Northern Bank began as a small Belfast banking company called the Northern Banking Partnership in 1840 when its first branch was established in what is now the Republic of Ireland in Clones, Monaghan. The branch network has been expanding over time since then. Today Northern Bank is the largest retail bank in Northern Ireland operating a network of 95 branches and 11 business banking centres. These outlets were renamed National Irish Bank after a take-over by NAB in the late eighties. Today Northern is still the bank of choice for the majority of businesses in Northern Ireland.
Northern Bank have one main type of mortgage which you can ‘tailor’ to your individual needs based on several factors. The first three main factors are:
How Much You Want to Borrow
The Term
Repayment Frequency
How much you can borrow is determined by how much is your present income and how much you can put down as a deposit.
Northern Bank can make adjustments to the time-span of your mortgage term to suit you.
You can choose a repayment frequency of weekly, fortnightly or monthly, to match your own financial needs.
Having set the above factors, next is to determine your repayment schedule. Northern Bank offers three options:
Increase monthly repayments: you can choose to overpay, then you can underpay afterwards. This might be suitable in times when you need money for your other expenditures.
Annual Step-Ups: your annual rate will stay the same for one year but each subsequent year your payments will be incremented, ‘stepped up’, by a previously agreed percentage between you and the bank.
Ad-hoc lump sum repayments: instead of making increased monthly payments, with this option you agree to make an extra lump sum payment to suit you. You could do this when you get a bonus or a promotion.
Rapid Repay: this offsets your combined current and savings accounts against your mortgage. Your credit balances lower your outstanding balances on your mortgage. You can also borrow further at the same rate.
Base Rate Tracker: in addition to the personal tailored mortgage offers you can also have your mortgage rate set above the Northern Bank Base rate for the life of your loan.
Your loan is portable (it can move house with you)