That's the message about lowcost tracker loans which could soon be taken off the market or drastically changed.

You should have switched to a low cost tracker anyway because they'll knock thousands of euro off your mortgage bill.

Now there's an even more compelling reason: they offer built-in protection from rising interest rates as the world credit crunch bites.

And that's exactly why banks won't want to offer them in their current form for much longer.

One of the country's biggest brokers, Simply Mortgages, urges borrowers to act now before these "attractive offers disappear."

Managing director Peter Bastable says it may be only a "matter of weeks" before trackers in their current form are gone forever. "We are entering an entirely new era for the mortgage market, " he says.

Independent Mortgage Advisers' Federation spokesman Michael Dowling says "it would be a brave bank that would trigger a general round of interest rate increases for all customers (at this point)."

However, he doesn't rule it out and says it is only a matter of time before "tracker rates have to be reviewed."

Trackers could be withdrawn altogether, interest rates could be increased, or the terms of contracts altered so that they are linked to interbank money markets and not the ECB interest rate.

The pressure is on banks to do something already as the cost of borrowing among themselves has risen to 4.7pc because of a global credit squeeze.

Most banks get around 50pc of their funding on these wholesale money markets and have been forced to pay more for their money in recent months.

(Northern Rock relies even more on them and look what happened to it. ) Bank of Ireland's chief economist Dan McLoughlin has warned that banks may be forced to pass on these costs to customers with a round of mortgage hikes . . . outside of the normal cycle dictated by the ECB.

But tracker mortgages are linked to the ECB rate . . . not interbank rates. And the ECB is desperately trying to keep a lid on the crisis by keeping its interest rates steady at 4pc.

Hence tracker mortgages holders will be spared the pain of any round of rate hikes that are not triggered by the ECB.

So which tracker rates should you go for while you still can?

NIB, Bank of Scotland and AIB have the best tracker deals around at 4.5-4.6pc . . . if you have a lowish Loan-to-Value ratio (50pc60pc).

For those with a bit less equity in their homes, Bank of Scotland offers 4.7pc for LTVs of 50pc80pc.

That's still way cheaper than the pricey standard mortgages that a lot of home loan laggards are still paying through the nose for because they haven't got it together to switching.

But watch out for temporary "discount rates" that are designed to lure unwary borrowers with short term gain . . . and long term pain.

These offer a low rate for just 12 months after which the rate jumps.

Don't be afraid to look into switching lenders if you have to in order to get the best rate.

Many of the cheaper lenders will even pay part or all of your legal fees in return for bringing your business to them.

Fixed rates offer another way to beat the credit crisis. However, these are generally pricier than ordinary loans let alone trackers.

AIB's new three year loan of 4.9pc is the cheapest fixed deal, but it's still a 0.4pc dearer than the cheapest tracker.

And in the long run, interest rates are expected to fall back again when normal service resumes on the money markets, which would make it dearer still.

You can check all these and other mortgage rates on www. providence. ie.

TOP TRACKER RATES

NIB Loan-To-Value (LTV) <=50% 4.50% NIB LTV <=60% 4.52% Bank of Scotland LTV <=50% 4.55% AIB Tracker LTV <=50% 4.6% Bank of Scotland LTV <=50%-80% 4.7% Source: www. providence. ie