Stena Line - have a promotion running   that will get you £50 discount on ferry travel between Stranraer and  Belfast on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday
The discount  is valid on Economy, Flexi or Premium motorist return fares and can be used until 25th August.
Visit this page to  book and get your discount

This discount is available for  outward travel until 31 August 2010 on the Stena Line Stranraer Belfast route only, subject to availability.Return travel may be made up to 13 September 2010 inclusive.

If travel one way is midweek, then the discount will be £25 per booking.
Offer not valid in conjunction with any other offer, promotion or discount.

Tesco Clubcard tokens cannot be used as full or part payment.

Full payment must be made at the time of booking.

Check  out  our comparison of  Irish Travel Insurance Prices

Is there really that much difference in the price of travel insurance in Ireland? Is it worth shopping around to save money?

We obtained some online quotes for a  single 1 week  trip in Europe for a group  of 6 (4 adults and 2 children aged 16 and 7).
The insurance quotes we obtained all include cover  for cancellation, missed departure, baggage loss, personal belongings as well as medical cover

Insurancebookers.ie €54.75
AA €66.66
Getcover.ie €77.50
Gosure €78.76
123.ie €83.80

One thing we did discover – is that the level of insurance cover varies drastically between the various policies. So our advice is be sure before you buy a travel insurance policy that you know what the policy covers you for . Don’t just buy the cheapest option and assume it will be OK  – because you may not have the cover you thought you had.

For example -  if we had selected the  €52.46 “Bronze” option with 123.ie  – it would not pay out anything at all for cancellation,  curtailment or  loss of baggage .
We could have got a cheaper single trip policy for just €44.75 from Insurancebookers – (Silver)  which had  cover of up to, €1500 for cancellation, €700 for baggage and €450 for missed departure

The cheapest travel insurance we found online – with the level of cover that we wanted was from InsuranceBookers at €54.75 . The  policy included cover of up to €7000 for cancellation or curtailment, €3000 for baggage, €1000 for missed departure  as well as  €10 million Medical expenses.

The AA Travel policy ( €66.66) included cover of upto €6000 for cancellation or curtailment, €3000 for baggage, €800 for missed departure , €11 million Medical expenses.

Getcover insurance (€77.50) would cover upto  €7000 for cancellation € 5000 for abandonment , €2500 for baggage, €2000 for missed departure , €10 million Medical expenses.

Gosure policy cover (€78.76) includes up to €6000 for cancellation or abandonment , €1800 for baggage, €360 for missed departure , €60 million Medical expenses.

123.ie policy  cover  (€83.80) includes  upto  €7000 for cancellation or abandonment , €3000 for baggage, €1000 for missed departure , €10 million Medical expenses.

We were also quoted the following prices online for annual travel cover (Europe No Ski)  – so it would only be worth this group getting annual cover if they were having more than 4 trips abroad in a year.

Insurancebookers.ie €225
123.ie  €229.83
Getcover.ie  €230
AA  €240.34
Gosure  €297.90

All prices quoted  online on July 27th 2010

Read here about Volcanic Ash and Travel Insurance

You can get 25% discount off all the FAMILY range of products at Ikea Dublin as well as free Tea and Coffee on weekdays . You just have to  sign up for the Ikea Family card – it’s free. You can’t do it online – you have to sign up in the Dublin Ikea shop which is located  in Ballymun just of J4 of the M50
Read more here
If you use the Belfast Ikea or any other UK Ikea – you can register for your Family Card online here

Earlier this week EBS announced that it’s variable mortgage rates would rise by 0.6%  to 3.83% from August 1st.
Now PTSB has said that it is also to increase its standard variable rate by 0.5 per cent to 4.19 per cent from August 3rd 2010.

PTSB say that about  80,000 customers will be affected by the rate rise.

There is increasing growing speculation that other lenders will  announce similar rate hikes during the summer even though the  European Central Bank Rate has been at an  historic low of 1 per cent since May 2009

See the Lowest Mortgage Rates here (they will be updated with EBS and PTSB rates when they come into effect)

The Irish goverment blanket guarantee of all deposits in Irish banks was originally due to expire on Sept 29th 2010.  After agreement from the European Commission – the guarantee has now been extended – but only to the end of December 2010.

Deposits of up to €100,000 are unaffected, and are protected under the Irish Deposit Protection Scheme, which has no end date.

See more about Deposit Guarantees here.