Money Guide Ireland

The UK based Nationwide Building Society is now offering savings accounts to Irish customers. Nationwide UK (Ireland) has opened for business in Dublin this week. Nationwide is the biggest Building Society in the world and is still a mutual company with no shareholders.  They have 14m customers and balances of over £200bn (c.€220bn).

Irish Savings Accounts Available: at the time of launch (March 2009)
Easy access: 2.75% variable -  Minimum Balance  €2000
Fixed 6 months : 3.02%, minimum €3000
Fixed 9 months: 3.11%, minimum  €3000
Accounts can be operated by post, telephone or over the internet

See our list of the Best Savings Rates to see the latest figures

Telephone : 1800 800 310 (9am to 5pm, Mon-Fri)

Office  Address

3 Spencer Dock
North Wall Quay
Dublin 1

Sort Code 90 – 24 – 77

Many companies in Ireland make use of the Lo call 1890 or 1850 numbers – but for most people  – making a call to one of  these numbers can cost more than ringing a “normal” landline number. If you are on a call package where you have free landline calls or a certain amount of free landline calls – these 1890 or 1850 numbers are not included in the free calls.
Calls from landlines to these 1890 or 1850 numbers will be costing you up to 5c a minute and from mobiles almost 50c a minute. If you are put on hold for 10 minutes it could end up costing you a fiver.
You should  try and find an alternative number to the 1890 number.  Companies should really list both numbers on their websites and in the phone book – but sadly they don’t always do that.

Spread Betting on financial markets is growing in popularity in Ireland. If you have some  money you’re willing to invest then the potential for a handsome return is out there.
Spread betting is a tax free , cost effective alternative to traditional share trading. It allows you to speculate on the movement of stocks and shares without using a stockbroker, so you don’t have to pay any commission or fees. All spread trading profits are recognised as the winnings of a bet, and are exempt from Capital Gains Tax and Income Tax.

Where can you do online Spread Betting in Ireland?

WorldSpreads  was one of the first Irish companies to offer spread betting online.
They began in Dublin in 2000 as World Spreads offering sports spread betting and sports fixed odds and on-line gaming services. Extending its service in 2003 to financial markets, they have grown  to become the leading provider of spread betting services in Ireland.

Betfair – the well known betting exchange – has a facility called Tradefair Spreads which  offers the facility to spread bet on a wide range of products from the UK and international financial markets. These include major indices, currencies, equities, commodities and treasuries. It is open to Irish residents and you can choose to have a Sterling or Euro account. Visit Betfair Here

Paddy Power also allow spread betting on financial markets . They have loads of information and advice fro beginners to spread betting. You can open a demo account to try your luck or skill out.
Paddy Power offer 24 hour trading, allowing you to trade from midnight on Sunday to market close on Friday on selected markets, including many currencies and the major US indices.
Visit Paddy Power Here.

People all over Ireland are spread betting – and all types of people are doing it – from farmers , students to company directors and accountants.
It does not take large amounts of money to get started, (unlike share dealing) . Depositing and withdrawing funds is easy, and the tax-free element on profits made make it an even more attractive proposition.   Some people make a living from “day trading” -  while others trade US equities in the evenings, or spend a day or two each quarter trading to try and pay for their next holiday.

There is risk involved of course – and it is recommended that you start spread betting with a demo or dummy account to try things out.

Dell Ireland 5% Money Off Code
Dell Ireland have a discount code which will get you 5% off all Studio, Inspiron and XPS orders over €899. (Thats a minimum discount of €45)

Valid until – Wednesday, November 4th 2009.

*Discount Code – WDKSKQ6ST6NFSS.
Use it only at Dell Ireland

Both Ulster Bank and First Active have lowered the rates on most of their savings accounts .

The esavings plus account now pays a rate of  4% (Min 15k balance)

The esavings account pays 3%

All the best instant access rates in Ireland here.

It was to be expected with all the ECB cuts- Northern Rock have from today cut the rate on their Online instant access savings account from 4% to 3.25% .
See the up to date list of the Best Savings Accounts here.

Dell customers can save a few Euro this weekend with  this  10% discount code . You can get 10% off all  Dell Studio, Dell Inspiron and Dell XPS orders over €699. So you could save at least 70 Euro.

The code is only valid from March 13th to March 18th .
Code  HL7M?3VN6HZPC1

Visit Dell Ireland to see how much you could save this St Patricks weekend.

The ECB have announced another interest rate decrease today. The new rate will be just 1.5% – a reduction of 0.5%.  The ECB has now cut rates by 2.75 percentage points since early October.

The Bank of England also cut interest rates earlier today by a half point to 0.5 percent, the lowest since the bank was founded in 1694. The Bank of England has now reduced the key rate 4.5 percentage points since October.