Building better financial futures in Ireland

CUSTOMER UPDATE OCTOBER 2024 

Interest rate changes affecting certain ECB tracker customers and variable rate customers

Mars Capital would like to inform customers of some changes in interest rates for a small number of its customers. These changes will affect a combined total of 1,175 accounts (out of a total of approximately 70,000 accounts) serviced by Mars Capital.

ECB tracker customers

Mars Capital has identified an error which resulted in interest rate changes on 382 customers’ ECB tracker loans not being applied to those ECB tracker loans since November 2022.  This has meant affected ECB tracker loan customers have been charged a lower rate of interest than they should have been during the period of this error. Mars Capital apologises for this error and will apply the corrected interest rate to these ECB tracker loans in the future. To reflect interest rate changes during this period, as required by the terms of the ECB tracker loans, this will result in an increase in interest rates for these customers in respect of these ECB tracker loans.

Mars Capital will not be seeking to recoup any of the interest which was not charged during the period of the error from ECB tracker loan customers, and the corrected interest rate will only apply on a going forward basis.

Variable rate customers

To date, Mars Capital has not increased the variable rates consistently to 793 customers that had entered into specific types of low fixed rate or positive equity arrangements with a former owner of their loans. In respect of these variable rate customers, following the European Central Bank's increases and decreases in interest rates over the past two years, Mars Capital now intends to transition these customers to the current applicable variable rate to bring the rates applicable to these customers in line with the rates of similar customers on going forward (not a retrospective) basis – see our variable rate policy statement here. The transition to the current applicable variable rate will result in an increase in interest rates for these customers.

The revised interest rates will be applied to all of the above customers from December 2024, but no customer will be asked to make a payment in respect of the revised interest rate until January 2025. Mars Capital will write to all impacted customers in the next few days to notify them of the relevant revision to the interest rate and the range of support options available to them.

Next steps

Treating customers fairly is of paramount importance to Mars Capital and our priority is to always engage with our customers. We are therefore offering all impacted customers an affordability review to assess what alternative repayment options are available to them from the firm’s suite of forbearance options.

Mars remains committed to helping our customers who are concerned about their mortgage repayments. Any customers who are concerned by any issue referred to in this notice should contact our dedicated team (available Monday to Friday between 9am and 5:30pm) directly on 1800 816 121. Our suitably qualified and experienced advisors will provide on-going support to our customers.

Details for any customers who wish to make a complaint in regards to any issue referred to in this notice can be found in our direct correspondence or here.

ENDS