Why is loyalty punished when it comes to Irish mortgages?
Cashback offers are objectionable when so many borrowers are excluded from them
Over 30 years, an Irish homeowner will end up paying €80,000 more on a €300,000 mortgage than someone in Germany. Illustration: iStock
“Never waste a good crisis” is the adage, and it seems Bank of Ireland has taken this to heart.
Last March it closed 101 branches “temporarily” on the back of the arrival of Covid-19, citing issues such as difficulties in social distancing. Some 12 months on, it seems those closures had less to do with the pandemic than with the bank’s slimmed-down business model. The pandemic, it seems, simply afforded the bank the opportunity of trying out a trial winding-up of these branches. And now, for many, the temporary has become permanent.