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Hi Paul, Yeah, we moved between LTV bands with AIB a few years ago and needed an updated valuation to change from the LTV over 80% band to a lower LTV band. (We were delighted to do so, as for quite a few years they wouldn't allow moves between LTV bands even if you had a valuation!)

I made my claim during the year in which I made the AVC contributions, so the refunds were made via my tax credit cert and my pay was adjusted. That's how I'd expect it to work in such circumstances. If I had made the claim for contributions in the previous tax year I'd expect I'd have gotten...

Ahh! I understand why now. Thanks for the explanation cloughy. Much appreciated.

Hi OrpSpring, I ran into a similar issue doing the same thing a few months ago. I was looking for tax relief on 3,000 I had put into an AVC and I thought they were only giving me 20% tax relief because my tax credits were only increased by 600. A few weeks later I realised that my Standard...

Thank you so much snowyb. Will look at the details of all of those plans. I wouldn't totally rule out leaving the VHI, but we live near a swiftcare clinic and we've found it very useful over the last few years. I'll look into what the alternatives to that are with the others too. Thanks again...

Hi, We've been on VHI Company plan level 2 excess for the last few years. Two adults and one child. Want to stay with VHI but am wondering if there's any other plan with the same cover (or better) that costs less - our renewal is over 3,800 for the three of us so it's a big expense. Renewal...

I should add that when we set this account up I had intended to have all our direct debits for utilities coming from this account. However a number of companies needed signed direct debit mandate forms to do this because it's a joint account - rather than just allowing an IBAN to be entered...

We use the EBS Money Manager account for this purpose (see the current account best buys thread). It is completely free. We don't mind that there's no contactless payments and that the online service is basic. It works perfectly and we've had no issues and no fees.

It seems likely that the stamps were of a class that does not count towards the contributory state pension. From the information at the link below, it seems like the stamps may have been class D and these wouldn't be taken into account for the state contributory pension. Of course this is...

Thanks a million for the updates on this all. Those links are really useful RedOnion. I'll be organising a valuation as soon as I can and moving to the 2.75% rate hopefully! Thanks

I did this in 2013 with BOI - no problem at all to get the refund. I dropped into my branch with the cheques and it was all very straightforward.

Just to be clear, the annual band should still apply even if you only worked in a job with PRD for a few weeks. Theoretically you could have earned 15,000 in the only one week of the year you worked in a PRD job and although you would have paid a high PRD deduction at the time, you would be...

While I am no expert, I have worked in a job where I paid PRD previously. I started half-way through the year and was paying it as though I had been there the whole year. However, the PRD is not pro-rated weekly, and so in the final pay check of the year I got a refund of the PRD which I had...

Note that if you are declined mortgage protection, the bank may not give you the mortgage. As far as I know, you need mortgage protection if you are buying a house to live in yourself (i.e. that is not an investment property). If you are declined mortgage protection, it might be possible to...

Unions often have offers through specific companies for car insurance. I checked the IMO website, and on the page below under "IMO Financial Services" one of the items listed is: "Discounted Car Insurance/home insurance". http://www.imo.ie/join-now//benefits-of-being-a-membe/ If you are not...

More information about FOI is here: http://foi.gov.ie/what-is-foi? By the way, I'm no expert on FOI, so I'm not even sure if it is applicable, but it could be worth a try.

The county council should have FOI officer. Assuming it is Cork County Council, look here: http://www.corkcoco.ie/co/web/Cork%20County%20Council/Departments/Corporate%20Affairs/Freedom%20of%20Information There seems to be an FOI form linked to from the above page. It might be handy to use...

Thanks TippGal. I will give them a ring on Monday. From looking at the HIA website, the only difference seems to be a 500 euro excess rather than my current 125 euro excess per private hospital episode and 100 per night rather than 50 per night for a private room. I suppose I was really...

Hello All, I am considering changing to Laya for my medical insurance after over 30 years with VHI. This is mostly in response to the "design your own plan" link which was posted on askaboutmoney recently. Before I take the jump, I just thought I'd ask those who have been with Laya a while if...

Actually I realised that I should have been reading the brochure & application form document linked to on the right of the page, so I can answer my own question. There do not seem to be any extra annual fees. The only "catch" I see is that the first 5,000 annually is not taken into account for...