EBS Life choice loan? Any advice?

D

D8Lady

Registered User
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Hi there,
Has anyone had any experience of EBS Life choice loans?
Am thinking of doing some work on the house before SSIA
matures & while I can still find a builder.

Current Mortgage: 156K
House value: 380K
Salary: 2,735 p.m net
Mort & top-up would be 1108 pm.
But I'd also then be able to rent out 2 rooms for 700 for college year.

Would also like to pay off a personal loan that is 365 p.m.

They have asked for builders quotes & salary slips of last few months.
Can anyone tell me if they look for anything else?
I have any overdraft that gets paid off every month but am sure looks bad
if they were to look at bank statements.

Just want to make sure I've everything sorted. Have never asked for top-up before.
 
D8Lady said:
Hi there,
Has anyone had any experience of EBS Life choice loans?
Am thinking of doing some work on the house before SSIA
matures & while I can still find a builder.

Current Mortgage: 156K
House value: 380K
Salary: 2,735 p.m net
Mort & top-up would be 1108 pm.
Click to expand...
[broken link removed] seem to be at higher than mortgage rates. Why would you not top up the mortgage at mortgage rates and ideally schedule the topup over a a few years (e.g. the same term as an equivalent Life Choice loan) rather than spreading it over the remaining term? That was you could save even more.
But I'd also then be able to rent out 2 rooms for 700 for college year.
Click to expand...
€700 p.m. is €8,400 p.a. which is above the owner occupier tax exemption limit of €7,620 so the full amount would be assessable for tax, you would be subject to a clawback of if the house was rented out within five years of purchase as an owner occupier and some of the eventual resale gain would be assessable for capital gains tax.
I have any overdraft that gets paid off every month but am sure looks bad if they were to look at bank statements.
Click to expand...
Does this incur any charges or interest? An overdraft is not a good way of obtaining credit at the best of times.
 
This is the first I've heard of this product so what follows is a bit off the cuff.

I followed ClubMan's link and I get the impression that this product is aimed at either

1) borrowers who do not have enough equity in their PPR to re-mortgage or just top-up to finance their desired spending. The rates are higher (not massively but higher nonetheless) than mortgage rates so why would you pay them if you could re-mortgage or get a top-up on your existing one?

or

2) people who want to borrow so little extra that the transactions costs (solicitor's and surveyor's fees) involved in a re-mortgage or top-up would more than cancel out the benefit of the lower rate on a mortgage than on this product.

If a borrower falls into either of these categories then this looks like quite a good product at first glance - provided, of course, the borrower can afford the repayments.
 
Thanks for the replies, ClubMan & Oysterman
The 700 p.m rent-a-room would only be for Oct - Jun, so it would be over 9 months, a total of €6300. So it would be below the €7,620 limit.

I have had a number of contract jobs over the past while so I thought it might not be seen to be reliable, steady job if I were to remortgage. In 5 years have never missed a payment. The overdraft is slowly coming down. Should be gone in Sept.

I intend paying back a large chunk of it with my SSIA, so didn't want the hassle of legal fees etc
 
D8Lady said:
I intend paying back a large chunk of it with my SSIA, so didn't want the hassle of legal fees etc
Click to expand...
That's precisely why this looks like a good product for many people, including yourself.
 
One slight amendment to what I said earlier.....it appears that it will in fact be necessary for the borrower taking out a LifeChoice loan to pay a surveyor ([broken link removed]). Can't see anything about needing to use a solicitor - but if there is then the advantages of the product I've been going on about will have gone up in a puff of smoke and the borrower would be better to top-up and get the lower mortgage rate than that offered by this product.
 
Thanks guys.
The survey is only required if the borrowing is more than 75% of the current market value. Mine would still be less than 50%
 
But how will they calculate the LTV without a professional valuation? Self-certification?
 
Hi Oysterman,
They just ask for approx. current market value of the house. Am not sure how this normally works.

D8L
 
D8Lady said:
Hi Oysterman,
They just ask for approx. current market value of the house.
Click to expand...
"What's that you said?.....What's my house worth?.....Oh yep, 2 million big ones....Now when can I collect that cheque?......How much do I want, is that what you said?.....A million should do me for starters....."
 
A little update.....

Was approved for the Lifechoice loan without any hassle from EBS last week.

It just took a while for me to get a quote. I had arranged a viewing time with 5 builders. 1 turned up. Dear god, what am I letting myself in for if it took so long just to get to that point !

I also have the 2 students in the house - working out quite nicely.

Now, on to phase 2.....
 
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