# Money in Bank but can't get it out



## elainem (24 Nov 2011)

I have money in the bank. It is in an 18 mth fixed interest account. The 18mth term is not due untill April. However, given the way things are I have decided to take some of the money out and pay off my mortgage. The sum invested is e160k, my mortgage is e30,000.

The bank previously told me there would be no problem accessing the funds. They said that if I broke the term before the 18 months, the interest rate would revert to 1%. 

They said there would be no problem accessing the funds previously - I have it on email. Now, they are saying it could take 2 wks to 1 month. What can I do?


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## ClubMan (24 Nov 2011)

Check the terms & conditions of the account to see what restrictions or penalties there are on accessing the money before the full term is up. If they don't tally with the information in the email then you could try haggling with them ...Telling them that you want to use some of it to clear the mortgage might pique their interest in this day and age!


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## elainem (24 Nov 2011)

*Money in the bank but can't get it out*

Hi! Clubman, thanks for your reply. There is no other penalty in the terms and conditions except that the intrest rate on the remainder would revert to 1%.


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## ClubMan (24 Nov 2011)

Go back to them and ask why it will take 2-4 weeks to access the money if that is not stipulated in the terms & conditions.


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## Lightning (24 Nov 2011)

Exactly, challenge the bank and escalate your issue, based on what you said the bank has no justification to a 2-4 week delay.


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## the-madman (24 Nov 2011)

Unfortunately if you fix your money for a certain time its locked and only under discretion of the Bank. 
That's what the T&Ss will tell you.  

So 2 -4 weeks will be difficult to challenge. 

But .. If you have it written from the Bank that they will not charge you an exit fee,  I would challenge it with their management. 

However even this is usually at banks discretion and you are lucky to get this written and have something to confront their policies and their "lies".

Now .. what kind of mortgage do you have? 

If its interest rate is less than the interest or the loss you will make on your savings or if they don't offer you some bonus for repaying it (and I haven't yet heard about any clever bank giving a repay bonus) why do you want to pay them back early and take yourself the loss?


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## elainem (24 Nov 2011)

*Money in the bank but can't get it out*

I want to pay my mortgage off because I fear that the eruo will go and the value of my money will be much reduced, and I don't want to be left with a mortgage if that happens.

My account said that loads of his clients are using their savings to pay down debt and he is not telling them that they shouldn't!


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## ClubMan (25 Nov 2011)

Paying down debt is not a bad idea in general regardless of the prevailing macroeconomic climate.


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## DoctorEvil (25 Nov 2011)

elainem said:


> I want to pay my mortgage off because I fear that the eruo will go and the value of my money will be much reduced, and I don't want to be left with a mortgage if that happens.



Not sure I understand this.

If your mortgage is in the same currency as your savings aren't they subject to the same valuation fluctuation?


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## JoeB (25 Nov 2011)

(If your mortgage is in the same currency as your savings aren't they subject to the same valuation fluctuation?)
Not in my opinion, but perhaps.

If you owe money to a foreign bank, denominated in Euros,.. it is not certain that that account would revert to Punt Nuas. I feel foreign banks will demand payment in Euros, on the day the payment is due. So Punt Nuas may have to be exhanged for Euros before each payment.


Again, .. if your savings are not in Ireland then an Irish default, or an Irish exit from the Euro may not force a currency conversion for your foreign held euros. (savings)


No-one seems to know what will happen... but it seems unlikely to me that foreign lenders will voluntarilly agree to redominate euro loans into a rapidly devaluing Punt Nua.


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## elainem (25 Nov 2011)

*Money in the bank but can't get it out*

Hi! Thanks for the replies. My money is in an Irish bank. My mortgage is also with an Irish bank. I want to take the money out because of fear of euro collapsing so I want to have paid off my debts.


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## the-madman (25 Nov 2011)

There are really many things coming together as one. 

If the mortgage and the savings are in Ireland they devalue at the same time so you still can offset your savings to the debts. 

If you are plannign to use your money in foreign currencies to reduce the risk of devaluation then you can read many other posts with advises and discussions if its worth to move money out. 

But ... I still cant believe that everyone believes that the EUR will die overnight. 
Its not that anyone can wake up and say from now were out. 

It took years to get the Euro what do you expect how it will take to get an punt into again? loads of things will need to be changed for this stunt. So its very unlikely this will happen at all. This EURO project will just ruin a few countries and they will have to go to receivership and write their debts off and then they can leave and try to start again. That's it. 


@Clubman
"Paying down debt is not a bad idea in general regardless of the prevailing macroeconomic climate."

But why should someone do this to do a favour to the banks. You usually pay your interest on the borrowing in the first years, the rest is the repayment. So you pay off and free yourself but you are no getting any benefit and give money for free to the bank. 

Unless you get either a bonus on the repay or can really save money with this I don't see a real need to repay the mortgage. If you are on tracker even better for you cause then you pay less that you get interests. 
but if you have to pull the money from fixed account and loose all of your interest you earned.... why then do it .. to give the bank money twice??   

I really don't get the point but maybe I need to work for a bank to understand how to really rip of money from people?


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## ClubMan (25 Nov 2011)

the-madman said:


> @Clubman
> "Paying down debt is not a bad idea in general regardless of the prevailing macroeconomic climate."
> 
> But why should someone do this to do a favour to the banks. You usually pay your interest on the borrowing in the first years, the rest is the repayment. So you pay off and free yourself but you are no getting any benefit and give money for free to the bank.


I don't understand your reasoning here. The money is owed by the borrower to the lender. It's generally to the borrower's advantage to pay it off sooner rather than later (although individual circumstances vary).


> I really don't get the point but maybe I need to work for a bank to understand how to really rip of money from people?


No idea what you're on about here. Sounds like you're living up to your pseudonym though.


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## the-madman (26 Nov 2011)

ClubMan said:


> I don't understand your reasoning here. The money is owed by the borrower to the lender. It's generally to the borrower's advantage to pay it off sooner rather than later (although individual circumstances vary).
> No idea what you're on about here. Sounds like you're living up to your pseudonym though.




Basic calculation.
If you borrow 100k for 5% for 10 Years. you are stick with 127,278.62 of repayment to the bank. Now usually you repay first calculative the interests on the repayment rates and then towards the end of the mortgage you go towards repaying your real debts. 
look here this shows nicely how the repayments looks like
http://www.hsh.com/calc-amort.html

so if you are almost at the end of the mortgage you have payed the majority of interest anyway and will unlikely get any benefit from the bank on repaying the mortgage. you do to them a favor in repaying them earlier and freeing their risk and money. so you repay 100k + 27k interests just earlier and give the bank a present.

But you take the hit of getting less interests when pulling the money from the savings account like in the op case or if you have a good rate where the savings bring more money than the mortgage cost you.

I even heard about (but have not seen myself so not sure how true that might be) dodgy small prints in T&Cs where you even have to pay a "handling premium" for repaying earlier.


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