Has anyone actually switched banks to avail of a lower rate?

Deane said:
My understanding is that in the early years of the loan, repayments go disproporionately towards the interest element of the loan.
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A mortgage is like any other loan.

The interest is charged on the outstanding balance every day.

So if you owe €200,000 and the interest rate is 6%, you will be paying a little less than €12,000 in interest.

If you can get a loan at 5%, you will be saving around €2,000 in the first year, so it's worth your while changing.

Brendan
 
I have a €205k standard variable with AIB at 3.9% with 15 years to go. The mortgage protection life [on death] costs €113 per month and I pay income protection of around €40 per month net. The mortgage takes over half of our monthly income [post downturn pay cuts etc] so we are on the edge all the time for years now.We paid €340k for the house and have 10 years payments made. A valuation may put the house at around €230 k [the neighbour's house is for sale for €239,500].
My salary is paid into the AIB current account and I have a visa card which is always at around 3-4K be cause we need to use this to pay expenses that arise , medical ,property taxes , car insurance .tax etc
I asked the bank a while back to cut me some slack but they said "sorry etc".
They send me letters from time to time telling me how valuable a customer I am etc.
In the leaflet AIB sent with the June 0.25% reduction "Good News etc" the last sentence said "We'll be in touch with you about more possible changes we have planned for our mortgage customers later in 2015" This was before recent reports that the Government should not interfere with the rates etc.
I am against fixing due to job insecurities but currently AIB offer a 3.5% fixed rate for 1 year and I understand that if I fix and the want to get out of this fixed rate then I will not be penalised as long as the Standard Variable rate and fixed rates when getting out are greater than or equal to the current 3.5% rate that I would be paying.
Is there any better deal out there for people in our situation or should I just cave in and fix with AIB for 1 year ?
I was waiting until September/October to see if the bank drops again from pressure from Mr. Noonan etc but it seems that in this country the banks will do as they like as always.
The only bargaining power that I have with the bank is to switch to another and give them the profits from my mortgage.
 
el chapucero said:
The mortgage protection life [on death] costs €113 per month and I pay income protection of around €40 per month net.
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Minor point in the greater scheme of things but is that the best value mortgage protection life insurance that you can get? If you took it from the lender then probably not. You can shop around for this now and see if you can get replacement cover cheaper. Also are you sure that the income protection policy is worth it? Many of these policies only pay out it extremely limited circumstances and for limited periods of time. Check the cover and make sure that it's worth the €40 p.m. The ironic thing is that if you were in arrears or really struggling then AIB would be more likely to "cut you some slack". That's not a recommendation to get into that situation but it's an unfortunately conundrum of the market at the moment....
 
el chapucero said:
Is there any better deal out there for people in our situation or should I just cave in and fix with AIB for 1 year ?
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If I was in your shoes, I'd take the one year fixed rate and use the monthly savings to aggressively pay down your credit card debt - the interest on your CC must be killing you financially.

I also agree with Clubman - drop the income protection policy, it's really not worth it if you are carrying CC debt. It's also worth shopping around to see if you can get a better deal on your mortgage protection insurance and all utilities.
 
Missed the bit about the CC debt.
That is obviously significant in the overall context.
 
I'm currently in the middle of establishing viability on this at the moment, but I understand my current lender may be about to make changes, so am holding off to see what transpires.

However, reading on here is revelatory as to what i should be doing!! Many thanks all!
 
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