@PatrickJK Your break fee should be zero at the moment – but it is volatile because wholesale interest rates are volatile, so confirm it with Bank of Ireland (and please post it here when you receive it, including the date of the letter).
- Current lender BOI
- Outstanding mortgage balance (how much you still owe) ~200,000
- Approximate value of your property 270,000
- The date you started your fixed-rate mortgage (month and year) Dec 2019 (first time buyer, start of a 30 year mortgage)
- How many years you fixed for 5
- Your current mortgage interest rate 3%
- Your current monthly repayment (excluding any overpayments) 885.74
- Your property's BER (Building Energy Rating) – D1
- Are you due to get extra cashback from your current lender in the future, e.g., "1% after 5 years", or "2% cashback monthly"? If so, how much and when? 2100 in Dec 2024
Your break fee should be zero at the moment – but it is volatile because wholesale interest rates are volatile, so confirm it with Bank of Ireland (and please post it here when you receive it, including the date of the letter).
- Switching immediately to Permanent TSB's 4-year fixed rate (2.05% with 2% monthly cashback) will save you about €3,980 over the next 4 years
- Note that Permanent TSB discriminate between new and existing customers, i.e., their best rates are not available to existing customers
- For example, if you were an existing Permanent TSB customer, the best rate you would be able to switch to today is 2.95%
- So if you switch to them now, you will not be eligible to switch to one of their low rates in the future and you will end up on a higher interest rate. When that happens, you may want to switch again to another lender, which will incur costs (and it might be impossible to switch if your financial situation has deteriorated).
- Switching immediately to Avant Money's 7-year fixed rate (2.15% with no cashback) will save you about €2,720 over the next 4 years – but with the longer security of 7 years on a fixed rate
- Switching immediately to Avant Money's 10-year fixed rate (2.3% with no cashback) will save you about €1,560 over the next 4 years – but with the even-longer security of 10 years on a fixed rate
- Switching immediately to Finance Ireland's 10- or 15-year fixed rate (2.65% with no cashback) will leave you worse off by about €1,140 over the next 4 years – but with the even-longer security of 15 years on a fixed rate
- This product has a benefit in relation to moving home in the future that is explained below
- And your interest rate (initially 2.65%) will automatically fall as time passes and you move into lower loan-to-value (LTV) brackets. See the section "How we decide rate reductions" on this page.
- Switching immediately to Bank of Ireland's 5-year fixed rate (3.0% with the 1% (€2,100) cashback in December 2024) will leave you worse off by about €250 over the next 4 years (or worse off by about €400 if they make you get a new valuation). But it is very simple and quick to do (no bank statements, salary cert or solicitor, etc., needed).
These savings estimates use for comparison the scenario of switching to the 2.90% rate with Bank of Ireland when the current fixed rate ends. And that's assuming that Bank of Ireland are even offering a 2.90% rate in December 2024 – it could be higher (or lower). You would get the Bank of Ireland €2,100 future cashback in such a scenario, and the savings estimates account for this. The estimates also account for any fees (solicitors' fees, valuation fee) that you have to pay and any cashback offered by the above lenders.
All of Avant's rates, and Finance Ireland's 10-year and longer fixed rates, allow you to avoid any potential break fee if you move home in the future (as long as you take out a new mortgage with them, and subject to certain conditions). And in the case of Finance Ireland you can "take your mortgage with you" – meaning that you get to keep the same interest rate when you move (again, subject to certain conditions).
The estimates also assume that your loan-to-value ratio (LTV) is currently 199.6k/270.0k = 73.9%. A slightly higher property valuation (€286k) and/or a few more monthly mortgage payments and/or a small overpayment would get you into a lower LTV bracket (< 70%), and you would be eligible for lower rates from Avant and Finance Ireland. But that is probably not a good reason to delay the switch – i.e., you can start the switch immediately.
If you want savings estimates for longer-term fixed rates, let me know.
UB Breakage Calculation = (Redeemed Amount x (R-R1) x Time) divided by 360 |
Your break fee should be around €1,180 at the moment – but it is volatile because wholesale interest rates are volatile, so confirm it with Ulster Bank (and please post it here when you receive it, including the date of the letter).
- Current lender - UB
- Outstanding mortgage balance (how much you still owe) - €342k
- Approximate value of your property - €470 to €550 range (€467 based on UB index, €550 based on last 3 Comps from houses in my Estate Avg. of 3 sold in Aug 21 Feb 22 Apr 22 exact same house - 4 year old new build)
- The date you started your fixed-rate mortgage (month and year) - Oct 2018
- How many years you fixed for - 4 Years
- Your current mortgage interest rate - 2.6%
- Your current monthly repayment (excluding any overpayments) - €1465.10 but are overpaying as €1,600 p/m
- Your property's BER (Building Energy Rating) – check it here or estimate it if necessary - A3
- Are you due to get extra cashback from your current lender in the future, e.g., "1% after 5 years", or "2% cashback monthly"? If so, how much and when? Nope.
@trickinthewall Your break fee should be zero at the moment.Current lender: Ulster
Outstanding mortgage balance: 130k
Approximate value of your property: 410k
Date Fixed Term Ending: 31/03/2023 (was fixed for 2 years)
Your current mortgage interest rate: 2.2%
Your current monthly repayment: €1,550
Your property's BER: A3
Are you due to get extra cashback from your current lender in the future: No
You could do this but it may not be the best use of your savings. Your priorities should usually be:Also, is it a good idea to pay off the mortgage since I can afford to do that and be debt free which will allow me to think about buying another property sometime later without having to worry about two mortgages?
Thanks @Paul F! - Really appreciate the detailed reply.Your break fee should be around €1,180 at the moment – but it is volatile because wholesale interest rates are volatile, so confirm it with Ulster Bank (and please post it here when you receive it, including the date of the letter).
... ...
A question for you: Did Ulster Bank tell you that the deadline for topups has passed? Because this FAQ page seems to say that the deadline is 10 June.
A question for you: Did Ulster Bank tell you that the deadline for topups has passed? Because this FAQ page seems to say that the deadline is 10 June.
Thanks for the info. In this thread, @Sunny suggests that you can no longer get Approval in Principle (that deadline has passed) but you can still get full approval (until 10 June) even without AIP. But perhaps that is not correct.Yes. They stated that the AIP had to be agreed by 29th of April and there was a 6 week period to draw dawn ending on June 10th - Which is that date I also saw in the FAQ you also mentioned. It seems they left that detail off the FAQ! It's exactly 6 weeks date wise, so make sense in what I was told.
@Paul F - 2nd letter arrived today as you mentioned it would. The 1st one is actually very confusing read in isolation.Your break fee should be around €1,180 at the moment – but it is volatile because wholesale interest rates are volatile, so confirm it with Ulster Bank (and please post it here when you receive it, including the date of the letter).
Note: you may receive two separate letters from Ulster Bank a few days apart, and their structure and wording can lead to confusion. Look for the line that says: "To break out of this fixed rate early, you would have to pay a fee of €X". That amount is your break fee. Ignore all other references to break fees. (The break fees of €3k to €5k refer to the maximum possible break fee in the future if you switch to that particular UB rate.)
Was your break fee zero?Just as a heads up. I recently requested a breakage fee letter from AIB and it took 6 weeks for it to arrive.
It is quite likely that any break fee quote you get in the future will be zero (for the foreseeable future), even after you break and re-fix. That means that you could re-fix now for 5 years at 2.35% and overpay with a lump sum in two or three years and you will probably not have to pay a penalty. That overpayment would not require you to break and re-fix. In summary, fixing for 5 years looks like the better choice.Actually if anyone has any advice that would be great. Once we make the lumpsum payment our mortgage will be down to 60k with 6 years left on it. Our repayments are currently €910 a month and will remain the same. There is a possibility we will be able to pay another lump in 2 to 3 years so would we be better to fix for 3 or 5 years? Guessing rates will have gone up in that time so 5 years would be better. We could then clear off the mortgage once the 5 year fixed term is up? Thoughts?
Yea the break fee is zero.Was your break fee zero?
It is quite likely that any break fee quote you get in the future will be zero (for the foreseeable future), even after you break and re-fix. That means that you could re-fix now for 5 years at 2.35% and overpay with a lump sum in two or three years and you will probably not have to pay a penalty. That overpayment would not require you to break and re-fix. In summary, fixing for 5 years looks like the better choice.
The safest option (given that Avant have just announced a rate increase and other lenders will probably follow suit soon) might be to tell AIB that you want to break out of your current fixed rate now and you want to re-fix immediately for 5 years at the same rate (effectively "resetting the clock").Everything is so slow with the bank though. I rang this evening to see if they had received the document stating we wanted to be moved to the variable rate. They had but couldn't deal with it until our mortgage is paid for this month which will happen on Thursday. Could take 10 working days to process this request. Then once that is dealt with it could be another 10 working days for them to take the lump sum and after that another 10 days to refix. Now the girl on the phone told me to email the documents for the overpayment and the ammendments to them and that would speed up the processes but there's a possibility of it taking up to 6 weeks and it took about 1 week for all this to go through last year.
Thanks for the info. In this thread, @Sunny suggests that you can no longer get Approval in Principle (that deadline has passed) but you can still get full approval (until 10 June) even without AIP. But perhaps that is not correct.
Because you are on a variable-rate mortgage, you do not have to pay a break fee.
- Current lender - KBC
- Outstanding mortgage balance (how much you still owe) - €235k (19 years left)
- Approximate value of your property - €360k
- The date you started your fixed-rate mortgage (month and year) - currently on variable came off fixed couple of years ago .
- How many years you fixed for -
- Your current mortgage interest rate - 3.25%
- Your current monthly repayment (excluding any overpayments) - €1421
- Your property's BER (Building Energy Rating) – check it here or estimate it if necessary - A3
- Are you due to get extra cashback from your current lender in the future, e.g., "1% after 5 years", or "2% cashback monthly"? If so, how much and when? No.
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