changing mortgage - confused!!

been reading the stickies on changing mortgages as its something i've been wondering about it for a while now. i'm kinda confused as i thought that if you took out a mortgage, with say aib, that you had to stick with them for the term of the mortgage??? but reading other threads this isn't the case apparently so can you just change your mortgage whenever or would you want to be paying alot and get a better rate somewhere else before changing??? i assume though that if you fecked off from your mortgage provider they wouldn't be too fast in taking you back or is this not the case?!?
cheers in advance!

It depends on the remaining LTV & whether the new bank want you!

Banks don't take it personally that you leave them, although they won't guarantee you the same rate you were on if you come back to them.

If you're in full-time employment, your outstanding mortgage is €50,000 and your house is worth €150,000 I doubt you'd have a problem switching.

If you just lost your job and are €50,000 in negative equity you haven't a hope in hell of changing your mortgage provider.

The average duration of a mortgage is about 7 years.

This is due to people switching to a different lender, trading up, etc.


Note that switching lenders was much more common before the banking crisis.

thanks for the replies!

we're only 2 years into the mortgage and on a variable rate with aib (which the sunday times said to change to a 2 year fixed so checking that out). don't think the house has gone down in value much and myself and the missus have steady jobs so might check around!

If you bought your house 2 years ago there's a very good chance that it's in negative equity now.

you might also find they expect a certain Loan to value ratio e.g. 80%, rather than the 92% they give first time buyers.