advice needed first time buyers & clueless!

Myself and my husband are purchasing our first home, we initially wanted to build our own home but after two years no sites have came up in the location we want so we decided to buy our first home in a housing estate it wont be our forever home but its a good start!

However I have two questions, we have applied with AIB & BOI and we were offered a mortgage with BOI of E370,000 for 5 years fixed at 3% with a cash back incentive, since then I have been doing a bit of research and noticed they recently rolled out a 4 year fixed term @ 2.3% but no cash back offer - I think going with the lower rate is a better option however my husband reckons the cash back option works out better - surely the bank are not giving us free money?

Second question, since availing of our mortgage approval a family member has given us quite a large gift of E100,000 - as we are hoping to buy a site in the near future are we better to hold onto the cash or use it against our mortgage and lower our monthly repayments ?

Rest assured the bank is not giving out free money.you will pay a lot more for the free cash

Jameson1987 said:

5 years fixed at 3% with a cash back incentive, since then I have been doing a bit of research and noticed they recently rolled out a 4 year fixed term @ 2.3% but no cash back offer

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You're comparing a 4 year vs 5 year rate. If you work it out fir 5 year rate, including the additional cash back at year end of year 5, it works out about the total cost as taking the lower rate without cashback.

What's the BER rating? If its B3 or better you get a .3% discount on those BOI rates.

Its a c1 unfortunately !