A mortgage may be a ncessary evil for almost anyone interested in stepping onto the property escalator - a ridiculous and intimidating amount of debt to have to commit in the name of home ownership.
But not all mortgages are quite as bad as each other - and the good news for consumers is that it is becoming easier and cheaper to make a switch.
This week, EBS Building society became the second lender to offer to pay the legal fees of any borrower who switches their mortgage to its books. EBS follows Ulster Bank in making this offer, which saves switchers typical legal fees of €999.
The main conditions at both lenders is that borrowers must use a solicitor from the lender's panel and that they must not move on again within five years - if they do, they will have to reimburse the legal fees to the lender.
There are many reasons to switch mortgages to a new lender, but the main motivation should be to save money by switching from a higher interest rate to a lower one.
As long as borrowers are not locked in to a fixed rate mortgage, they can switch to a cheaper lender without penalty, with legal fees the only potential upfront cost.
It might not sound like there's much of a difference between an interest rate of, say 3.1 per cent and 3.6 per cent, but depending on the size and term of the mortgage it can amount to over a thousand euro a year.
The amount of interest being charged on mortgages has fallen in recent years, partly because the European Central Bank (ECB) base interest rate has flatlined at 2 per cent since June 2003.
Lenders have also introduced a bew breed of variable rate mortgages known as tracker mortgages. These mortgages are formally linked to the ECB rate, promising to move up and down at set margin about this rate. More importantly, however, the margins are lower than on standard variable rates. The problem for existing homeowners was that most lenders kept very quiet about their tracker mortgage rates.
The two largest lenders, Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB, were among those who decided to restrict their lower tracker rates to new customers only, keeping existing customers on the higher standard variable rates of 3.6 per cent and 3.55 per cent respectively.
Even first time-buyers who opted for one-year discount offers were then classed as existing borrowers by the time that the discount expired and shoved onto the higher rates.
EBS estimates that as a result of this ringfencing of the rate applied to existing customers, mortgage holders in the Republic are overpaying approximately €119 million in mortgage repayments every year.
"For too long, institutions have been offering discounts and short term pricing in the market to attract new business, while restricting existing customers from availing of better deals", says Dara Deering, head of EBS mortgages.
For example a borrower with a mortgage of €300,000 being repaid over 30 years will have monthly repayments (before mortgage interest relief) of €1,364 if they are on Bank of Ireland's standard variable rate of 3.6 per cent.
The borrower could try threatening to leave if the bank doesn't move his or her loan onto its lower tracker rates, or they could take either EBS or Ulster Bank up on their offer of a free switch.
At EBS, as the loan is higher than its €250,000 threshold, the borrower would qualify for a tracker rate of 3.15 per cent, or 3.1 per cent if the value of their property has increased so that their outstanding loan is less than 80 per cent of the property value (loan to value or LTV).
At Ulster Bank, the borrower would also qualify for a rate of 3.15 per cent, a rate open to all customers, regardless of the size of the loan or the LTV. If they paid bank fees of €108 a year for its U-First current account, they could reduce this rate further to 3.05 per cent.
A lower interest rate of 2.95 per cent is available if the property price has increased so much since the borrower first took out the mortgage that the LTV is now less than 60 per cent. U-First account holders can again go one better and get a rate of 2.85 per cent.
This means that if the borrower paying a rate of 3.6 per cent switched to either EBS or Ulster Bank, the monthly savings would be at least €75 and at most €114 - taking into account the U-First bank fees - thanks to the lower interest charges. Over the course of just one year, this results in savings of €900 - €1,368.
Borrowers are not restricted to either Ulster Bank or EBS if they want to make a free switch. Some mortgage brokers offer to pay the full legal fees if borrowers use their services.
They do this by sharing the commission they receive from the lender with their panel of solicitors.
One such broker is NC Mortgage Brokers. Under its Switch and Save offer, it will pay legal fees up to €999 on switches to a variety of lenders, as long as the outstanding balance on the mortgage is at least €250,000. The brokers will also pay the valuation fee of €127.
For all mortgages less than €250,000, NC will pay up to €499 plus valuation fee. If borrowers want to use their own solicitor, the maximum that NC will pay toward costs is €800, "because we can't write a blank cheque", explains Ronan Mackay, Business Development Manager at NC.
The offer is available in the case of all lenders who use title insurance, a type of remortgaging provided by a company called First American that facilitates mortgage switching in as little as 10 working days.
This timescale is a best-case scenario, according to Mackay. "Realistically speaking, you are looking at three weeks", he says.
NC's offer is open to borrowers who want to switch purely to save money. It is not available where the customers want to take the opportunity to borrow extra money or consolidate their loans.
In theory, however, people switching to a lower interest rate could borrow extra money and still have the same monthly repayments, Mackay adds. "Some lenders are quite picky about it though. Ulster Bank will ask you what you are doing with it and if it's a home improvement job, they will look for estimates. Permanent TSB or IIB won't," he says.