Tracker Mortgage Decision Reference 2025-0200

• Case Outcome: Rejected
• Year: 2025
• Reference: 2025-0200
• Date: 18 December 2025
• Subject Matter: Tracker Mortgage
• Finantial Sector: Banking
• Conducts Complained Of: Failure to offer a tracker rate at point of sale,Failure to offer a tracker rate throughout the life of the mortgage

Decision Ref:

2025-0200

Sector:

Banking

Product / Service:

Tracker Mortgage

Conduct(s) complained of:

Failure to offer a tracker rate at point of sale

Failure to offer a tracker rate throughout the life of

the mortgage

Outcome:

Rejected

LEGALLY BINDING DECISION OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES AND PENSIONS OMBUDSMAN

Background

This complaint relates to a mortgage loan account held by the Complainants with the

Provider. The mortgage loan account that is the subject of this complaint was secured on

the Complainants’ private dwelling house.

The Mortgage Loan Offer Letter dated 27 September 2005 provided for a loan amount of

€253,000.00 and the term of the loan was 35 years.

Mortgage loan account ending 6005 was redeemed on 27 February 2020.

The Complainants Case

The Complainants state that the Provider issued them with a Mortgage Loan Offer Letter

dated 27 September 2005 offering them only a fixed rate mortgage at a rate of 2.75% for

the first 12 months followed by a variable rate of 3.6% for the remaining 408 months of

their loan.

The Complainants submit that the Provider’s mortgage advisor acted unfairly by not giving

them a full list of all available mortgage rates and by not giving them any information

about the tracker mortgage rate when they applied for their mortgage loan. The

- 2 -

/Cont’d…

Complainants assert that as a result they “lost the opportunity to choose the cheapest

mortgage rate in 2005”.

The Complainants submit that they were not offered a tracker interest rate at any stage

during the term of the loan. The Complainants state that “this is very Unfair and caused us

a big loss over the 15 years of our mortgage loan.” The Complainants indicate that they

had “difficulties” repaying a high mortgage from 2005 to 2020. The Complainants state

that they lost their home in 2020 because they had “no funds to pay the high mortgage for

the next 20 years.” The Complainants assert that the Provider “ripped us off”. The

Complainants submit that they “lost at least €100,000 in total for 35 years of our mortgage

term” and that the Provider “still keeps us as Bad Debtors since 2013” despite the balance

having been fully paid. The Complainants are of the view that this is “very Unfair and

Disappointing”.

The Complainants outline that they “strongly disagree” with the Provider’s submission that

its mortgage advisor spoke with them about the full range of available interest rate

options. The Complainants state that the Provider’s representative “forced us to sign up

for the fixed rate straight away”. The Complainants state that the mortgage advisor

informed them that “the best mortgage interest rate was only the fixed rate and she was

telling us about her own experience how she had to fixed her own mortgage because the

variable rate on her mortgage raised up to 10%.” The Complainants indicate that English is

not their first language and that it was “very easy [for the Provider] to pursue us to sign up

for the fixed rate because we did not hear about the tracker interest rate at all before as

the advisor had never mentioned.” The Complainants indicate that the Provider’s mortgage

advisor ticked the highest interest rate herself “without the clear explanation” and that

they signed the document without understanding the options.

The Complainants state that when their fixed interest rate expired in 2006, the Provider’s

mortgage advisor informed them that they could only choose between a variable interest

rate or a further fixed interest rate. The Complainants state that the Provider’s

representative “forced us to fix our mortgage again to 5 years.”

The Complainants submit that they only heard about the tracker mortgage rate in 2022

when all the media and newspapers were telling people how the Provider “did wrong and

cheat on their customers”.

The Complainants are seeking:

a) a “lump sum” to compensate them for not being provided with the full range of

interest rates to choose from, to include tracker interest rates; and