Mortgage Query - Offset vs Tracker

brettmirl

Question for those in the know.

Am currently being screwed on a mortgage. Fixed last year with PTSB at 5.35% (my bad!) and am currently shopping around for better rates.

My loan-to-value is quite good and my current lenders rates aren't great at the moment for when I do come to the end of the fixed rate.

Two products I am looking at at the moment are the Halifax tracker mortgage and the First Active OffSet mortgage.

Halifax are offering me 4.4% tracker for one year then rising to ECB + 0.75% are the one year discount rate. This will save me about €250 per month.

First Active's rate is 5.15% but based on some rough calculations, I would be knocking 10 years off the life of the loan.

Both banks would cover the legal fee's of changing over.

Does anyone here have any experience, good or bad, with either of these banks?

Am i better to take the monthly savings now or keep paying and reduce the overall life of the loan?

Any help greatly appreciated.

stepbar

http://www.firstactive.ie/mortgages/calculators_and_guides/offset_savings_calc/index.aspx

"This Offset Calculator assumes you will use your savings to pay off your mortgage, once your savings equal the outstanding mortgage balance."

Are you prepared to save x amount for the next x amount of years to pay same?

zuroph

AIB are currently offering me 4.4 increasing to ecb +.6% after a year, for a ltv of <50%