This is a question that we in Lyons Financial Services are asked all of the time. And really it’s one we expect to be asked, as after all, your mortgage is probably your biggest financial commitment during your lifetime.

The good news is that the answer is often YES! The Central Bank of Ireland carried out a detailed piece of research into the mortgage market in Ireland and one of the key findings from the research was that one in five consumers who have a mortgage could save money by switching the mortgage to another product or lender.

You see what often happens with mortgages is that “inertia” sets in. We might moan and groan about the amount of money our mortgage is costing us, but most people only do that – moan and groan. They don’t actually go to the trouble of seeing if there is anything they can do about it.

But this is where we come in – Lyons Financial Services will go to the trouble for you!

Are you one of the one in five?

Well that’s our job to tell you. When you call us with the aim of saving money on your mortgage, we’ll ask you a series of questions and identify pretty quickly whether this is an exercise worth pursuing by you or not. The sorts of questions we’ll be asking you that will help us identify possible savings are:

• The amount of your mortgage outstanding, when you took it out and how much longer to go before it’s paid off. A new lender will only offer a switch if there is a reasonable balance left to be paid.
• Roughly how much your house is worth. If your mortgage is small relative to the value of your house (a low Loan-to-Value or LTV ratio), this is a more attractive situation for another lender. As a result you might be able to command a lower rate with them, or even your existing lender.
• Your credit rating. A new lender will be interested in your history of mortgage repayments. Have you paid them every month without fail, or have you had trouble repaying your mortgage or other debts
• Your current arrangement. Are you currently repaying on a tracker mortgage basis, is a variable interest rate being applied or are you tied into a fixed rate mortgage? This will determine both your ability to switch and probably more importantly, whether it is actually worth your while.

Once we can get a handle on these sorts of details, we can then examine the opportunities for you to save money.

Of course we don’t only look at your mortgage itself in isolation, we look at the full picture as there are other costs involved in switching your mortgage that needs to be taken into account. After all, these could negate any savings and completely undermine the benefits of switching! We look at any “introductory offers” that are being made, and make sure that these are actually of value to you in the overall picture. We’ll also consider that you will have legal fees, valuation fees and redemption fees (if you are breaking out of a fixed rate mortgage) to pay. All of these will impact on your overall saving.

Where do you start?

It really is as simple as picking up the phone to us at 01 8015808. We will quickly ascertain the potential for you to save money. Remember that at the end of the day, 20% of people can save money on their mortgage by switching it.

And as you are probably facing repayments for many years to come, surely it is worth your while checking are you one of the ones who could benefit?

Photo courtesy of Pixabay username: Skitterphoto