AIB Appeal to Panel successful. Got tracker rate back from when I tried to break out of fixed rate

Miraculous

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Hi,
Does anyone know or have any opinion on whether this would be a valid appeal?

Took out a tracker with AIB in 2004, fixed in 2007 for 10 years (after a helpful call telling us rates were going up). They refused to put us back on the tracker in 2017 but have just put us back on the correct rate.

Obviously after fixing we knew we had made a big mistake. I looked myself at breaking out several times and I have a letter from 2014, at our request, giving us the break out cost and a sample of rates to choose from.
The break out cost at that time was 4000 which a family member offered to loan us, but as they were only offering rates close to our own we would have saved less than 100 per month so we decided against it.
Now, if they had offered us our tracker rate I believe we would have definitely paid the break out cost as we would have significantly saved each month (5.19% to 0.95%).
Are they taking things like this into consideration? Any opinions gratefully received.
Thanks
 
You have not heard from AIB.

Wait until you get the redress letter then decide what you are appealing.

They might give you redress from the time you first asked for a break-out quote and they incorrectly told you your options.

What rate did you fix at?

The redress might not be a lot if they do go back to that time. The earlier it was, the bigger the break-fee which would wipe out a lot of your tracker savings.

Brendan
 
You have not heard from AIB.

Wait until you get the redress letter then decide what you are appealing.

They might give you redress from the time you first asked for a break-out quote and they incorrectly told you your options.

What rate did you fix at?

The redress might not be a lot if they do go back to that time. The earlier it was, the bigger the break-fee which would wipe out a lot of your tracker savings.

Brendan

We fixed at 5.19%. Mortgage contract states 0.95% above ECB rates.
The whole situation has caused a lot of stress. Everyone is in the same boat I know. I just feel like had we been given the chance to go back to tracker rate we would have paid the break out fee. I know this is easy to say in hindsight which is why I wanted opinions. At least I have a letter to prove we did enquire.
 
@Miraculous - we have a similar story in that we fixed in 2007 but for 5 years. In 2009 we requested the breakout costs and like you we wouldn't have worked out too much better off on the variable considering the size of the breakout fee but had it been back to tracker, that would have been a different story. After doing some rough calculations, we'd probably have been 2 - 3k better off if we'd paid the breakout and went back on tracker. We've not received our letter yet either so not sure what the story is yet.
 
@marchflowers I'm going to see what's they say in the letter. Haven't done any calculations yet. I don't want them to get away with anything. Even in April 2017 when we came off our fixed rate they still refused to give us the tracker back until now.
 
Hi all, my appeal process was the same apart from no need to phone BDO, I think we just had 20 days to reply.
We received a letter from BDO saying AIB had responded and we could choose to respond if we wanted. It added time to the process but I always responded. They weren't particularly long responses, just reiterating my point and discrediting AIB's. Went back and forth a few times, not too many though.
I felt it necessary to reply as AIB's replies were very convincing reading, and I wasn't letting them twist things and have the last word. We accepted their decision in our favour a couple of weeks ago.
 
Hi all, my appeal process was the same apart from no need to phone BDO, I think we just had 20 days to reply.
We received a letter from BDO saying AIB had responded and we could choose to respond if we wanted. It added time to the process but I always responded. They weren't particularly long responses, just reiterating my point and discrediting AIB's. Went back and forth a few times, not too many though.
I felt it necessary to reply as AIB's replies were very convincing reading, and I wasn't letting them twist things and have the last word. We accepted their decision in our favour a couple of weeks ago.

Congrats to you @Miraculous ..... i assume your argument was different to the prevailing rate argument being put forward by the 6000 cohort?
 
Yes @verywhys different argument. We did get our correct tracker rate back (after a fight), but I argued they should have offered us it back when we tried to break out of our fixed rate a few years ago.
Some of the responses the bank sent through BDO made me question whether I was right on first glance. They word things very well and switch it back to how good they were giving the tracker back at the end of fixed term etc. Ultimately they failed to look after our interests, and I refocused my replies back to the points they were trying to avoid.
 
Just checked...BDO received our form 2nd October. Panel decision 13th May. We had 2 responses from the bank, and the 2 responses from me.
On the letter from BDO in January with AIB's second response, it reads "Please note the chairperson of the tracker panel retains sole discretion as to whether or not to permit the delivery of a further written submission from you and/or the Bank". So it looks like they don't allow endless responses.
 
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