Homeowners hit as Bank of Ireland to increase mortgage rates again

The bank said the mortgage move follows cumulative increases of 3.5 perentage points in European Central Bank rates since July last year.

All fixed rates for new customers, and existing customers who want to lock in to a new fixed rate, are to go up by 0.5 percentage points.

This includes customers who are coming to the end of their fixed rate period and are seeking to re-fix their mortgage, and tracker rate or variable rate customers who wish to move to a fixed rate.

Variable rates and tracker rates remain unchanged.

Applicants who already have a credit approval and who draw down the mortgage by May 5 can still avail of the previous fixed rates.

In January Bank of Ireland increased its interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages by 0.75 percentage point rise across its range of fixed-rate loans offered to new borrowers, while the fixed rates available to existing mortgage customers went up by 0.5 percentage points.

In November the bank increased the interest on its fixed-rate mortgages for new customers.

Rates on fixeds rose by 0.25 percentage points.

Bank of Ireland said that for savers, it is launching a new one-year term deposit account for business customers at 0.50pc, capped at €250,000.

There has been criticism of banks for failing to pass on more deposit rate rises to household savers now that the ECB that hiked its rates six times.

The mortgage rate changes are effective from today, while the new deposit account will be available from April 18.