Banks almost destroyed my family, with Caitríona Redmond

Over 42,000 families were affected by the tracker mortgage
scandal, put under enormous pressure to pay money they never
really owed, but just one person has ever been held
responsible. 


Caitríona Redmond and her family spent 20 years fighting the bank
after their bank illegally withdrew the tracker rate. They were
put under immense pressure to pay thousands more than they owed,
at a time when her husband had lost his job and they had very
young children. 


The Redmonds went through seven separate procedures with the bank
which involved every penny they spent being scrutinised – they
were criticised for spending 70 euro a week on food for five
people.  


 


In today’s episode of the Deirdre O’Shaughnessy Podcast,
Caitríona describes the impact on the couple’s mental and
physical health.  


"There'd be some times when [John] would have walked out of the
house and I remember ringing one of his brothers saying, I don't
know where he is. Can you see where he is? I'm really worried
about him. And I wasn't... I wasn't really worried that he'd do
something, he was just so out of his mind with stress. You know,
he just needed to talk to somebody other than me.” 


Caitríona, who now writes a consumer column for the Irish
Examiner, began blogging about her recipes and budgeting, and was
contracted to write a cookbook – but the family budget didn’t
extend to buying ingredients for recipe testing.  


“I'd signed a contract to write a cookery book with Mercier and
we didn't have enough money for me to pay for the ingredients for
the recipe testing. And I rang Mam and I said, you know, I was
under pressure, I was under deadlines.  


“And Mam was like, right, I'm just gonna see what I have. And she
arrived up with two big bags of shopping. Like she literally just
like hoofed it all out and into the shopping bag.” 


 


We took the bank's calls in hospital as we watched our new baby
struggle to breathe 


 


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