![Steve Wall of The Stunning: 'When it comes to [interest] rate increases there is nothing you can do and you just feel absolutely helpless'. Photograph: Alan Betson](https://www.irishtimes.com/resizer/v2/M2TDCJXPKNBYVFMUU73OMYCENU.JPG?auth=f6ed043319c3cf8a752c95b100b5492ded13e906d644090732d82f85b8a78d41&smart=true&width=1024&height=674)
A series of nine European Central Bank (ECB) rate increases since last July have been brewing up a financial storm for the Stunning’s Steve Wall, who said he has been left both bewildered and substantially poorer as a result of decisions being taken in the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters.
The musician and actor has not been immune to the cost of living crisis and admitted that he was “kind of dreading this winter” and the inflated energy bills his family would be facing.
“I think I got a bill for around €700 for two winter months even though we actually had the thermostat way down and were putting on the wool jumpers and getting used to having lower temperatures,” he told The Irish Times.
While he has at least been able to take some steps when it came to higher energy bills, he said that “when it comes to [interest] rate increases there is nothing you can do and you just feel absolutely helpless”.
Over the last year tracker rates have jumped by 4.25 per cent, adding €540 in interest per month to an average tracker mortgage of €250,000 with a 20-year term.
“I’d say my monthly repayments have gone up about €350 because of Christine Lagarde and the ECB,” Wall said. “It says it is fighting inflation, I can’t for the life of me understand what it is doing and I’m not spending money because I’m afraid to at this stage.”
Wall is not alone in feeling the financial pain of the rate hikes.
Robin Richardson lives in Co Galway and has seen her mortgage payments climb by around 25 per cent over the last 12 months. She said it was “just €300 that I don’t have” and admitted that she was “afraid I’m going to go into arrears again and I don’t know what to do about it”.
She recognised that she had benefited from low tracker rates for many years.
“I do feel like I had it good for so long that it’s hard to complain now because I know there’s plenty of people that are dealing with variable rates and fixed rates and they’re at the whims of the banks and they’ve been paying more than I have all along.”
Ms Richardson said her home is currently valued at around €450,000 and she owes about €150,000.
“I’m getting there but I will have to work until I’m 70 and I have to keep paying this mortgage until I’m 70,” she added. “And if the mortgage is going up again, I’m looking at €1,600 a month until I’m 70-years-old.”
Others who contacted The Irish Times said they had ended up paying more for their mortgages despite seeing the way the wind was blowing in the early phase of the ECB’s current cycle.
Simon Stoughair said he had a tracker with Ulster Bank and wanted to switch to a fixed rate late last year “because I could see what was coming”.
However, he said that because his bank was “leaving the Irish market [there was] no facility to fix there”.
“I would have needed a full application elsewhere.” He said he had been put off because of solicitor’s fees and other charges he feared he would face.
