KBC exiting Ireland

Have you a mortgage with KBC?

I am looking at PTSB, they are offering 2% upfront cashback and 2% on monthly repayments til 2027 for switchers. The monthly current account fee would be offset by this 2% for the next few year, effectively meaning free banking, with a bit more depending on the size of your repayments.

Also, I have overpaid on my KBC mortgage over the last few years by over 30k, am I right in thinking that it would be better for me to draw that back down, then start the switch to another bank with a cashback offer (like PTSB above), and getting more for my 2%. Once thats done, I can pay the 30k off again with new bank and reset my monthly repayments?

The 2% is just extra borrowed money, right? So you're going to have to pay it back with interest.

Not sure about the one being mentioned but normally, yes. When we got our mortgage last year one of the banks offering €5-6k was something like €30k more over the term of the mortgage. A colleague of mine got a mortgage the same time as us and is at nearly 3% with a cashback offer, mental.

Most likley your account will be frozen and you will have to jump through all sorts of silly hoops to get your money back. Pretty much what happened with my Wirecard account.

I did the application on the BoI website very late on a Tuesday night and they texted me my new account number the following Monday evening. A new VISA Debit card and the pin number came over the following week. I had to phone them to activate the online / app banking and it was done in less than 10 minutes. I did not get them to switch direct debits as I have time to do that myself in the coming months. In fairness it was all a pain free process :)

No

Which one did you go for?

They said they aren't doing anything until the end of the year didn't they? Still plenty of time to benefit from the perks of KBC before needing to move, it's only the beginning of March.

Fix for 5 years now.

Has anyone asked KBC for a better rate? I am currently applying through a broker but the lender they applied to (ICS) have just increased rates to the same as KBC. I Wanted to switch to Avant but have just been told they don't allow equity release for structural changes so that rules them out. I may still apply to a different broker to get a better deal, Finance Ireland would be 2.3%

I'm wondering if I go to KBC would they offer a better rate to stop me switching.

My current rate with KBC is 2.3 ending in October this year. I applied for the break funding fee towards the end of last summer & it was only €140.

Revolut is now set up as a bank in the Republic, so I guess that's now another option. No idea what they charge and it's not prominently featured on their website yet (unless I'm missing it).

Does this make Revolut a good alternative now to KBC? Details have been scant about fees etc.

Your money will now be protected by the deposit guarantee scheme, which was an issue for many.

Anyone else have an added discount on their mortgage for using their extra current account?

I’m getting an extra 0.25% for lodging my salary into the current account so moving that prematurely means I’ll be penalised on my mortgage rate.

Looks like I’ll be with them until the very end before I can switch to AIB or BOI. (Can’t choose an online bank as they don’t do joint accounts).