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Anyone get a call from First Active???

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  • 28-02-2009 12:49am
    #1
    Darragh29
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,097 ✭✭✭


    My OH got a call from First Active yesterday, asking her would she like to discuss using her monthly mortgage repayments as a kind of "savings device", by volunteering to up her monthly mortgage repayments! I kid you not, they were trying to talk her into this on the phone yesterday!!!

    The idea being according to them good selves, that if she increased her monthly mortgage repayment, (which has recently fallen substantially due to the drop in interest rates!), she would be "saving" money over the lifetime of the mortgage!

    They must be extremely desparate for cash if they are pinning their financial future to people answering in the affirmative to this type of a phone call in the current climate!!!

    Anyone else get a call from them???


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    #2
    Welease
    Registered Users Posts: 3,834 ✭✭✭Welease


    No, havent received a call from them... but the advice they gave you was spot on, and it honestly the best advice I ever received with regards to mortgages..

    I have always overpaid my mortgages, and it knocks an unbelievable amount of time off the length of your mortgage.

    When we lived in the UK, my mortgage was about 420 per month for 25 years.. upping it to 800 cut the mortage down to 9 years (this was on a house purchased 10 years ago). We have done the same back in Ireland, and again, saved a fortune.


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    #3
    dotsman
    Registered Users Posts: 3,636 ✭✭✭dotsman


    Darragh29 wrote: »
    My OH got a call from First Active yesterday, asking her would she like to discuss using her monthly mortgage repayments as a kind of "savings device", by volunteering to up her monthly mortgage repayments! I kid you not, they were trying to talk her into this on the phone yesterday!!!

    The idea being according to them good selves, that if she increased her monthly mortgage repayment, (which has recently fallen substantially due to the drop in interest rates!), she would be "saving" money over the lifetime of the mortgage!

    They must be extremely desparate for cash if they are pinning their financial future to people answering in the affirmative to this type of a phone call in the current climate!!!

    Anyone else get a call from them???

    That's actually very good and sound advice. The only caveat being that the customer can actually afford it.

    For some customers, the extra cash from the reduced interest rates is badly need to supplement reduced income etc. But there are still a good few people who haven't had any/much of a reduced income (or despite the income drop, still can easily afford their lifestyles), and for those people, reducing the mortgage now could save massive amounts over the lifetime of their mortgage.

    You must remember that interest rates will only be this low for the short while (compared to a 30-year mortgage) of this current recession. Knocking a few grand off your mortgage now could go a long way for when interest rates climb again.


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    #4
    watna
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,367 ✭✭✭✭watna


    I have two friends with mortgages whose payments have fallen a good bit recently due to the period they were paying a fixed interest rate coming to an end.

    Both have decided to keep paying the higher amount they were paying on the basis that they had always been paying it - it wouldn't make a huge difference and as said above, it wll reduce the length of their mortgage a good bit. I think it makes perfect sense.


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    #5
    eth0_
    Registered Users Posts: 10,846 ✭✭✭✭eth0_


    They probably are desperate for more cash, but it is good advice - the customer wins here.


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    #6
    dudara
    Registered Users Posts: 33,518 ✭✭✭✭dudara


    Moved to Banking & Insurance & Pensions

    dudara


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    #7
    BendiBus
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,074 ✭✭✭BendiBus


    I agree it's good advice in general but at the moment I've chosen to direct my surplus cash into a high interest regular saver account. In my case, and possibly for many others, the interest earned after DIRT can beat interest saved by overpaying on a mortgage. No doubt this will not last forever, and when things change I'll have a nice lump sum saved to pay off a chunk of the mortgage.

    But to the OP, it's not often I've heard of a bank actually giving such good advice!


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    #8
    murraymints
    Closed Accounts Posts: 42 ✭murraymints


    Not with them but slightly off thread.I have been overpaying my mortgage since day one and have always paid the same amount and never seen the reduction or increase when rates fluctuate.Could do with a bit of extra cash at the moment-imagine my surprise when I reduced to normal level to find out I had been overpaying by 450 euro! Like a payrise I tell you!


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