Money Guide Ireland

We are always getting new mobiles - and the old ones just get left in the bottom of a drawer or even worse dumped in the bin. Mobile phones can be recycled - there are plenty of reusable parts in them. If your old handset is less than 4 years old you could get cash for it and play your part in helping the environment by recycling.
If your old mobile is working, has a battery, is of European or UK spec and is not barred - you can exchange it for CASH.

Envirofone is an online mobile phone recycling site. You can check the make and model of your phone online and they give you a price for it. You then just post your old phone (Freepost) to Envirofone who after checking the condition send you the agreed price. If you have phones that are more than 4 years old you can still send them FREE for recycling but you won’t get paid.

Homeowners with tracker mortgages will not be getting any reductions in repayments yet. The European Central Bank (ECB) kept its benchmark interest rate at 4% yesterday.
Forecasts for 2008:
Some of the “experts” forecasts on ECB rates in 2008

IIB Bank economist Austin Hughes, said ” we expect rate cuts totaling 50 basis points before the end of 2008 and a further easing in the early part of next year.”

John Beggs, Chief Economist of AIB Bank said: ” rate cuts may amount to no more than 50bps in total by end 2008/early 2009 ”

Simon Barry, Senior Economist at Ulster Bank sticks with their forecast that official rates will be left on hold this year.

If you didn’t take any notice of our last article about switching your mortgage to NIB - it could be too late for some of you. For many others the savings you could make will be reduced.
From May 12th - NIB (National Irish Bank) are increasing some of their rates on the “LTV” mortgage. If you are borrowing less than 50% of the value of your house - the rate is unchanged at 4.5% (ECB plus 0.5%).
All other rates will be rising under a new pricing structure which is easier to understand and calculate.
Basically the mortgage rate is directly related to your LTV . An LTV of 66% gets you a rate of ecb plus 0.66% (4.66) ; An LTV of 70% will qualify you for a mortgage at ecb plus 0.7% (4.7%) etc etc - max LTV 80%.
This means that NIB are not as cheap as they were - but for LTVs up to 74% they still offer the lowest tracker rates in Ireland. They are no longer covering legal fees for people who switch their mortgage to them. I told you - you should have switched ages ago!

For LTVs from 75% to 80% - AIB currently have the lowest tracker rate of ECB plus 0.75 or 4.75%.

How much time do we spend looking for ways to make interest on our savings, to find those high interest accounts in order to get maybe 200 or 300 euro extra interest a year?
Are you always looking for ways to make the money go further?
Well - the easiest way for Irish homeowners with a mortgage to save money is to switch your mortgage .
There is no catch , no risks , no strings - I am just telling you the simple facts that can save you on average €20K tax free in 10 years.
For example - if you bought your Dublin home as recently as August 2005 - the (average price then was €352000 in Dublin. (PTSB Price Index) Assuming that you got a mortgage for 92% (323840) - that would mean you will have an outstanding mortgage of about €308000 now. (Based on 5% repayment mortgage over 25 years).
The average value of a Dublin house is now around €390000 Euro. (PTSB Feb 2008).
If you are on a standard variable rate with your mortgage lender you could be paying an interest rate as high as 5.63% with Irish Nationwide or 5.45% with IIB or 5.44% with BOI.
Since your house value has risen and you have paid off some of the capital - your “LTV” is now just below 80%. You owe less than 80% of the value of your home.
By just switching to a tracker mortgage with NIB (National Irish Bank) - you could reduce your monthly repayments by as much as €186 a month - or €22000 over 10 years. Yes Twenty Two Thousand Euro in just 10 years. (Compared o Irish Nationwide Variable rate). If you are with Bank of Ireland. PTSB, ICS, IIB - and stuck on their variable rates of 5.44 or 5.45 - you could save about €18000 over 10 years.
These figures are based on a new mortgage over 23 years - so the end date remains the same as your original mortgage.
NIB have rates from 4.59% down to 4.5% - you get a lower rate for a lower LTV.

(UPDATE May 7th - New NIB rates from MAy 12th - mean that these savings will not be valid from that date. )
All you need to do is pick up the phone and call NIB . Legal fees are covered if you use NIB solicitors. You will have to pay a valuation fee of around €150 euro.
This site is not affiliated in any way with NIB - we just like to see people save money.
See here for NIB contact details and branch locations. Move fast before they get swamped by the rush of bargain hunters or they put the rates up.
These figures are based on average Dublin prices . You could save even more if your LTV is lower than 80%.
Mortgage Brokers will not be able to assist you with NIB applications - because NIB do not deal with brokers.

Some people seem to get confused about how interest on deposit accounts is calculated and paid. Some people seem to think that an account that pays interest annually - say on 31st Dec - will pay a full years interest on the balance as at 31st Dec. I have seen forums where people think that putting a big deposit into an account in December will give them a massive increase in the interest paid. I have also seen people looking for an account that pays interest monthly because they will be withdrawing money from the account during the year and don’t want to have the interest calculated on the balance at the end of the year.
Interest on a deposit account is almost always calculated on a daily basis. The interest is then credited to your account at the end of the year (on an annual interest account) or at the end of each month (on a monthly interest account). Usually the annual interest rate is higher than the monthly one. Some people use an account with interest credited monthly when they need a monthly income source for spending.