EBS – maybe hoping to attract some Halifax customers – are now offering 10 months of  0% interest on balance transfers to all new Credit Card customers.
The card is an MBNA credit card  see other interest free credit card offers here.

With Halifax announcing this week it was pulling out of Ireland  – next week  First Active will cease operations in Ireland. The First Active closure did not have as much effect – because they have merged some operations with Ulster Bank .  Both Ulster and First Active banks are owned by Royal Bank of Scotland. The First Active closures were announced in Sept 09

The Firstactive.ie website is already out of action – and First Active  will cease to exist as a bank in Ireland from Monday 15th February.

There are about 400 thousand customers who are all being transferred to  Ulster Bank . Customers are being told that they will not be required to do anything after the transfer of the First Active IT systems into Ulster Bank.

Ulster Bank are also hoping that many of the 50 thousand ex Halifax banking customers will transfer to them. Ulster are going ot be opening some of it’s branches near Halifax branches till 7pm to help Halifax customers switch accounts. The Ulster Visa Debit card and fee free banking will be attractive to many Halifax customers.

With the announcement that Halifax are pulling out of Ireland – many of it’s credit card holders will have a problem. Halifax Ireland credit card accounts will no longer work from the end of May 2010 . You will not be able to use your Halifax credit card to purchase anything  after that date.

Switching Credit Card
If you clear your balance every month – then you will  have the hassle of applying to another credit card provider for a new one – but it should be fairly straightforward if your credit history is OK.
If your main reason for having a credit card is just to use it for online shopping – then you could consider getting a Visa Debit card from Ulster Bank.
Many Halifax customers had  Visa Debit cards – so a lot of them will probably be switching current accounts to Ulster Bank who are currently the only other Irish bank issuing Visa Debit cards.

Lowest Rates
The lowest APR on  a credit card in Ireland is currently 8.5% from AIB Click. (on purchases).  Bank of Ireland currently offer 9.5% APR on it’s “Clear” Credit Card.

Balance Transfers
If you pay off your balance every month – then the APR or interest rate might not really bother you that much. Some of the card providers  have introductory offers such as interest free credit for a short period of time – but be careful not to go too mad on the spending. See our list of the best credit card introductory offers here.

If you have a large outstanding balance on your Halifax Credit card you may be accepted by one of the other credit card providers – but it is possible that your application will be rejected . You may be lucky enough to be accepted by one of the providers offering 10 months or 6 months at 0% interest on balance transfers.

Personal Loans
If no other credit card provider in Ireland will take you on – and  you have a large outstanding credit card balance – Halifax may agree to convert this into a fixed rate personal loan – but this is not guaranteed.
Each case will probably be dealt with by Halifax individually.
The Best Personal loan rates are  around 10% at the moment – which would be a better option than paying something like the 13.4% APR on the credit card. Some loan rates are as high as 14.3% APR though.

Halifax – the retail banking arm of  Bank of Scotland (Ireland) – is closing all it’s 44 branches in Ireland. Halifax is pulling out of the Irish market and is no longer taking on any new customers as from 10th February 2010 . Branch closures will begin  from May 2010. All Halifax branches in Ireland are expected to be closed by the end  June 2010. About 750 jobs will be lost.
These closures were predicted in the Sunday Tribune as far back as July 2009.

Mortgages, personal loans and fixed rate savings with Halifax will  still operate to maturity – but deposits in Halifax that are not fixed term will have to be taken elsewhere.
See our list of the Best Savings Rates here for alternatives.

Halifax – as recently as April 2009 had the lowest mortgage rate in Ireland - but a sudden increase in May was probably a result of problems at parent group Lloyds. They are often credited with the introduction of tracker mortgages to Ireland  -  which other lenders soon copied.
Lloyds took over Halifax Bank Of Scotland (HBOS)  in January 2009  and was “bailed out” by the UK government – which now owns  43% of Lloyds.

The closure of Halifax means that their Flexisaver account will be replaced at the top of our  Instant Access Best Buys by another UK bank – Nationwide UK (Ireland) .

Halifax customers are being told that they  “do not need to do anything at this stage and all their savings and investments remain secure. All affected customers will be contacted shortly on what the next steps are, if any.”

Bank of Scotland (Ireland) are also withdrawing from the Irish mortgage market but they say they are “  committed to maintaining a strong presence in the commercial and corporate banking markets in Ireland.”

The Bank of Scotland (Ireland) intermediary business, which provides residential mortgages through brokers, motor finance and commercial asset finance, will  close to new business but  will continue serving existing customers.

Under Islamic Sharia law , making money from money by charging interest is deemed unfair and is not permitted. Sharia Law’s terms include  strict limits on insurance, as well as other restrictions on financial services and trading.

Some provisions have been included in a new Finance Bill  in Ireland to cover  financing arrangements compliant with the principles of Sharia law. The bill also extends  the tax treatment applicable to conventional finance transactions to Sharia compliant transactions.
Islamic equity funds are a growth industry and  their assets are estimated to be  €3.5 billion worldwide.

Buying Property Under Sharia Rules  :

There are three models of Home Purchase Plans (HPPs):
Ijara, which means ‘lease’ in Arabic;
Musharaka, which means ‘partnership’;
and Murabaha, meaning ‘profit’.

Depending on the model, the lender will levy rent or add profit to the amount you pay back instead of charging interest.

An Ijara is a lease-to-own plan: the bank purchases the property you want then leases it out to you. At the end of the lease the bank transfers ownership of the property to you.

Under a Musharaka plan  you buy the property jointly with your provider and gradually buy them out. So if you put down 10 per cent of the purchase price, the bank will buy the remaining 90 per cent. You pay the bank monthly rent on the share you don’t own as well as buying more shares in the property with each monthly payment, with a view to owning the property outright at the end of the term. The more shares you own, the less rent you pay to the bank, and the cost of a share in the property is based on the property’s original cost price, not its market value.

In a Murabaha plan, the bank will buy the property you want then immediately sell it on to you for a profit. You then pay fixed monthly repayments on the higher price, but with no interest to pay back to the bank. So the bank might buy a property that costs £200,000 and sell it on to a customer for £250,000; the customer then pays that sum back over a fixed term.

In the UK The selling of HPPs came under the Financial Services Authority’s regulation in 2007 – , so buyers  get the same protection as if they taken out a conventional mortgage. All Islamic finance providers in the UK use the Libor index as the benchmark for rental payments.
Irish banks are not complete strangers to Sharia finances.In 2004 – Bristol & West, one of the leading mortgage providers in the UK and part of the Bank of Ireland Group,  launched the Alburaq Islamic home finance facility.

Islamic finance products are not just for Muslims – around 2 per cent of the Islamic Bank of Britain’s  customer base are non-Muslim and don’t choose the bank for religious reasons, but for ethical ones. Islamic banks will not invest in firms involved with gambling, alcohol, tobacco or pornography.

In Ireland the Irish Housing Corporation (IHC), started offering Sharia compliant  “no interest” 12- to 15-year home loans on properties owned by his development company in late 2009. Dr Faheem Bukhatwa, a member of Irish Islamic Investments, was involved with drawing up the system. He said it was similar to the Sharia-compliant products offered by financial institutions in the UK. He apparently ran a symposium some years ago for the Irish banks to try to encourage them to introduce these products to Ireland but they didn’t see any benefits at the time. There were some problems with Stamp Duty . Revenue want stamp duty to be paid at the end of the loan arrangement in 12 to 15 years’ time. But because the entire purchase price is agreed at the outset, it is impossible to predict what the stamp-duty rates will be in 12 or 15 years.

As expected – the ECB did not announce any change to interest rates today. The 1% interest rate has been in place since May 2009 (See ECB Rate History Here).
Financial problems in Greece, Portugal and Spain and here in Ireland are slowing the overall Eurozone recovery. When the ECB met in January, they were cautiously optimistic and there were no reasons why they should change their stance at this time. Given uneven growth and low inflation, Trichet said last month that the current level of interest rates is still “appropriate” and that quarterly GDP will be up and down.

Earlier today the Bank of England kept interest rates at 0.5% and also announced that it was putting its 11-month, £200bn programme of asset purchases, known as quantitative easing, on hold.  The BOE monetary policy committee  said that while the UK economy was likely to continue its gradual recovery, they were  concerned that credit conditions in the economy were likely to remain “restrictive”.

Irish Nationwide have today lowered the interest rates on at least 2 of their deposit accounts.
The Instant Access account rate has been dropped from 3.75% to 3.25%.
The INBS regular saver account – was 4.35% but is now 1% lower at 3.35%.

See the  updated lists of Best On Demand Interest Rates and
Best Interest Rates on Regular Saver Accounts