Key Post: Money Saving Tips/Advice.

another money saving tip...

I was in Boots, Liffey Valley the other day and they had Christmas tree decorations at bargain prices! They had baubles/balls reduced from €13.50 down to €1.50! Surely the bargain of the year!!

Re: "prohibitive solicitors fees"

yes but baubles are loike sooo out of fashion

Married

You save loads by getting married in a registry office !
Just have a big party after .. Also have 2 kids instead of 3.. and try not to live too long - you spend more that way.

gettin caught up

Did ne one know if about a really simple way to do this
i wish i had been shown earlier to avoid late fees and such ne way here is an example Take say your biggest monthly bill like your Mortgage for instance most are to high and we scrimp and save and reach to high heaven just to make it 750.00 take this ur mortgage and first check divide that in half at the end of the month you should have the other if you werent out spending it on that thing you just had to have or that new outfit
and this works on every bill known to man. Best way I know worked for me if ne one try's this please let me know if it worked for then we can spread the word for free of course and eliminate that pesky middle man all together you know the one who's living of late fee's sailing the world or whatever they feel like doing cause we the consumer paid for it. You'll see a major change
once you've caught up retrain your mind to pay extra on
every bill you have that way if something chaotic was to happen your bills are caught up example layoffs you wont have to worry to much about filing a bankruptcy cause no one willing to give a little helping or you just cant find a job that fits your needs.

reducing term or mortgage

I came accross this on another message board:

"We've just discovered that if you change your mortgage repayments from monthly to fortnightly you could take about 4 years off your mortgage (exact difference will depend on your loan and term). We are both paid fortnightly and on enquiring we discovered this SECRET.... Your mortgage is accruing interest on a DAILY BASIS (something else we didn't know) so, if your money is just sitting there waiting to be claimed by your bank at the end of the month, change your payments to fortnightly! EBS dont have this facility but BOI, AAIB and NIB do."

Apparently this works weekly and daily also:

"It's hard to summarise, so here is an example working :
Suppose you borrow 100,000 on week 1.
By week 2 you owe 100,050, by week 3 you owe 100,105, by week 4 you owe 100,160.
Note that your interest amount goes up each time because you owe more and more money each week due to last weeks interest.
This is as normal.
Now, suppose you pay off 50 on week 2 - this brings your debt down to 100,000 again. This means on week 3 you owe 100,050 and week 4 you owe 100,105. You pay off 105 and are back down to 100,000 again.
The difference between the two scenarios is that in the fist one you accrued (owed) 160 of iterest, while in the second one you accrued 155. You saved 5 by paying earlier.
Obviously the example above is using totally imaginary figures, but it is given as an example.
Please note that this only works if your provider calculates interest weekly or fortnightly or even daily. If they only calculate monthly then there is absolutely no advantage to be gained."

sorry about the long post. I found this on rollercoaster.ie under money matters on their discussion board.

Bank charges

Hi Sean

Is there a limit on how much you have to be in credit by for the Ulster Bank to get free banking?

e.g. AIB = 400 in credit

Re: Bank charges

AIB no longer provide free banking, even if your account is kept in credit.

Avon

This company (who I have no connection with) has saved me a fortune. If you can discipline yourself to their special offers they offer really good value e.g I've just purchased the whole families sun block/care products for next summer for under €25 (they keep).

IMO their make-up and skincare products are as good as the big brands.

reducing term or mortgage

Sue, Why not just make 2 weeks extra payment up front and you'll do even better

reducing mortgage

Because your mortgage lender may not allow you to pay in such a way. It all depends on the lending institution. I just read the post elsewhere and thought I'd through it into the mix. I havn't tried it myself cos I only started my mortgage last week and I havn't had time to think but I'll give the lender a call and see what happens, can't hurt to try?

Re: Avon

Also, if your lender is one of those that persists in calculating interest annually (e.g. Irish Nationwide only as far as I know) or monthly (e.g. EBS, maybe others?) rather than daily then making capital repayments more frequently than this doesn't save you anything in interest costs.

Re: reducing term or mortgage

You do save interest by making capital repayments on any mortgage, even if the interest is calculated on the balance outstanding at the start of the year. If you make a capital repayment, they will give you an interest credit for it.

For example, if you pay €10,000 on 1 July on a mortgage with a 5% interest rate, you will get a credit of €250 ( 10,000 @ 5% for 6 months)

You must specify that it is a capital repayment. Otherwise, people like the Irish Nationwide will treat is as payments in advance and give you not interest credit.

There may be a minimum amount which an institution will accept as a capital repayment. From memory, it used to be £500

Brendan

Re: reducing mortgage

Sorry - my mistake. I meant making accelerated repayments which are not explicitly arranged to reduce the capital but are possibly held on account and used at the next interest milestone (e.g. monthly) to repay the mortgage. Apologies for any confusion caused!

Capital Payments

I recently inquired with my mortgage provider about making a lump sum payment of my mortgage. As per previous postings on AAM I specified that I wanted to make it a capital payment. I was told that this was not possible and that the lump sum would be put against the interest.

Anyone have any feedback as to whether or not the provider is obliged to make the lump sum a capital payment? And what is better in the long run, for the lump sum to be offset against the capital or the interest?

Thanks

C

Re: reducing term or mortgage

Who is the provider, Capaill? Is your mortgage fixed or variable rate?

Re: reducing mortgage

Hi Rainyday

Provider is Permanent TSB and it is a variable mortgage.

Thanks

C

Re: Capital Payments

I thought that lenders were obliged to allow such capital repayments without restriction (other than perhaps specifying a reasonable minimum amount allowed) or penalty on variable rate mortgages? I made several lump sum capital repayments on my EBS mortgage without any problems in the past. Did they give a specific reason why they ostensibly don't allow this?

Re: reducing term or mortgage

Hi Clubman

Apologies for late reply.

No reason was given except that it was their policy to take lump sums against the interest and not the capital. Even asked for the person on the phone to check with her supervisor and she confirmed same thing.

C

Re: reducing term or mortgage

it was their policy to take lump sums against the interest and not the capital

Click to expand...

I don't know what this even means, in the context of a variable rate mortgage. Your regular monthly payment is broken down as capital & interest, but how could an additional payment be taken 'against the interest'?

Re: Capital Payments

Hi Rainyday

I was confused by that answer as well. I said to the person on their customer support desk I want the lump sum to be offset against my capital. I was then told that all extra payments, be that lump sum or additional monthly payments are used to pay off the interest first and then from the capital. When I asked for clarification she put me on hold to speak to her supervisor and came back with the same story. No matter what I said she reiterated that the interest would be paid off first. I have asked that they sent me out the relevant forms and documentation, maybe that will provide a better answer than their own customer services people.

Cheers

C