Personal Finance

AIB hikes its fixed rates for second time in just over a month

AIB is to increase its fixed rates for the second time in just over a month.

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Irish Life to increase the cost of its health insurance plans

INSURER Irish Life Health is to increase the cost of its plans for those renewing or taking out a new plan from the start of January.

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Estate agent confidential: what they really think of buyers, sellers and where property prices are heading

Gazumping, gazanging, lowballing, bidding wars, kerb appeal... Buying and selling property can seem so complicated that it has its own language. And while it has never been an easy task, it now seems more labyrinthine and confusing than ever.

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Black Friday: ‘I’m a novice as an online shopper. What should I watch out for?’

Q I have a smaller budget for presents this Christmas than I did last year. I’m hoping to get my shopping done early so I don’t end up overspending on impulse buys on Christmas Eve. I’m planning on doing some internet shopping on Black Friday on November 25 to get some bargains. However, I haven’t shopped online much before and I don’t know which websites to trust. What do I need to watch out for?

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Levy on health insurance policies to increase

THE levy on most health insurance premiums is to increase in what is a reversal of what happened last year.

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Insurers accused of ‘deflecting’ from high cost of insurance

THE staging of conference on insurance fraud by the insurance sector’s lobby group is a “deflection” from the high costs of cover, it has been claimed.

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Rents surge sees average monthly cost hit €1,500

PEOPLE able to secure a new rent agreement are having to shell out more money than last year.

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Ulster Bank to raise its mortgage fixed rates

ULSTER Bank is to increase its fixed rates far more than other banks.

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Fall-off in mortgage approval for new buyers, but number of people switching lenders grows

The number of first-time buyers approved for a mortgage has fallen to its lowest level in three years.

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How to avoid the Black Friday sale pitfalls to nab a bargain

Black Friday lands this week, and, if you miss it, there’s always Cyber Monday on the 28th.

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‘Mortgage prisoners’ hit with interest rates of up to 6.5pc by lender Pepper

Some mortgage holders whose loans are handled by Pepper, on behalf of vulture funds that bought them after the financial crash, have been told their interest rates are to rise as high as 6.5pc.

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Sinéad Ryan Opinion Ulster Bank customers, I beseech you, move now or you could find yourself locked out of your savings

I’ve been engaged in an involuntary experiment to test Ulster Bank’s response to its decision to leave Ireland.

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Irish banks are paying savers some of the worst rates in Europe

Irish banks are paying savers interest r ates that are four times lower than the e urozone average, the Irish Independent can reveal.

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Revealed: County-by-county rent increases, with just 1,000 homes available to rent countrywide

An extreme shortage of properties to rent is being blamed for a record surge in the cost of accommodation.

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Homeowners warned not to panic as huge gap emerges in fixed rates on offer

MORTGAGE holders who want to lock in to a fixed rate to avoid surging European interest rises have been warned not to be panicked into signing up for the wrong rate.

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Most households will struggle to pay for ‘cut-back Christmas’ as inflation knocks €3,000 off spending power

RAMPANT inflation will knock as much as €3,000 from the average household’s spending power this year, making for a leaner Christmas , according to research from credit unions.

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Secret government memo reveals €476m budget for housing still unspent as crisis grows

Nearly €500m of the Government’s housing budget for the first nine months of this year was not spent, according to a secret memorandum given to m inisters last week.

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Adrian Weckler Opinion FTX collapse sparks crypto crisis, but Bitcoin will definitely survive

Another month, another crypto crisis. The collapse of the FTX exchange, taking some €8bn in customer deposits with it, has set a bomb off.

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‘My biggest financial mistake was losing money to a fund managed by Anglo Irish’

Before she was a best-selling novelist, Sheila O’Flanagan worked in banking. She became Ireland’s first female chief dealer, writing her first books while still holding down her trading job. O’Flanagan’s 30th book, What Eden Did Next, has been shortlisted for the Popular Fiction Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards, and the award winners will be announced on Wednesday. O’Flanagan lives in Dublin with her husband Colm.