in December last year.
This statement from six months ago stated the bank had identified 602 accounts where a right to, or the option of, a tracker rate of interest was not provided to the customer in accordance with their loan documentation.
It also identified 3,916 accounts on a tracker rate that was not the rate specified in their loan agreement. The bank offered its apologies to affected customers and committed to commencing with refunds in the first quarter of this year.
If you have been affected by the tracker mortgage scandal, we want to hear your story. Get in touch by sending a message to trackermortgage@thejournal.ie.
Don’t expect any help from Fine Gael, you can be sure of that.
@Tommy Browne: Why do the people always look to the government for help?
@Leroy: Possibly in the mistake belief that the government is there to serve the people??
@Kerry Blake: *mistaken
@Kerry Blake: why would the government get involved in a private matter? At the rate ye are going at you’ll be calling on the government to take action when u get a spot on ur nose, I can see the journal article now ” it’s a disgrace, I’ve had this spot 3 day now and the government have done nothing to help”
@sean: Isn’t there meant to be a so called financial regulator in this country? Last time I heard he was the government’s overseer of the financial sector.. so yeah..the government are responsible.
@sean: The Government sure got involved in the “private matter” of the banks going insolvent didn’t they?
@sean: Try reading the article before commenting about spots…..
@sean: private matter ? So why did government use our money to prop up these banks
@Ste: hardly your money mate. You got to drive on a few roads and got a free dental checkup once a year. Those on very high wages paying the bulk of taxes should have the highest say? Not so ironically so these folk would have vested interests in said banks.
@sean: clueless
@Shakka1244: I know, a socialist solution(government interference in private enterprise) to a capitalist problem, should have let them go to the wall as a proper capitalist system would have done,
anyway what has someone looking for a refund from a bank have to do with the government? I usually contact these institution myself when my business has issues, gets resolved soon enough with persistence,
@Alan Madden: clueless to what, elaborate? Or is that all u got
@Kerry Blake: read it, Thanks for the heads up!!
Now onto more pressing matters, I didn’t get a good sleep last night cos of my 2 year old is teething, what will the government do about this? It’s a disgrace I tell ya!!
@Tommy Browne: Different article, same narrative. Time after time, after time.
@Tommy Browne: There is nothing like a story about banks to bring out the constantly enraged and financially illiterate.
@lochinvar56: not boi, educate yourself a bit,
“She said she believes financial institutions who overcharged their customers need to be held to account, both by the Central Bank and by the country’s politicians.”
You will be waiting along time for that to happen. All part of the same cosy circle.
Get a mortgage expert to calculate what you are owed, get them to charge interest based on the European late payment directive (8%pa) from February (when they were to u back), issue the bank with the statement of what’s owed with a letter explaining their debt is increasing etc. Letter should state if full payment is not received you will be going to enforcement. Also don’t forget to add in costs. Take bull by the horns. This is a slam dunk!
@Finian Gardner: yes, and pick an expensive lawyer and also claim for these costs. They’ll (bank) have there cheque book and calculator out in a jiffy.
^their^ ;)
They will do everything to avoid paying for their mistake ‘ unlike the government making the people pay for their mistakes ,if you get my drift
They are taking way to long to address this issue
They brought in a regulation at the Central Bank after the ‘crash’ with guidelines for Banks on the frequency of contact by banks with debtors in order to control the aggressive and thuggish behavior that was very prevalent at the time.
Of course when the Bank are the debtor they’re not bothered one bit.
This is where the Politicians come into the equation, because we know that Govt can, if they want, put some pressure on at the Central Bank to move this forward.
They’re not bothered obviously.
Banks should be fined for every day they keep customers waiting
Maybe the Journal could ask Bank of Ireland why it is in the process of laying off loads of senior and middle management? I haven’t seen this in the media as yet.
Still robbing the public under fg governance.
I’m in the exact same position as this woman but with Ulster bank. My tracker mortgage was finally restored in march of this year, they said I would hear from them in May and nothing. I’m not surprised in any way as This is the same bank who when I started questioning my tracker mortgage two years ago “lost” the one document that proved that I wasn’t offered a tracker mortgage back after a fixed rate term in 2008. As the article mentioned I feel that they wouldn’t hesitate in sending me legal letters if I wasn’t paying my mortgage yet the central bank and the government allows banks to blatantly steal from customers and don’t bat an eyelid.
These issues will never get the attention that the poverty misery loving lefties have given to the “homeless”
Because these are hardworking people who made sacrifices to buy their home, scrimped and saved and used family planning, not expecting that state to house them, and are not going to go to the media as they are too busy working, commuting etc.
Love to be in this position. Unfortunately I just pay the the overpriced variable rate no mention of my plight. What is it now 3.5 / 4 % higher than the traker rate and 2/3% higher than the european average variable rate…..I feel sorry for people in this position all the same and hope they stick it to the banks only sick me and people on variable rate are due nothing but were too busy working our holes off to pay these massive interest rates to stand up
@mecanicalrat: You can have your account forensically audited. This will most likely show you have been overcharged from the beginning. We had ours done after being dragged to court on repo order. Turns out the bank broke the contract on the day the loan was drawn down. Between general overcharging to overcharging of interest rates, this illegal practice is across the board with all banks and has been going on for years. It’s not only tracker mortgage holders who have been swindled, it’s every mortgage. Money well spent on our audit.
I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is.
Ya I was one of them done by the banks to share me story contact me on noelreilly@gmail .com
BOI seems to be the main culprits in this fiasco, i know from experience in dealing with my morgage arrears. We will probably have to go to a higher court involveing solictors and barristers. Total waste of time and money but they dont give a fcuk because the fine gael w#nkers are on there side
Can’t bare the banks. I left BOI for AIB, mortgage switch an all!! One is as bad as the other just ripping everyone off. The only thing I’m thankful for is that I no longer pay quarterly bank fees! Everyone should do what is required just to not pay them those ridiculous fees every 3 months. Bloody banks have a lot to answer for but the Gov will do nothing for us the public suffering
Bank fraud cheats us all.
Gone true it all not settled yet ebs bank
Why not move those 15k towards her mortgage? I mean I think she should be happy with that.
@Krystian Brzezowski: Only if it suits the mortgage holder. It is her money and she should decide how it’s spent. Bank wrongfully obtained this money! They should hand it back in cash and promptly.
Is it right that someone with a young family looking for a mortgage should be second questioning the idea as it gives a sense of anxiety and depression to even think of the mortgage? This country makes me sick.
@YouHaveGotToBeJoking: Nobody is forcing anyone to take out a mortgage
@YouHaveGotToBeJoking: I’m sick of people making poor investment decisions and then blaming the banks and the government. The banks collapsed because these same people that couldn’t afford the loans they were taking out were unable to repay them
@ocJBI3Df: do you even understand what the tracker mortgage debacle is about? Maybe read up and educate yourself first on what topics are about before making a fool of yourself like a good man. The tracker mortgages had nothing to do with people unable to afford loans.
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