Money Guide Ireland

The underlying trend in sterling remains positive.
At close of business yesterday  (June 22nd) the Pound was worth €1.1755 Euro. There seems to be a correction to the over-selling of sterling in winter 2008/09. Also the rising price of oil has boosted the UK currency in relation to the currencies of major oil importers, notably the US, eurozone and Japan.

To enquire about getting good exchange rates on larger amounts of currencies - you should try one of our currency broker partners. They will always giveyou a betterexchange rate than your bank - and lower (or zero) transaction fees.

Check out Currency Solutions  or   Currency UK  for good deals on large currency transactions. Euros , Sterling or any other currency.

The Family Saver account from EBS which is a fixed rate regular savings account - has had it’s rate reduced from 5.1% to 4.5%.  It is still one of the better regular savings accounts in Ireland - but AIB and Anglo Irish still have better rates. The fact that the EBS rate is fixed for a year might just give it a slight advantage - although the falling interest rates seem to have come to a halt at the moment.

See all the best regular saver accounts in Ireland 

It looks like fixed rate mortgages are starting to rise again. EBS, AIB, NIB have all increased fixed rate mortgages in recent days. If you are thinking of fixing - there are not many lenders offering 10 year fixes in Ireland. Of those that do -  Haven mortgages offer the lowest (as at June 18th) with 4.49% (Max LTV 80%). It is likely this rate will rise soon.
Visit our page of the Lowest 10 Year Fixed Rate Mortgages

Get Ten Euro discount on your online shopping from Tesco Ireland with this voucher valid until 21st June on spends over €80

Travel Insurance - is one of those last minute purchases that we don’t do too much research on. Is there really that much difference in the cost of travel insurance in Ireland? Is it worth shopping around to save money?
We obtained some online quotes for a 9 day trip in Europe for a family of 5 (2 adults and 3 children aged 6, 15 and 19). Some sites allowed us to treat the 19 year old as a child if they are in full time education. Other sites made us treat them as adults.

Quotes for the single trip travel insurance cover ranged from  €30 at  Aceinsure.ie  up to €69.20 at CoverMe.ie  (They wouldn’t treat the 19 yearold as a child).
These are the prices we were quoted for single trip travel insurance. (No cover for winter sports or golf ). The most expensive we found was more than twice the price of the cheapest policy.

Aceinsure.ie  €30
Justcover  €34.24
Insurancebookers.ie  €35.80
Hibernian Aviva €36
AIB  €38
Getcover.com €60.59
Quoteme.ie  €69.20

If you think you will be going abroad more than once in the next 12 months - it is worth taking out a multitrip anual travel cover instead of buying separate insurance cover for the two trips. It will almost always work out cheaper.
We were quoted the following prices for annual travel cover.

Justcover.ie €69.50
Allianz  €71.70
Aceinsure.ie   €73
Hibernian   €80
Getcover.com €91.89
AIB €92
Insurancebookers.ie   €154.80

None of the party being insured had existing health insurance. The prices may have been lower if we had private health insurance because that would cover most of the medical costs.