Moving to Ireland

E

emigrator

Guest
I currently live in England with my husband and have been here for 15 years. We are planning to move to Dublin this year and would like to buy a house.
We have opened a bank account with the BOI and are will start saving in that to build up a credit history.
If we apply for a mortgage in Rep of Ireland do the lenders check with the British Credit Reference Agencies or just the ICB? Also, what kind and how much credit history will we need considering the current financial situation?
I would welcome any information..
 
emigrator said:
I currently live in England with my husband and have been here for 15 years. We are planning to move to Dublin this year and would like to buy a house.
We have opened a bank account with the BOI and are will start saving in that to build up a credit history.
If we apply for a mortgage in Rep of Ireland do the lenders check with the British Credit Reference Agencies or just the ICB? Also, what kind and how much credit history will we need considering the current financial situation?
I would welcome any information..
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Hi Emigrator,
From my previous experience working in this area, while the Bank will not have access to the UK credit agencies, you will be asked for all your UK bank, loan and mortgage statements. They will probably also ask for more than the norm of 6 months (possibly 18) given that you will not show up on Irish Credit checks. They may also ask for a letter from your current UK bank as a sort of "reference" for your previous credit history.
This may have changed recently and the requirements might be different in light of the current climate (I only worked in this area up to end 2006).
Best of luck with the move!!
 
i moved over 6 years ago, rented for the first 2 and built up some saving and credit with the irish banks. then bought a house, was never asked about my uk fiances.
 
moved back 6 years ago. no computer checks, they took recent six month statements from bank and proof of some work shares and got mortgage from that.

more to the point, i don't think its gonna be a move thats gonna do anything financially for you, at least the uk has something going for it and can pull out of recession long before ROI. they also have a degree of leadership in term of politics. it really is a joke in ROI and renting for a while will serve you well.

lifestyle i'm happy enough tho.
 
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more to the point, i don't think its gonna be a move thats gonna do anything financially for you, at least the uk has something going for it and can pull out of recession long before ROI.
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:D:D:D:D:D

UK response to the crisis has been to saddle future generations with debt. They also have a currency crisis which alone would be a big deal. Currency crisis, too much borrowing and global downturn are just too much for any economy. My bet is that UK's relative position in the world wealth stakes will be much lower once this crisis is over.
 
knealecat said:
i moved over 6 years ago, rented for the first 2 and built up some saving and credit with the irish banks. then bought a house, was never asked about my uk fiances.
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Same here, did this in the last four years. More surprising (to us) was for most of that time my husband was a contractor so we had to provide accounts. In the end we got our mortgage with just one years accounts but I'll be honest and say we would struggle to get one now I think, in the current climate.

On an aside, if you have previously had a mortgage do not be tempted to say you haven't. There is a first time buyer tax credit but you cannot avail of it if you owned a property previously, even abroad. They won't check at the time but somewhere down the line you could be selected for a tax audit and then they WILL go back to your home country to check.

Good luck with the move. We love it here.
 
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csirl said:
UK response to the crisis has been to saddle future generations with debt. They also have a currency crisis which alone would be a big deal.
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Were is the irish 20bn irish shortfall gonna come from if not debt?
not to mention re-capitalisation and capital expenditure!!
and its not like this problem is gonna fix itself in next 5 years.

have you been in the primary school classes this year? your child is mixed in with 30 other and on avergae 2 of those have special needs. In uk every class has an assistant.

We no longer have key industries such as manufacturing and service because they are too expensive to run. anyone notice after the US multis go, THERE IS NO PLAN. God help if uv seen a picture of the leader of this country slumped over like a .... theres inspiration if you need it.

Given that wages in UK are around 30% lower, at least its a semi viable economy with a half decent range of sectors on which its economy and tax income is based.

finnally, the only reason we don't have a currency crisis is because we're supported by the euro, only for that we would have a fairly serious problem on our hands.
 
UK took out a loan of 16k per person for just one of its bank bailout schemes - not sustainable.

In UK everyone, including min wage pays tax. We have nearly 40% of people outside the tax net. We can increase taxes and bring more people into the net. UK doesnt have this option - all they can do is borrow and cut costs.

Aside from the above, all you need to consider is one phrase - "the Euro".
 
you gonna tax everything to recover 20bn?

get real

At least the UK is in control of its currency. sterling deliberatly weakened to increase competitiveness. we can't even do that. they moved ahead of euro and at least they admit bank bad debts. ireland is now an international joke.

16k per person will seem like nothing by the time our boys are finished.
 
I would recommend that you seriously look at the prices and affordability here before you make that committment. My sister was over from the UK last weekend. She is quite financially savvy and owns three of her own properties (1 apt + 2 houses) in the area where she lives (zone 6 - easy train/plenty choices commute to London - she works in London city centre). We drove around the parts of Dublin that I would like to live in - and was excitedly telling her about this house and that and how they had dropped by 100 000 - 200 000 in price over the past 12-18 months (I am looking in the 400 000 - 500 000 price bracket, so nothing overly luxurious in terms of spec or location). She was HORRIFIED at how much the houses here still cost...even at their reduced rates. She could not believe the cost of the houses here....even now.
 
You also need to factor in general cost of living issues, like every time we visit the GP here, it costs us 65 euro (a portion of which can now only be claimed back a the basic tax rate). Also, between meds for myself and my son's asthma, we reach the monthly drug payment scheme threshold of 100 euro/month. Therefore, we need to budget approx. 230 euro/month on medical expenses in addition to mortgage etc. Yes, salaries in UK are lower, but the gap is fast narrowing, with a lot of people recently having had their pay cut (private and public sectors), or been put on reduced working weeks, which effectively cuts income. I don't think we have seen the last of these pay cuts, then there is the mini budget to contend with next month, so on paper Ire pay may still seem a little higher, but once extra taxes and medical expenses are taken into account, I don't think the gap would be that large. (My sister and I work in different fields, but had a similar salary approx. 1 year ago. Her take home pay is not falling quite as fast as mine). Having said all of that, money is not everything, and I am very happy living here, but wanted to highlight a few issues in relation to the financial side of things.
 
we are supposed to be moving back to the Midlands next Summer (2 kids - 9 & 8). have been in London over 20 years. some days I am positive about going and other days I am scratching my head wondering if it is the right thing to do. we have a fine house built in the Midlands and mostly paid for but that's neither here nor there in the grand scale of things.
If you dont mind, I would be interested to hear some positive things v's negative things about why you made the move to Ireland considering things like education, lifestyle, social, family etc.
i have a few friends that moved back over the last 2-3 years, a few of them happy enough and a few of them would return here if they could but they are pretty much trapped now.
there are some previous threads on this topic but none are up to date with how people feel about moving to Ireland in the current climate now that the Celtic Tiger has disappeared but even that might be a good thing in some people's eyes !
Thanks.
 
Well I moved to the US when I was 25 - initially on a 3 year temporary work visa - ended up getting my green card, getting married, etc and so 13 years later when there was nothing really holding us in the US myself and OH (who was born in the US, but parents were Irish and lived in Galway for secondary school and college) decided it was time to move back to Ireland. We pretty much said - right that's it - we are doing it. That was 3 1/2 years ago - summer of 2005.
Even then it took OH over 18 months to land a full time job. We moved around the country a bit to rent a cheap place but are now settled (renting) in South Dublin.
Are there things that we miss? Sure - friends, Walmart, a good steakhouse!
Are we living on a much tighter budget now? Yes for sure.
Would we change the decision if we could? No!
We moved back to be closer to family and to raise our kids here. I never felt right about the prospect of my kids going to school in the US so we moved before the oldest was due to start school. For me it's not about money or things - it's a feeling of belonging.
Anyway that's my 2 cents wort! :)
 
I've said elsewhere that the standard of education my children are getting here is much better than they got in the UK (and I include a private education in that statement).

Don't forget you have to pay for all books, stationary etc. for school and that can be quite pricey. Some schools do a rental scheme. That said, child benefit is higher here, I think it's €160 per month per child, a different rate applies for 3rd and more.

Cost of living is much higher and the choice in most things, food comes to mind, is much more limited and expensive....still, it's only a couple of hours drive to "the north"

Wouldn't live anywhere else though. As as JiggetyJig, says..a feeling of belonging and yet I have no family here.
 
Sorry, did not appear to be negative, just rather wanted to make sure that you had covered all the bases. I came over to work 11 years ago on a 6 month contract and stayed. Still in the same job (now a 'permanent' position). The only family I have here is my immediate family that I produced since moving over. I think there is a lot to be said for the quality of life in general (daily commute into Dublin city centre aside!). My main basis for comparison on this front is my sister and her friends in UK - with children the same age. Their quality of life is good too and they have good local schools (we grew up in a family - immediate and extended - of primary teachers and I am in education myself, so have a fair idea about what to look for...). A lot depends on the area that you live in. For instance, I would not trust the level of education at the local school in my part of Dublin and am looking for other options (incl private - still cheaper than creche fees!) for when my son starts school - including moving a few miles so that he has a chance at a better school (some things are universal - no matter which country you are in) if we choose to go with public schooling, which I would trust in the area that we would like to move to.
 
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