Here are the latest Dell Ireland Discount codes  – updated regularly.  The codes usually get you 5% off – which doesn’t sound great – but when you are buying something close to €1000 – it’s worth another €50 off.

As expected – PTSB have confirmed that variable rate mortgages will rise from 3.19% to 3.69% on Monday 1st February 2010.
The rise will affect about 80,000 mortgage holders – around 45% of its home mortgage customers.
Increased repayments on a 50k mortgage will be  about €15 a month
On a 150k mortgage – the payments will go up by €40 a month
A 250k loan will have increased repayments of €66 a month
A 300k mortgage will mean increase of €80 a month

See some alternatives to PTSB Variable Rates here
- PTSB currently have the lowest 5 year fixed rate mortgage if your LTV is under 50% and you are a new customer.

Best 3 year Fixed rates

Best 5 year fixed rates

Anglo Irish Bank are no longer accepting new applications to open a regular saver account – which was paying 4% AER on deposits of up to €1000 a month.
The account could only be held for a year.
See the latest rates on Regular Saver Accounts in Ireland

It has been reported in the Sunday Business Post that PTSB  (Permanent TSB) are planning another half percent rise to variable mortgages for existing customers.
The last PTSB rate rise back in July 2009 sparked a lot of reaction and we even saw protests on the streets and the setting up of the Irish Peoples Union! (What good did they do?)
PTSB it seems -  developed an overreliance on the wholesale funding market. Also, – a large proportion  of Permanent TSB’s €40 billion loan book is made up of tracker mortgages that are costing  more to fund than the bank receives in monthly payments from borrowers.

The actual PTSB standard variable rate each customer is on could be different . The number of PTSB customers affected could be somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 – the actual number is not known.
A  PTSB borrower with a mortgage of  300k over 25 years will see repayments increase by about €80 a month if these rate rises are correct.

Moving on  to one of PTSB’s fixed rates is not really a viable option – they range from 5.25% to 6.1% . Switching to another lender with better rates may be possible for some borrowers  – but not all.  Anyone who owes more than 80% of the value of the house may find it difficult to switch . If you owe less than 80% – i.e your LTV is less than 80% – it might be worthwhile considering a switch. No harm in asking !
Of course – there is nothing to stop the other Irish lenders from raising their standard variable rates in the near future – so a switch to another lender’s variable rate may not save you very much . There are legal fees involved in  switching -  anything from €500 to €1000 and a valuation fee of around €100 to €150.
We wrote here about some pros and cons of switching to a fixed rate a few days ago.
There are 5 year fixed rates still available as low as 3.86% (AIB) and 3.99% (BOI)
There are also  3 year fixed rates as low as 3.15% (Irish Nationwide).

While we were  all worrying  about snow and NAMA ,  taxes and pay cuts – On January 12, a massive earthquake struck Haiti outside the capital of Port-Au-Prince. The devastation is severe: the capital is in ruins, thousands are feared dead, and many more critically injured.
As bad as we may think things are in Ireland – our worries are nothing compared to those facing the people of Haiti.

You can donate money online to some of the charities who will be involved in the relief work in Haiti at the links below . Every little helps… it only takes a few seconds.  Thanks

Donate to Unicef Paypal Accepted

Trocaire

Medicine Sans Frontiere

Global Giving –   Paypal Accepted

Goal

With ECB rates still at an all time low – and with hints of a possible rise on the way because of EU inflation – is now a good time to fix your mortgage rate ?
Variable mortgage rates are still as low as as they have ever been – and some of the lowest  fixed rate mortgages are looking attractive if you can get them.

The lowest  3 year fixed rate available in Ireland now is  3.19% from AIB.
AIB also offer the best  5 Year fixed rate of  3.86% .
See the lowest 3 year fixed rates here – Lowest 5 Year fixed Rates here

If you are already with AIB on a variable rate mortgage  -  it should be just a matter of asking to go on to the fixed rate. There should be no fees to switch from variable to fixed with the same lender . Fixing your rate is not definitely going to be a better option for all borrowers – especially those already on a low variable rate or tracker rate.
If you need to switch lenders to get a good fixed rate – it might be more difficult and costly. Most lenders will only lend up to 92% of the value  of the property – so if the value of your house has fallen a lot – you may not be able to switch to a new lender. (more…)

There are three main  health insurance providers in Ireland – VHI , Quinn Direct and  Aviva. The health insurance market in Ireland is estimated to be worth over €1 billion in premiums each year.

The Health Insurance Authority has set  up a price comparison site for Private Health Insurance in Ireland.

An initial search on the  HIA comparison site -  shows up no less than 182 different health insurance price plans available in Ireland – ranging from the cheapest at €144 per adult per year to the most expensive at €2640 per adult per year. The amount of different plans and variations in levels of cover provided is mind boggling – it must be easy for people to get confused by all the options available.
(more…)

We wrote about the ECCE scheme as far back as April 2009 . This scheme was introduced  to allow children  to  receive free pre-school provision of 3 hours per day, 5 days each week over a 38 week year. The pre-school providers will get a  weekly capitation  of €64.50 per child and parents  will not be charged.
The deadline for parents to register with a provider for the ECCE scheme was January 13th 2010 but Barry Andrews, the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, has extended the  deadline for parents to  January 20th. The  the deadline for childcare providers to return the forms to the department is now  January 29

Children in the pre-school year who were born between 2 February 2005 and 30 June 2006, will be eligible for the scheme . Parents of children in this age range can avail of the pre-school year by enrolling their child in a local participating pre-school service.If a parent has not yet enrolled a child in this age range for a Pre-School Year place, they should do so now. If a parent is unsure of how to go about doing this, s/he should contact the local City or County Childcare Committee for information.

There are about 4,200 organisations  offering the scheme, but some providers have not signed up because of the rule that parents could not top up the fees paid by the state for sessional care.

Under the scheme, the government will pay pre-schools a maximum of €64.50 to cover three hours of early childhood education for five days each week. That works out at a monthly payment of €258 for a four-week month. However, many pre-schools in urban areas charge well over €500 a month for a child who attends for 15 hours a week.