• Search
  • Newsletters
  • Crossword
  • Notices
  • My Account
  • Subscribe
  • Sign In
Thu, Feb 21, 2019
The Irish Times

  • The Irish Times
  • News
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Life & Style
  • Culture
  • More
  • Video
  • Podcasts
  • Executive Jobs
  • Search
  • Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Sign In
  • Bank of Ireland First-Time Buyers
We use cookies to personalise content, target and report on ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. For more information see our Cookie Policy.
Sponsored content is premium paid-for content produced by The Irish Times Content Studio on behalf of commercial clients. The Irish Times newsroom or other editorial departments are not involved in the production of Sponsored content.

Our cashback story: how one family made their cashback work

The solicitor’s fees, a sofa and a TV - a combination of important bills and lifestyle improvements were met with the cashback payment

Tue, Nov 1, 2016, 09:00 Updated: Tue, Feb 13, 2018, 16:23
Sponsored by Bank of Ireland
“We spent every penny we had on the renovation and extension,” explains Wes. “We had a fine big extension but we’d nothing in it so we used our cashback to buy a sofa from DFS and a 49-inch flat screen smart TV.”

“We spent every penny we had on the renovation and extension,” explains Wes. “We had a fine big extension but we’d nothing in it so we used our cashback to buy a sofa from DFS and a 49-inch flat screen smart TV.”

   
 
 
Val works for Enterprise Ireland as a development advisor. Wes is an engineering manager for a pharmaceutical company. When they switched their mortgage to Bank of Ireland from another lender they’d just completed renovation work and added an extension to the house they had bought in Finglas two years before. 
 
“We spent every penny we had on the renovation and extension,” explains Wes. “We had a fine big extension but we’d nothing in it so we used our cashback to buy a sofa from DFS and a 49-inch flat screen smart TV.”
 
“It covered the solicitor’s fees as well,” adds Val.
 
“The cashback actually came through quicker than I expected,” says Wes. “I remember one Friday morning I was logging in online, I wasn’t checking for the cashback particularly, I was going to pay a bill and there was a nice surprise waiting for me. It was €5,000.”
 
Both Val and Wes grew up in Ballymun. They met 25 years ago at Wes’s brother’s 16th birthday party and used to bump into each other around the block after that. They met again in 1998 at a friend’s 21st and got married in 2004.
 
When it came to a place to live, the couple got together with a number of other families to set up their own company during the regeneration of Ballymun. The co-op appointed an architect and their house was built with a mortgage from Dublin City Council.
 
“We were in that house for 10 years but it was never our forever home - it was just to get on the property ladder,” Val explains. When their third child came along, the house no longer suited the family’s growing needs and it was time to move along. After some searching, they found a three-bedroom semi-d which had great potential but needed a lot of work.
 
“When we bought the house people thought we were crazy because it was in such poor condition,” laughs Wes.
 
“We ripped everything out,” explains Val. “There was nothing left. We rewired it, re-plumbed it. The roof was alright but everything else was re-done."
 
“We could see the potential. We were attracted to the area because it’s in a cul-de-sac and the back garden is 100 feet long. So we planned to put in an extension”.
 
The couple and their three children lived in their new home while the extension and renovation work were being done. It was tough but they were prepared to put up with the disruption to get the house exactly as they wanted it. “We were bouncing from room to room, we had no sitting room, we had no cooking facilities for a few days,” recalls Val.
 
However they were keen to leave their mortgage lender as soon as they could, after issues with the financing of the renovation work.
 
“I’m a Bank of Ireland customer all my life,” Wes explains, “and they were offering the cashback. We knocked three years off our mortgage by switching and keeping the same repayments so it was obviously well worth doing. 
 
The couple are ‘absolutely thrilled’ with the house, the extension and the people around them in the area. The three children love the space, and having a playroom on the back of the extension, and there’s still a decent-sized back garden where they have their trampoline. 
 
“Unless we win the Lotto then this is our forever home,” Val says.
 

Wes and Val received a small gratuity for their time.

Bank of Ireland Mortgage Bank trading as Bank of Ireland Mortgages and The Mortgage Store is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland.

Bank of Ireland


 

   
 

Read More

  • Counting the cost: a guide to renovating on a cashback budget
  • Top tips to get ahead on the home buying journey
  • The self-build mortgage: the DIY approach
  • Get mortgage ready: the 10 questions you need to know
  • How to bid, save and search: a guide for property buyers
  • The homebuyer's quick fix: which mortgage rate should I choose?
  • Saving a deposit: 15 ways to help first-time buyers get ahead
  • The mortgage journey: a step-by-step guide
  • Dermot Bannon's top tips for first-time buyers

More in Sponsored

The first morning Enterprise leaves Belfast at 6.45am and arrives at 9am in Connolly Station in Dublin Taking the train: six stories from the Belfast to Dublin line
White Park Bay, Co Antrim Let the Causeway Coastal Route unlock the dramatic side of Northern Ireland
Monica Lewinsky: ‘We need to frame the human stories on either side of cyberbullying, to strip away the screens and digital posturing and create a narrative steeped in empathy.’ Photograph: Damon Winter / New York Times Monica Lewinsky: ‘We are all so much stronger than we can ever imagine’
The labour market is constantly reshaping and a bad Brexit would accelerate the shift away from agriculture to ICT, finance and medtech services. Photograph: iStock How Irish companies can stay competitive whatever happens with Brexit

Trading up

When considering the purchase of a second-hand home, bring along a general builder, seasoned carpenter or professional snagger, to assess the property. Photograph: Getty Images Trading up with expert help from the builders
Trading up Trading up: How to judge a house from the outside in
Trading up Trading up: Make an entrance
Trading up Trading up: Counting the cost of renovating a kitchen
BOI trading UP Trading up: The bathroom blitz
Trading Up Trading up: Smart garden strategy

Neighbourhoods series

Destination Tallaght: The upturn in the Irish economy has coincided with a growth in the number of first-time buyers, with prices now competitive yet reasonable for those seeking to make a purchase Tallaght leads in neighbourhood ranking for first-time buyer sales
Bray First-time buyers put Bray, Finglas and Navan on the map
The proximity to the city centre and also the international financial and tech hub that is the Docklands, has led to purchasers looking anew at the Liberties as a place to live The Liberties, Newbridge and Mullingar capture the imagination of first-time buyers

Mortgage guide

Bank of Ireland mortgages Top tips to get ahead on the home buying journey
Home renovation doesn't have to cost the Earth - try our guide to renovation on a cashback budget Counting the cost: a guide to renovating on a cashback budget
“We spent every penny we had on the renovation and extension,” explains Wes. “We had a fine big extension but we’d nothing in it so we used our cashback to buy a sofa from DFS and a 49-inch flat screen smart TV.” Our cashback story: how one family made their cashback work

Mortgage journey

BOI FTBG First-time buyers: top tips to help you buy your first home
First-time buyer: Keep all your receipts and at the end of each month tally your income to get a map of your spending and where you may be able to cut some costs Saving a deposit: 15 ways to help first-time buyers get ahead
Dermot Bannon Dermot Bannon's top tips for first-time buyers
The mortgage journey The mortgage journey: a step-by-step guide
Self-build The self-build mortgage: the DIY approach
Under Central Bank rules introduced in February 2015, first-time buyers can borrow up to 90 per cent of the value of a property up to €220,000 and 80 per cent of any value of the property above that sum Get mortgage ready: the 10 questions you need to know
Bank of Ireland mortgage rates The homebuyer's quick fix: which mortgage rate should I choose?
Ann Carroll How to bid, save and search: a guide for property buyers
Subscribe
About Us
Policy & Terms
Subscribe
  • Why Subscribe?
  • Subscription Bundles
  • Gift Subscriptions
  • Home Delivery
Irish Times Products & Services
  • ePaper
  • eBooks
  • Crosswords
  • Newspaper Archive
  • Email Alerts & Newsletters
  • Article Archive
  • Executive Jobs
  • Page Sales
  • Photo Sales
About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • The Irish Times Trust CLG
  • Careers
Download on the App Store Download on Google Play
  • Our Partners
  • Rewarding Times
  • MyHome.ie
  • Irish Racing
  • Entertainment.ie
  • Top 1000
  • MyAntiques.ie
  • The Gloss
  • Irish Times Training
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Information
  • Community Standards
  • Copyright
  • FAQs
© 2018 THE IRISH TIMES

Sign In

Forgot Password?
Don't have an account?
Subscribe

  • Subscriber Only Articles
  • The ePaper
  • Subscriber Rewards
  • Subscriber Tour
  • Breaking news app
  • My Account
  • eBooks
  • Email Newsletters
  • Crossword Club
  • Newspaper Archive
  • Sign Out
SUBSCRIBE

Thu 21/2/2019
  • News
    • Brexit
    • Ireland
    • World
    • Politics
    • Crime & Law
    • Social Affairs
    • Health
    • Education
    • Subscriber Only
    • No Child 2020
  • Sport
    • Six Nations
    • Rugby
    • Soccer
    • Gaelic Games
    • Golf
    • Racing
    • Other Sports
    • Women in Sport
    • Comment
  • Business
    • The Economy
    • Your Money
    • Companies
    • Technology
    • Work
    • Commercial Property
    • Comment
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Columnists
    • An Irishman's Diary
    • Opinion & Analysis
    • Martyn Turner
  • Life & Style
    • Food & Drink
    • Homes & Property
    • Health & Family
    • People
    • Travel
    • Motors
    • Fashion
    • Abroad
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Film
    • Music
    • Stage
    • Art & Design
    • TV, Radio, Web
    • Tuarascáil
  • More
    • You are what you read
    • eBooks
    • Offers
    • Jobs
    • Family Notices
    • Competitions
  • Video
  • Podcasts
    • Inside Politics
    • The Women's Podcast
    • Inside Business
    • Added Time
    • World View
    • Róisín Meets
    • The Irish Times Book Club
  • Executive Jobs
  • Crosswords
  • Newsletters
  • Notices
Forgot Password?

Invalid email or password.

Not an Irish Times subscriber? Subscribe
  • Subscriber Only Articles Specially selected and available only to our subscribers
  • Subscriber Rewards Exclusive offers, discounts and invitations
  • Subscriber Tour Explore the features of your subscription
  • Crossword Club Digital Simplex and Crosaire crosswords
  • Newspaper Archive 150 years of Irish Times journalism
  • My Account Manage your account
  • eBooks Carefully curated selections of Irish Times writing
  • Email Newsletters Sign up to get the stories you want delivered to your inbox
  • The ePaper An exact digital replica of the printed paper
  • Breaking news app Our Apple and Android apps to read on the go
  • Sign Out