The benefits of switching your mortgage

2020-04-14

Covid-19 has caused unequalled disruption across every area of society. And the mortgage market is no different, especially for people investigating what switching their mortgage could do for their finances.

The Association of Irish Mortgage Advisors (AIMA) has recently stated that new enquiries regarding switching mortgages have spiked. There’s more to come, they believe. In fact, the AIMA expects to see an increase of 20% (or more) for switching mortgage enquiries in the next six weeks.

It’s easy to understand why.

Reduce your household expenses

Trevor Grant, Chairperson of AIMA, says, “Every household in the country is now pretty much confined to their homes. People are using this as an opportunity to get their financial affairs in order.”

He goes on further to say that “A mortgage is most people’s largest monthly outgoing - so the savings that can be made by switching are generally larger than the combined benefit of switching utilities, mobile providers and health insurance providers.”

Grant concludes by saying that “Mortgage rates have reduced considerably in the last 6 months, with lowest market rate now standing at 2.2% and most lenders will cover any costs associated with switching.”

How the mortgage process has changed

It’s no secret that all banks have updated their mortgage processes to take into account the sudden changes Covid-19 has brought forth. We recently wrote about mortgage applications during Covid-19. While the blog highlights the changes that Haven Mortgages, Finance Ireland and ICS Mortgages have made, other lenders have shared that their changes are similar since we wrote and published the post.

For anyone seeking a mortgage at this time, we’d like to reassure you that the banks are conscious of the disruption people are dealing with. All parties are patiently dealing with people and making themselves available.

The 9 lenders in Ireland have added extra due diligence to their processes but they are still working with home buyers.

Our processes at Which Mortgage have always been online. We know that technology can add great convenience to all of our lives and felt that the mortgage process could benefit from this too. As a result, we’re uniquely placed to keep helping you if you have a mortgage enquiry during this time.

Therefore we greatly encourage would-be home buyers to still get in touch with us. You can contact us via phone or email. We’d be delighted to hear from you.

Mortgage switchers have a lot of choice

All of the 9 lenders in Ireland are offering lower rates than they have been for some time.

This is great news for mortgage switchers looking to save money. On the other hand, it can feel a little overwhelming trying to figure out which is the best deal to go for.

We’re here to help. We work with mortgage switchers to find the best deal. (Guidelines are also available from The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission on what lenders need to do for switchers.

Contact us if you’re interested to find out what switching your mortgage could do for you. Our mortgage calculator for switching mortgages might surprise you with the savings you could make.