Hi All,
Long time lurker and first time poster here. First off the site is just great and I have gotten much invaluable information from it over the years.
Now to business so to speak. We are approaching 5 years into our 20 year mortgage with Ulster Bank this September. We got the Mortgage in 2011 during the banking "bad" times and when there was quite a bit of movement in rates etc. For peace of mind I locked us in to a five year fixed with Ulster Bank. The mortgage has performed fine and all payments have been made on time etc. Based on today's rates however the rate we are on is massive 5.25%!! I was chatting with an Ulster Bank operative on the phone lately and even they were very surprised by the rate, they literally were amazed by it which kind of shocked me.
This brings me to the meat of my questions. We will be finished the 5.25% fixed rate in Sept 2018. Ulster Bank in March began to market for the lowest fixed rate on the market of 2.6% which we should be entitled to since we also qualify for their loyalty rates since our wages and accounts are with them also. I am really hoping to get that 2.6% rate which by my calculations will reduce the monthly payments by over €200.
I am also considering taking a 6 month mortgage holiday. I have two other small pieces of debt, one loan and one credit card which were precipitated by a period of unforeseen emergency expenses. The six month break at the current rate of €1200 per month would wipe out both those debts. However I have some questions:
Long time lurker and first time poster here. First off the site is just great and I have gotten much invaluable information from it over the years.
Now to business so to speak. We are approaching 5 years into our 20 year mortgage with Ulster Bank this September. We got the Mortgage in 2011 during the banking "bad" times and when there was quite a bit of movement in rates etc. For peace of mind I locked us in to a five year fixed with Ulster Bank. The mortgage has performed fine and all payments have been made on time etc. Based on today's rates however the rate we are on is massive 5.25%!! I was chatting with an Ulster Bank operative on the phone lately and even they were very surprised by the rate, they literally were amazed by it which kind of shocked me.
This brings me to the meat of my questions. We will be finished the 5.25% fixed rate in Sept 2018. Ulster Bank in March began to market for the lowest fixed rate on the market of 2.6% which we should be entitled to since we also qualify for their loyalty rates since our wages and accounts are with them also. I am really hoping to get that 2.6% rate which by my calculations will reduce the monthly payments by over €200.
I am also considering taking a 6 month mortgage holiday. I have two other small pieces of debt, one loan and one credit card which were precipitated by a period of unforeseen emergency expenses. The six month break at the current rate of €1200 per month would wipe out both those debts. However I have some questions:
- Will taking the holiday affect my rating/score with the ICB. I have worked hard to maintain the score and it is clean, therefore I would hate to damage it. Based on my reading it should not be adversely affected since it is agreed upon with the lender, but still a second opinion would be great.
- Would taking this holiday affect the term of my current fixed rate or would it affect my chances of obtaining the 2.6% rate. Would I be better served to wait until I was in the next fixed rate term.
- Would this course of action be considered a viable option. I could of course just plug on and pay the loan/credit card back over time but the holiday option coupled with getting the 2.6% rate would free up approx €500+ per month in disposable income within six months which would be very handy.
- I wonder do you think there would there be any chance that Ulster Bank would move us to the 2.6% rate now given we have only three months left and since our rate is so high based on current market rates?
). Anyway, I wrote to them saying that while I had no problem meeting my mortgage repayments, two of my children required braces and a payment holiday would simplify paying for same. I don't think it say it was for paying off other debts.