Money Guide Ireland

Everyone with a mortgage needs Mortgage Protection insurance – your lender will insist on it so they are covered if you die. It is just a basic form of life insurance that provides life cover for the amount of the mortgage – so that in the event of your death (or your partner) – the mortgage debt will be paid off. It is not to be confused with Mortgage Repayment Protection – which covers things like illness or unemployment.
Many people just take the protection insurance offered by the mortgage lender or broker – but figures from the Financial Regulator in Oct 2007 show that there can be big differences in premiums from the cheapest and most expensive insurers. There are no differences in the insurance cover provided – you can compare quotes on price alone. (Unlike car or home insurance where the extras and level of cover can vary from one company to another).
In one example – for 360K of protection cover on a mortgage over 20 years for a 37 year old non smoker – the dearest quote was over 50% higher than the lowest. Over the term of the mortgage going with the cheaper insurer would save this person €6591 euro – not an insignificant amount.
In the example above – New Ireland had the lowest price – €27.64 a month.
Friends First had the highest premium in this example – at €42.28 per month – so for a few minutes effort shopping around you could save as much as €6591 euro .

Another example – a couple of non smokers aged 25 , cover on 290000 over 35 years:
Again there were differences of around 50% in quotes. Hibernian quoted the cheapest premium of 22.94 per month whilst Friends First was again the most expensive at €31.29 a month. Over the life of the mortgage – choosing the most expensive policy instead of the cheapest would end up costing this couple €9603 more. Once again – the advice from Money Guide is to check, compare and calculate. Don’t accept what you are told by brokers or banks – they will be getting commission in most cases – shop around. You would be a long time trying to save almost 10 thousand euro in your bank account – but with a bit of checking you could save that amount in one lunchtime.

AIB launched a new lump sum online deposit account today. Their ‘Online Notice Deposit 7 Account’ has an interest rate of 5.00% AER on the first 10k Euro.
The rate is just 3.50% AER for sums between EUR10,001 and EUR100,000.
No lodgement restrictions – customers can transfer money into the account at any time from any account on AIB Internet Banking.
But 7 days notice is needed to withdraw funds is required.