Money Guide Ireland

National Irish Bank recently launched a new online savings account called the eSaver. It pays a rate of 3% on deposits from €1 to €50k. If a withdrawal is made – then the rate on the whole balance falls to 1% for the month of the withdrawal.
This account has one of the better interest rates for Irish savers – but there are slightly better rates to be had on instant access accounts at Halifax , Anglo Irish and Nationwide UK. See the list of the Best On Demand savings rates.

If your home insurance policy is up for renewal -  you should always do a comparison with quotes from  other insurers  before you renew with your current insurer – you could save yourself some  money.

We did an online comparison of house insurance prices  for a bungalow in County Mayo  with rebuilding costs of €250k and contents cover of €40k. Cover for accidental damage is included, house has no burglar alarm , 2 smoke alarms and the policy has a €125 excess. The quotes used in the comparison were obtained online from insurance providers and brokers websites on August 17th 2009

123.ie  €345.62 was the lowest quote.

Quotedevil.ie  €354.25
Getcover.com €374.62
Allianz  Direct €376.69
Pibasure  €382.95
Insure.ie  €385  – but  with 250 excess
Zurich  €405.40
Ulster Bank – the renewal quote €416.62
FBD Insurance   €409.97
Chill.ie  quoted €438 for a matching policy
QuoteMe  €472 was the cheapest they could find-  and ithad a 250 excess
Hibernian Aviva   €490.57  was the most expensive quote.

Overall – the difference between the most expensive and the cheapest quote was €145 Euro not an insignificant amount for an hours effort.
We did try some other insurance web sites to compare but there were some problems.

One Direct – their online quote wouldn’t work – just got an error message.
Quinn Direct – the site froze our computer (Using Firefox)
Bestquote.ie – came up with an error message “failed to contact mail server”
Simply Mortgages – no online home quote was possible
Axa – no online quote possible
Tesco Ireland don’t do House Insurance.

A more recent comparison of home insurance prices

Having a bad credit history can affect your future ability to obtain loans, credit cards or mortgages. In Ireland most lenders send information about borrowers and their repayments to a central agency, the Irish Credit Bureau (ICB). The ICB holds information about borrowers and their loans for 5 years after any loan is closed. This information is held in an individual credit ‘report’ that is kept by the ICB about each borrower.
When you sign a mortgage or loan application you automatically give your lender permission to send information about your repayments to a credit reference agency such as ICB, and to seek information about your credit history. If your credit history is poor, the financial institution unlikely to give you a loan even if you have the income to repay it. There are some lenders that will lend money to people with poor credit rating – but you will probably pay a higher interest rate. Once you have built up a good repayment history – you should be able to switch loans to another lender.
A bad credit rating would result from missing repayments on loans or failing to clear off any loan or having legal action taken against you by a lender.

It is possible that there could be an error in your credit history – if there is you will need to ask your lender/ financial institution to write to the ICB with details of the change. You should ask for a copy of any letter that is sent .
If you experience problems or delays or if your lender fails to put things right for you, you can consider making a formal complaint and referring the matter to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

Under Data Protection Acts, anyone is entitled to receive a full copy of any data, which is held in your respect on ICB’s Database.
You must complete an application form to enable ICB to process your request. There is a €6 euro fee.
You can contact the Irish Credit Bureau by phone (01) 2600388 and request an application form.

You can get €50 discount on any flight and hotel package booked on Expedia.ie
You have to travel before 30th September 2009 and book before 15th September 2009 and the booking value needs to be €500 or higher (before taxes and fees).
Get your Discount Code Here

I manged to book flights and 3 nights B&B for two people in a 4 star Paris hotel for €760.55 . With the €50 discount that came to €710.55  . (Sept 11th to 14th)

Be aware that the minimum spend is €500 before taxes/fees. It is a bit of a pain because the taxes aren’t actually shown – so you don’t know if your trip qualifies for the discount until you try to use it. I had to try a few combinations   before the discount code was accepted.
There are also good deals available at Expedia on Flight and Hotel packages from Dublin to Cork – I saw prices of under €600 for a week’s B&B for 2  in Jurys Cork including flights.

You could also look here for hotel accommodation in Ireland

Halifax, the retail arm of Bank of Scotland Ireland, were for ages the only bank in Ireland to offer a Visa Debit card.   From mid or late September 2009 – Ulster Bank is going to move  from using Laser cards to using Visa Debit cards.
The Laser debit card is the main one in use in  the Irish market -  but these are generally not accepted for transactions outside Ireland.

Existing Ulster Bank customers with Maestro/Laser cards can continue to use those cards as normal.  They  will receive  new Visa Debit cards on request  as a replacement or automatically when  their current card expires.

A Visa Debit  card can be used for point-of-sale transactions as well as those online and on the telephone, while also operating as an ATM and a cheque guarantee card.

The main benefit the Visa Debit card has over other debit cards in Ireland is that it can be used internationally, with acceptance in over 24m locations worldwide and through one of the world’s largest ATM networks. It will remove the need for having a credit card to shop online – which is good news for younger people and many others who just can’t get a credit card.They can now take advantage of the lower prices and better choices available at online shopping sites.

If you are looking for information about Visa Electron cards – to avoid the credit card fee on sites like Ryanair – read our post about Where to Get a Visa Electron Card

There are a limited number of €2 tickets for sale at Bus Eireann – Dublin-Galway  , Galway-Dublin  as well as Galway to Cork and Cork to Galway.
Valid until 31st August – 7 days a week at  certain departure times.
Normal prices are about €13 – so a good discount available.

According to figures from the National Road Authority published in the Irish Times and Irish Independent – motorists that use the M50 toll road are forking out over €100 milion Euro a year in penalty charges.  That’s over €2 million a week being paid out in penalties that should be easily avoided. It also begs the question – what are they doing with all this extra money?

The income from the M50 penalty charges or fines is more than double  the total expected income in actual toll charges . The NRA forecast income of  €80 million a year in toll charges and are now getting around €120 million on top in penalties -  a nice little earner for them.
It is easy to see how the driver who only uses the M50 once a year could miss paying the toll charge in time. Especially travellers to Dublin Airport . Paying a €3 toll charge is probably the last thing you want to do when you are rushing to check in and catch  flights. But – Eflow  don’t make it easy to pay do they?  How many outlets are there at Dublin airport to pay the M50 toll and how well signposted are they? If someone is going on a 2 week holiday – the €3 toll quickly becomes a €47.50 charge including penalties (after 14 days) when they arrive back home.

It is supposed to possible to register with Eflow for a “post-pay” video recognition account – which will charge you when you pass under the toll plaza and bill you monthly (debit or credit card). This registration facility does not seem to be working correctly on the Eflow.ie website. I personally tried 5 times to register my car before going to Dublin Airport – and the system just wouldn’t let me do it. There are plenty of other people who seem to have had a similar problem here.

I can’t understand why anyone using the M50 more than once year doesn’t register for an account (if the eflow system lets them) as outlined in our M50 Toll Charges article last August it works out cheaper and could save motorists €100 million a year in fines.