Queries following meeting with bank to switch

K

kitty81

Registered User
Messages
147
We have started to process to switch our mortgage from PTSB to UB after putting it off for a long time as my perception was it was a lot of paper gathering etc.

We had a meeting with the bank on Fri, where they feel we should have no problem switching but we are awaiting their acceptance now.

Two things came up during that meeting that have me a little uneasy now about it. Firstly when she was calculating our repayments, the amounts weren t massively different to what we currently pay altho we are moving from a 4.3% to 2.6%. She felt it was maybe to do with TRS? We originally bought the house in 2004 so I assumed TRS was long over for us. Looked back on last year's statement where it says interest allowed was €1500 for the year. Can anyone tell me when that will expire please?

Worth pointing out also that I called PTSB to get the balance on mortgage, asked if they are reducing our rate anytime soon and he offered 3.7% over a 2/3/5 period. Might help someone?

Second thing is the name on our mortgage account is spelt incorrectly, both mine and and my husband's. And the county we live in is also different to our eircode address? Would this cause problems when a solicitor is doing all the legal bits to change the mortgage over to UB?
Any help would be appreciated

Kitty81
 
kitty81 said:
Two things came up during that meeting that have me a little uneasy now about it.
Click to expand...
There's nothing to worry about.

kitty81 said:
We originally bought the house in 2004 so I assumed TRS was long over for us.
Click to expand...
It should have been, but was extended until 2020.
"If you bought your first home between 2004 and 2008 inclusive, the rate of relief for the tax years 2012 to 2020 is 30%."
From: https://www.revenue.ie/en/property/...o-you-calculate-mortgage-interest-relief.aspx

kitty81 said:
Worth pointing out also that I called PTSB to get the balance on mortgage, asked if they are reducing our rate anytime soon and he offered 3.7% over a 2/3/5 period. Might help someone?
Click to expand...
That (or similar) always been available. PTSB are able to keep SVR high and people don't bother trying to get a better rate.

kitty81 said:
And the county we live in is also different to our eircode address?
Click to expand...
Pretty common, and won't be an issue. The county in Eircode is determined by the post office that your post is routed through.

kitty81 said:
thing is the name on our mortgage account is spelt incorrectly
Click to expand...
It's the name on title deeds that matters.
But, if you provide copy ID to PTSB with correct spelling, they're obliged to correct their records.
 
@kitty81
It'd be great if you were able to document the whole experience of switching to give an idea of why you put it off so long, and then how much work is actually involved.

There are many people campaigning for better interest rates in Ireland, including @Brendan Burgess , and then when better rates are available it's disappointing to see so many people staying on high SVR rates with PTSB for example.

Banks benefit from the lack of action from customers, so it'd be great to understand it from your perspective.
Is the whole process daunting, is it confusing, does it seem like too much work, etc. Maybe we could use you experiences to write a 'how to' guide to break down the process and help others in your situation.
 
It will be interesting to see if changes to the Central Bank’s rule book to help switchers that come into effect next year have any impact.
 
Thank you RedOnion for your replies. I was afraid they would put a spanner in the works!

I'll be happy to document the experience as I know myself it was the unknown that has put me off for so long!

Rolling back to May 18, my husband met with the bank about a car loan and during the discussion about that, the bank rep instigated a discussion on mortgages & did up figures on our mortgage for him.

We sat on it until end of Sept and put it off because I feel I don't know enough to know whether we are making a bad move and the idea of involving a solicitor doesn't fill me with joy!

Decided after seeing all the ads offering better rates that it was no harm to even talk to the bank and see what they say thinking they may refuse us anyway.

Called them to arrange an appointment, picked a time that suited us and was sent a salary cert by email to give to employers and a check list of docs to bring.

Passport/Drivers license
3mths pay slip for me/4 consecutive weekly slips for hubby
6 months bank statements
6 months saving account statements
Statement of any loans
Any recent Credit Card bills
Utility bill dated last 6 months

Arrived for meeting, brought into office in back office and the bank rep literally sat down with us, asked what we wanted & keyed things into computer. Found it quite interesting, as she turned screen to show us how the bank rated us based on our figures.

She took photocopies of everything and explained that it has to go to the underwriter before we get confirmation. She did warn that if they are awaiting documents or documents are out of date (even by a day) our request is put to bottom of the pile and becomes delayed.

Sent us off then, about an hour and 10 mins, and suggested we check if our mortgage protection is assigned to us (This is an old fashion way? or assigned to PTSB) & if bundled with our life assurance, we should contact the provider to split them out as UB require it to be assigned to them.

Also said whole process takes about 6 to 8 weeks and we receive the cashback of €1500 two months after drawdown so we have to fund the solicitor ourselves until then.

UB will also send a valuer out to us and there is no charge for this.

That's it so far but I'm certainly more at ease with the process now and really the hardest part so far was gathering the documents.

One thing I wasn't keen on was the bank rep asked us the value of our house. There are little houses similar to ours in the area so we literally had to assume a figure. Hopefully we are not way off the mark!

A positive we have found is, because of the reduced rate, we are planning on reducing our term, rather than reducing the amount we pay per month.

Hopefully I will have more updates this week following the valuation & hopefully word from the bank that we can go ahead

I will keep this updated in the hope of encouraging others to do the same. I know what it's like as we are 15 years into a 30 year mortgage and realistically I believe we could have switched long before now but just put it off as I felt it was out of my depth!
 
kitty81 said:
if bundled with our life assurance, we should contact the provider to split them out as UB require it to be assigned to them.
Click to expand...
If it's 15 years since you took out this policy, you should try get some new quotes. Life assurance is one of the few financial products that has got cheaper.
 
I would stick with your original term if possible, rather than reduce it. Just overpay the amount you had planned (UB allow 10% of mortgage to be overpaid each year if on a fixed rate). That way if your circumstances change you can revert back to the lower repayment. By overpaying your term will naturally shorten but you won't be obliged to keep up the overpayment.
 
Also I think you need to (re)apply for trs once you switch. You will also need your old mortgage providers details so no harm in keeping them on file handy somewhere. Don't worry if it takes a few months to actually get it as it's back dated anyway.
 
Thank you misemoi, a very valid point that I hadn't considered. And thanks RedOnion for the link. I have emailed the bank rep to change term to 15 now, hopefully it won't delay it too much & we will overpay while we can.

I have tried to switch life and mortgage but companies just don't get back to me! One of us is Type 1 diabetic so not sure they want the business at all, altho it is well managed. I will try again as we are paying €150 every month for it and mortgage protection which I believe is alot.

Thank you again for the advice & opinions. It really helps, as like I mentioned in earlier post, I feel somewhat out of my depth but piece by piece I'm getting there!
 
Oh elcato I had no idea that it wouldn't move with the mortgage. Thanks for the heads up! UB took a copy of our mortgage statement, would banks normally do that on our behalf or where would I go to organise this?
 
kitty81 said:
I had no idea that it wouldn't move with the mortgage.
Click to expand...
I'm not certain on this as I had moved out and stopped it and had to re-apply. But I got the impression from the form that this was the way they did it. Perhaps you can confirm later on down the road.
 
I will check with the bank & update here.

Again, this is something I hadn't considered so thanks again
 
kitty81 said:
One thing I wasn't keen on was the bank rep asked us the value of our house. There are little houses similar to ours in the area so we literally had to assume a figure. Hopefully we are not way off the mark!
Click to expand...
This is an essential question for banks to ask, although even a rough estimate is fine at the start. First, the bank needs to establish whether they will lend against the property at all (which they wouldn't do if the current mortgage balance was more than 90% of the market value). Second, the lower the loan to value (LTV), the lower your mortgage rate will be in general (although, unusually, a couple of UB's current fixed rates are the same regardless of LTV). You just need to give your best estimate for now, and the actual value will be confirmed by an independent valuer after your application is approved in principle.

kitty81 said:
I feel somewhat out of my depth
Click to expand...
It is the mortgage advisor's job to answer all of your questions and to make sure that you are not feeling out of your depth!
 
Thanks for your continuing advice & help.

Dave_curry_imc I completely agree the mortgage advisor should be able to answer any queries we have....its more about us knowing what ones to ask!! Hopefully we guessed in or around the right amount as we are on the cusp of the 60% ltv with our guess!

Have to say I find this site invaluable for gathering all the relevant knowledge so without it, I do feel i would continue to miss out on asking all relevant questions of the bank
 
2 weeks on......and we finally have all the documents in with the bank....the current mortgage provider took forever to issue our statement - it could not be downloaded from their online banking system and I could not get one by going into a branch so I had to wait for the postman.

We have got a quote from a solicitor for Eur1400 and he will 'throw in' doing a will for us :)

We are sticking with the 15 year term as advised up above and look forward to reducing the years ourselves with overpayments.

So far, I wouldn't be put off doing it again

Hopefully more updates will follow now the bank have all they need.
 
Another 4 weeks on (6 so far in total) & we've received all the offer & acceptance details from the bank this week. Valuation came in with the amount we had guessed so there was no problems with that. We rec'd a letter from our current bank advising the solicitor had paid an amount of €35 for the Deed of Assignment.

I assume the solicitor has a look through all the documents sent and we sign the dotted line then?

I haven't tackled the TRS part yet but someone very kindly posted a link above for that.

I'm surprised at how long it all takes! Hopefully by Christmas we can start enjoying a lower interest rate
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top