Ulster Bank's proposal to deal with offset mortgages

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Hi. I'm totally lost about all of this. Can anyone advise please. I didn't take advantage of my off set account. Instead i just overpaid my mortgage from day one. I've overpaid to date about 45,000. I owe about 56,000 now. I'd due to get a lump sum in Jan which I was going to off set it, but now don't have the choice . So I was thinking of putting it along with the 5,000 offered off my mortgage which should bring it down to 40,000. Then borrow 40,000 as an ordinary loan and pay off my mortgage with UB.... Hope this makes sense. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
 
Hi Kellyor. When all the dust settles people will still be left with an attractive tracker mortgage here. With rates predicted to fall starting 1st or 2nd quarter next year. No one knows for sure. But I think an ordinary loan would cost you more.

You could look at getting another fixed rate mortgage to have certainty over your repayments. If you could find a good rate but I don't think a bank will offer for under 50k.

I think what would save you most is to put the payment off the mortgage ..... Or pocket the 5k n carry on exactly as you have been(since you have not used the offset)

Ring the other banks, see what rates they offer 9n how much.
 
Sorry one thing I forgot to mention is the pay and redraw feature that is staying with this mortgage... You can pay down this mortgage to 40K without loosing complete access to that 15/16K should you need it again. That would save you interest on 15K every year going forward.
 
Keninf said:
Hi Kellyor. When all the dust settles people will still be left with an attractive tracker mortgage here. With rates predicted to fall starting 1st or 2nd quarter next year. No one knows for sure. But I think an ordinary loan would cost you more.

You could look at getting another fixed rate mortgage to have certainty over your repayments. If you could find a good rate but I don't think a bank will offer for under 50k.

I think what would save you most is to put the payment off the mortgage ..... Or pocket the 5k n carry on exactly as you have been(since you have not used the offset)

Ring the other banks, see what rates they offer 9n how much.
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Hi. Thanks very much for that. Yea, I think I'll just keep putting as much as I can off for now and stick with UB, but as you said do my homework about other banks too. I was looking and unless it's a big amount of money or years, other banks don't really want to take me on. I'm like a mortgage no one wants cos they won't make alot of money off me lol. Well all going to plan 3 years and I'm done..... Thanks again
 
Kellyor -
Kellyor said:
Hi. I'm totally lost about all of this. Can anyone advise please. I didn't take advantage of my off set account. Instead i just overpaid my mortgage from day one. I've overpaid to date about 45,000. I owe about 56,000 now. I'd due to get a lump sum in Jan which I was going to off set it, but now don't have the choice . So I was thinking of putting it along with the 5,000 offered off my mortgage which should bring it down to 40,000. Then borrow 40,000 as an ordinary loan and pay off my mortgage with UB.... Hope this makes sense. Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance
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Hi Kellyor
This is an example of how the formula isn't really fair for everyone. You've offset by paying down the mortgage rather than using the other accounts ATTACHED to the mortgage. Both achieve the same results.
You could easily have planned to withdraw the available facility back into your Offset current or savings accounts and used that to save interest over the remaining term of your mortgage.
Might be worth checking this with UB. You'd probably be saving a lot more in interest than the ex gratia amount they've arrived at.
 
It's an example of using the offset badly I'm afraid, it's using it more like the now 'pay and redraw' facility they are talking about, general advice would have been to use the attached accounts for any overpayments.

I would think the numbers that used it by making payment directly into the mortgage are miniscule, it's not how it was intended really so not sure it's not fair as such as there be so few cases of this.

Did you officially reduce term or repayments after doing these overpayments? Not that it matters at this stage and hindsight is no good but I would have advised transferring back out the amount in credit to offset accounts especially since closure announcement.
 
Honestly I didn't realise what type of mortgage I was getting. I went with what UB was offering at the time....I just wanted to pay it off as quickly as I could. I even closed my account when UB said originally they were leaving and a few weeks later I got a phone call from them to say that I didn't have to close my account as it was an offset mortgage so they re opened it and sent me out a new card....
The term has never changed... I believe my mortgage is to be finished by 2032 and the letters I received would say, you have decrease this by x amount of years..... I think overall I'm happy enough, with money I'm receiving in Jan and their offer of 5000, I'll just put it all off it. I don't have children or partner to worry about, so thats why I want it paid off as quick as I can
 
Well it's good you are happy with it anyway, you used it just like an ordinary mortgage so not losing anything as such so 5k ain't bad little bonus :)
 
I got my letter today. As expected, my offer was for €5250 as I have never made much use of the offset facility.

Although I haven't used the offset facility in the past, I am now in a position to offset most of the outstanding balance (however, I don't want to just pay it down - another story!). Is there any merit to arguing this point with a view to securing a higher offer? Can anyone tell me how exactly, the offset facility differs from the pay and redraw facility? I'm aware that I could use this to save future interest but how does it differ from the offset and does it put me at a disadvantage doing it this way e.g, enough of a disadvantage to justify a higher payment? My mortgage has about 11 years left to run and a balance of approx. 150k

What is notable from the letter is this paragraph:

"If you have more questions in relation to your goodwill payment or believe you have personal circumstances (e.g., a pending inheritance or investment maturity), that may impact the future benefit you may have had from offsetting, you can call us on......."

This would seem to suggest the offer is open to discussion. Anybody have any thoughts on it?
 
I'd say you'd be better off contacting them, I seem to recall reading somewhere but I have read so much I don't recall whether it was an accurate answer or just more speculation! Either way what I recall was that if you have a lump sum coming it has to be lodged before a certain date, possibly the May deadline, not sure if that means they would recalculate then based on that?

As for the pay and redraw ask them does the lump sum lodged increase the 'facility' amount that you can draw down. If it does then it's just a more awkward way of operating an offset compared to the ease of the existing one where you can take the money in and out on a click of a mouse. Redrawing from the actual mortgage is most likely going to require a written request to HO of whoever then gets the mortgages and a bit of a delay before funds released. Hardly the end of the world just not as convenient.
 
Monbretia said:
I'd say you'd be better off contacting them, I seem to recall reading somewhere but I have read so much I don't recall whether it was an accurate answer or just more speculation! Either way what I recall was that if you have a lump sum coming it has to be lodged before a certain date, possibly the May deadline, not sure if that means they would recalculate then based on that?

As for the pay and redraw ask them does the lump sum lodged increase the 'facility' amount that you can draw down. If it does then it's just a more awkward way of operating an offset compared to the ease of the existing one where you can take the money in and out on a click of a mouse. Redrawing from the actual mortgage is most likely going to require a written request to HO of whoever then gets the mortgages and a bit of a delay before funds released. Hardly the end of the world just not as convenient.
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Thank you for your reply. I plan on contacting them later in the week so I'll put those questions to them and let you know how I get on.

Thanks again for your input, much appreciated
 
Anyone else still waiting on this letter at this stage? Can't believe the last batch went Thursday and I still haven't got it. Is this normal? I'm in the Midlands.
 
Hi all, are there any people here with an offset flexible mortgage in arrears? I received my letter today but will definitely be challenging it.

Also, somebody made the point that we have been hanging around for over a year wondering what's going to be done about these mortgages and now all of a sudden, at the busiest time of the year we are being asked to make up our minds by Jan 10th 2024. A little suspicious I think and typical of UB and their cunning antics.

Has anybody set up a group to challenge them as I for one would like to be involved. I know of a few others also challenging this....

TIA
 
Hi all,
I called UB today to query the details and I lodged a complaint which they took details and said I would get a response.

Just to be clear, the pay and redraw facility is no different to what is available at this moment. This facility means that if your minimum payment to cover capital and interest is 1000 euro and you pay 1500 euro, they log the overpayment of 500 euro each time and make this a facility whereby you can apply to borrow this money as a loan but this then increases you mortgage. This facility is there right now despite the latest UB info seeming to dress this up as something to address the removal of the offset. It doesn't!!!!
 
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