Hi Mark
I have been talking through a similar issue with someone recently.
My advise is the same as Brendan's to a degree
- if you have a LTV <80% and you are in a position to switch mortgages, arrange a meeting with AIB and discuss the switching process with them.
- if you have a LTV <80% but feel you may not be in a position to switch, you need to determine what is stopping you from fixing and when/if you can get out of that situation. for example if you have high childcare costs, will these reduce at any stage. That said, I would still consider applying to the various banks to see if any will consider you for switching. The worst they can say is no
- Finally, if you are in negative equity or LTV>80%, the question then is more when you will be down at the LTV<80% to support the switching process. If this is >5 years for example, then I think you have to consider fixing for a longer period of time than 1 year. How long you decide to fix for depends on how 'trapped' you are by BOI
BoI clearly show from their rates they have no interest in working with variable customers and want everyone to fix. They offer 5 years fixed at <80%LTV at 3.45% and the same variable rate is 4.2%. They are the only bank (to my knowledge) not to reduce their variable rates in the last 15 months, when the introduced the 3.9% in January 2015.
I would also advise overpaying by the 10% as allowed on the fixed mortgage with BOI to reduce your LTV if that is the driver, if you can afford it at all. Even if its just the difference between the variable rate and the fixed rate, it will help you get out of BoI entrapment quicker. Most underestimate the benefits of overpaying.
If you want to give a little more detail on your current situation, I am sure a number here would be happy to advise