Which Bank for first time buyer

muddle84

Hi Folks,
MY wife and I are looking at buying our first home. We have been approved for a mortgage by ulsterbank and are in contact with a few others. My question is how do you know what bank to go with or who is giving the best mortgages right now?

Also we are clueless when it comes to fixed or variable? Is variable a bit of a gamble right now or are interest rates coming down?
Thanks for any help people!!!

chris85

muddle84 wrote: »

Hi Folks,
MY wife and I are looking at buying our first home. We have been approved for a mortgage by ulsterbank and are in contact with a few others. My question is how do you know what bank to go with or who is giving the best mortgages right now?

Also we are clueless when it comes to fixed or variable? Is variable a bit of a gamble right now or are interest rates coming down?
Thanks for any help people!!!

Interest rates cant go down any more at the moment. ECB rate is as low as it will get and standard variable rates have been loosely following this. Only place they can go is upwards.

muddle84

Thanks for your reply chris. So what you're saying is that we should fix the rate for as long as possible?

chris85

muddle84 wrote: »

Thanks for your reply chris. So what you're saying is that we should fix the rate for as long as possible?

Not really. It depends what the fixed and variable rates are and the period of time they are over. It can be a little bit of a bet to choose as ultimately the customer wont know exaclty how the variable rate will perform over the same period as the fixed rate so hard to decide.

A fixed rate suits some people as it is a definite amount to be paid for a number of years whereas a SVR can change and this can hit hard when it is sudden and unexpected as has happened previously.

Also some banks allow part of the mortgage to be fixed and rest on SVR. Often people put half the mortgage on a fixed rate and half on a SVR and gives some long term stability to repayments as well as providing some protection from the hit of a variable rate increase.

muddle84

Thanks for you help chris!! I will go back to the banks we're dealing with and see what they are offering.

Ogham

Up to date mortgage rates can be found here http://www.moneyguideireland.com/mortgages

Tombo2001

My general view is that fixing is only worthwhile if you can do it for five years or more at reasonable rates.

Cant really do that here.

Gambas

muddle84 wrote: »

Also we are clueless when it comes to fixed or variable? Is variable a bit of a gamble right now or are interest rates coming down?

No real point in trying to second guess the market. By going fixed you are paying a premium for stability. All depends on whether you can afford to accept volatility.

muddle84

So we are probably better off going with variable starting off. Can you fix your mortgage at any time?
Thanks for all the advice folks!!

Ogham

You could ask about splitting the mortgage - half variable and half fixed. That way you are kind of covered if variables go down or up.

chris85

muddle84 wrote: »

So we are probably better off going with variable starting off. Can you fix your mortgage at any time?
Thanks for all the advice folks!!

Nobody is telling you that you are better fixing or going variable at the start. We are saying that this decision will be dependant on how well able your circumstances are able to deal with potential hits from a variable rate rise.