Return of the competitive tracker in the UK

ronaldo

Registered User
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I see that, in the UK, you can now get a tracker for life at 1% above base rate. The current rate is 1% + 0.25% = 1.25%.

[broken link removed]

I wonder will such deals return to the Irish market when the ECB rate starts to climb.
 
Except that isn't a tracker mortgage.

Lifetime trackers do still exist in the UK. The best deals at the moment are a shade under 2% over the base rate for low LTVs - but they come with fairly hefty arrangement fees.
 
Well it's not technically a tracker mortgage - but Coventry have always had lifetime rates which, in the past, tracked a Coventry Bank Base Rate - which mirrored the Bank of England base rate since it's introduction (I believe about 10 years or so).

The wording has changed to now show 'variable for term'. In reality, it's HIGHLY unlikely that Coventry will change this beyond mirroring the Bank of England base rate going forward. This is the general advice of a lot of mortgage brokers in the UK. In the highly unlikely event that Coventry pump rates up well in excess of BOE base rate, the product is flexible so you can move away (albeit, losing your fee).
 
You could make precisely the same points about Irish (non-tracker) variable rates prior to the financial crisis. In practice they moved in line with changes to the ECB refi rate. Until, of course, they didn't.

The reality is that if a loan document does not contain a contractual obligation to track an external reference rate, it's simply not a tracker mortgage.

There are actually less barriers to refinancing Irish variable rate mortgages because (1) there are no initial arrangement fees (lenders here actually offer customers cash incentives to switch); and (2) it is unlawful to charge early repayment fees.
 
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