Most Irish banks have special accounts for students – and some of them are offering money off vouchers and other gimmicks to entice new students to open an account. Banks are hoping that once they get a new student to sign up – that they will stay with them once they start earning money.
Ulster Bank’s student account offers the best deal as far as I can see. You get €100 Cash when you open and use your Student Account with Ulster . €50 will be deposited into your account in November, and €50 in January 2009.
You just have to make 3 transactions per month from the time you open your account, in order to qualify for this offer. (That shouldn’t be too hard?)
There are no charges for day to day transactions – and another very attractive feature is the interest free overdraft facility. All students can get an nterest free overdraft of up to €650 (APR 0%) on request on account opening.
After that students can apply for additional interest free overdrafts (APR 0%), of up to €1,750 in year 1 , Year 2 €1,950, Year 3 €2,250, Year 4 €2,500, Year 5 2,800.
These overdrafts will come in useful while waiting for that grant to come through.
The only other bank offering zero % interest on overdrafts for students is AIB (max 1500 euro)

The good old Financial Regulator has done another comparison of home insurances premiums in Ireland for August 2008.
As usual – several types of properties and personal circumstances are used to obtain quotes from both brokers and insurance companies direct.
Quinn Direct does best overall in the survey this time – they have the cheapest quote in six out of the nine examples. One of the survey examples – the Quinn Direct home insurance policy was €164 euro a year cheaper than the highest quote from Hibernian. This was for a 5 bedroom bungalow in Tullow, Co. Carlow with ae rebuilding cost of €275,000 and contents worth €110,000.
Allianz came out cheapest in one example – and Zurich had the lowest quote on another . The ninth example was for contents only on a rented apartment – and Quinn Direct gave no quote. The lowest price for contents insurance was from Royal and Sun Alliance through a broker – which at 91 euro was more than 3 times cheaper than AIG Direct.

Tesco were not included in the survey – only 8 insurance providers were involved in the comparison by the Irish Financial Regulator.

Be aware that some insurance companies may not have the same excess on their policies. The excess is the amount you have to pay on any claim. The norm is 125 euro – but some companies have a higher excess such as 500 euro. The policy may be cheaper but you would lose any savings if you had to make a claim.
Also – be aware that sometimes lower prices will be given to new customers. If your home insurance is up for renewal – it pays to check if you can get it cheaper elsewhere. As this survey shows – you could save as much as €164 euro for an hours effort.

If you are flying from Dublin airport this summer – you may well have the added expense of parking fees. Car Park changes are pretty much unavoidable if you are driving to the airport.
A two week holiday could end up costing you an extra €133 euro in parking fees.
parking in the Long Stay car parks at the airport costs €9.50 a day if you just turn up on the day – that’s the most expensive option. If you book online and pay in advance you can get it for €7.00 a day (a saving of €35 over 2 weeks)
The cheapest car parking near the airport we could find was the Carlton Hotel at €6.75 a day. The car park is not massive – so it may not have spaces all the time. They operate a free bus to the airport.
Another cheaper alternative to the airport car park is Quickpark.ie – who charge €7.50 a day and you can pre book online. A free bus to the airport is also included in the price.
Bewleys Dublin Airport hotel are advertising parking for €8 a day – and you can stay there for as little as €99 a room per night.
Don’t forget – from August 30th if you are using the M50 to get to the airport – you will not be able to pay the toll in cash. See more about M50 Toll Options from Aug 30th .

(Updated Aug 28th )

The M50 barrier free tolling system is supposed to begin on August 30th. The system is being introduced to help increase traffic flow – the system will have cameras to record your registration numbers and readers to read toll tags.

For non regular M50 users (less than 5 trips a month ) – the cheapest option on paper is to register for a “pay as you toll plus” tag at Tolltag.ie – This is a free tag with a 10% admin fee. For for people using the M50 once a week – this fee would work out at just 80c a month. But If you are going to use the M50 more than 5 times a month – the 10% admin fee will come to more than the other providers €1 fee. The drawback with this option is the initial top up of €40 (enough for about 18 trips) and the automatic top up of €20 when your balance gets to €12.
The eflow tag post pay tag account is probably the best option for most drivers using the M50 more than twice a month. You pay by laser or Direct Debit each month – for the previous month charges. No initial fee or top ups – this is really “pay after you go”. There is a €1 a month admin fee whether you use the M50 or not which may put some people off – but the fact that you don’t have to depost €40 euro up front is a bonus. See Eflow.ie for more details and registration.

The eflow.ie video recognition account is a good option too for low volume users This has no admin fee but the toll fee is €2.50 per journey.If you use the M50 once or twice a month only – this is a good choice. You pay after you use it – you don’t have to pre load a balance into the account. You can pay monthly by Credit Card, Laser or Direct Debit. Register at eflow.ie Lo-Call (from Ireland): 1890 50 10 50

If you are going to use the M50 more than five times a month – the cheapest option is to register for a free tag with a 1 euro a month fee.
The simplest account is the post pay from Eflow – but no credit card payments allowed.

Eazypass.ie , Directroute.ie and Etrip.ie also offer free tags and a one euro a month admin fee – but they do not seem to have a post-pay option.

If you don’t register for a tag or a video recognition account – you will be charged €3 euro a trip.
Beware – you will have to pay by 8pm the next day or you will incur hefty penalties of up to €143 euro.
Payments can be made via credit card or laser over the phone or online. Also payments accepted at Payzone outlets in many shops.
See details of M50 Penalty Charges

TagCompare.ie has more details of Tolltag providers and prices.

From August 30th 2008 a new “barrier free” tolling system called eFlow was introduced on the M50 in Dublin .
There are three payment  options for drivers  (cash at the toll plaza is NOT one of them.)

a)You can register for a tag from one of the several suppliers and be charged €2 per journey.
Or
b) you can register your car for a video recognition account and pay €2.50 per journey.
c) If you don’t register for a tag account or register your number plate for a video recognition account – you will have to pay €3 each time.(by 8pm the next day!)

How do you Pay?
The cameras will record your registration number as you pass through. You will then owe eFlow €3 Euro. This can either be paid

a) online at eflow.ie
b) by phone on Lo-Call (from Ireland): 1890 50 10 50 International phone number: +800 50105011 (appears to be Free). Also you could try calling 00353 1 8613200 if calling from abroad.
c) You can pay at shops that are signed up to the Payzone system – there are hundreds of them all over Ireland.

Penalty Charges and Fines: If you don’t pay the three euro before 8pm the day after you use the M50 – you will be charged another €3. If this €6 is not paid within another 14 days – you will be charged another €39.50 . Failure to pay the now €45.50 euro due within a further 56 days will result in an additional €98.50 penalty being applied.
The grand total will now be €144 Euro .
Thereafter, if you still have not paid the amount due – legal proceedings will be initiated. So save money – and pay quickly.

Not a bad margin there by eFlow – €3 increasing to €144  in 71 days . Thats about 5000 percent increase on the initial charge.

With plenty of non Dublin drivers on the way to the airport for holidays – this could be a big earner for Eflow . Why do we put up with it??

Switching your Mortgage Lender – is it worth it?

A few months ago this site was urging borrowers to switch to NIB because of their lower rates and the fact that they used to also cover most of the legal fees involved in switching. With the so called “credit crunch” – all lenders have increased rates and also some have withdrawn or tightened up on the incentives for switchers.
Only Bank of Ireland and Halifax now advertise the fact that they will pay up to €1000 towards legal fees for mortgage switchers. Both lenders will want this thousand euro back if you move to another lender within 5 years. Halifax only mentioned this clawback on their website this week.
The rate differences between NIB and the best of the other lenders are much smaller now – since NIB increased their tracker rates from August 1st 2008. But there are still savings to be made on your mortgage if you are on a less competitive
rate.
An example ; A home owner owing 70% of the value of their house – i.e. a 210k mortgage on a 300k property.
Someone with either IIB or Irish Nationwide’s variable rate of 5.99% would be paying €1352 a month. PTSB variable rate payers are on 5.94% – so they could also make similar savings.
The lowest tracker mortgage rates for 70% LTV are available from Halifax Ireland – ECB plus 1.1 (5.35%) – which works out at a repayment of 1271 a month . This would save IIB and INBS mortgage payers a respectable €81 euro a month. Over 5 years this is a saving of €4860. How many hours would you have to work to earn that much?
A tracker of ECB plus 1.15 (5.4%) is also available from Halifax – this special Switcher rate comes with a max €1000 contribution to legal fees. This would work out at a just 6 euro a month more (1277) – with little or up front switching costs . (Halifax pay the valuation fee too).
The same 5.4% tracker rate (ecb plus 1.15) is on offer from from Bank of Ireland – also with legal fees covered up to 1000 euro (same 5 year clawback). So – moving to Halifax or BOI in this example could reduce the mortgage payments by €4500 over 5 years. If a better rate came along and you wanted to move again – you would have to repay the 1000, (But you will have saved that amount in reduced repayments in just 13 months.)

With NIB – the tracker rate on 70% LTV would be a slightly lower ecb plus 1.1 – but with no legal fees contribution.