Ulster bank vrs Permanent TSB

daveg

My new years resolution is to change banks from AIB to either the TSB or Ulster bank to avail of free banking. Has anyone experience of either bank? Also I use on-line banking a fair bit so any feedbank of either banks on-line facilities would be good.

Thanks in advance.

Specky

Our business account is with permanent tsb (note, all lower case letters, aparantly this is very important to the people at the bank so that the people who came from Irish Permanent don't feel inferior to those who came from TSB.....), and it's ok.

We moved there from BoI about 4 years ago because BoI were just so completely un-responsive. TSB were a little better, I think that is because they have less business customers and hence can give you a little more time...maybe...but you pay the penalty that the managers in TSB don't seem to have so much business banking experience.

They don't seem to be excessively expensive (by Irish bank standards), they haven't made any really costly mistakes with our money, they're quite flexible (we had no problem getting overdrafts etc and they've let me away with going over the limit etc without any real hassle) and TBW we've stuck with them now mostly just out of convenience. I only ever use their online banking to look at statements, it works.

If I was moving I'd have a really close look at Ulster Bank, mostly because they're part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group (hopefully these people will shake up the banking sector over here a little more over the next few years).

So in summary, my experience of permenant tsb is that they are....adequate.

eclectichoney

im with permanent tsb...they are ok as banks go, probably better than some iv heard stories of, nothing exceptional though. the online banking is very good, i use it a lot, to check my accounts, make payments and transfer funds, so can certainly recommend that aspect. their interest rates on deposit accouns are brutal though, but most of the main 5 suffer from that.

RainyDay

Try National Irish Bank - Their Freebank account has no charges once you stay in credit. Their online banking facility is pretty cool too.

daveg

Originally posted by eclectichoney
im with permanent tsb...they are ok as banks go, probably better than some iv heard stories of, nothing exceptional though. the online banking is very good, i use it a lot, to check my accounts, make payments and transfer funds, so can certainly recommend that aspect. their interest rates on deposit accouns are brutal though, but most of the main 5 suffer from that.

This may sway me as our mortgage is with the TSB. Tbh I hardly ever use the bank apart from on-line (a lot) and ATM machine so if the TSB on-line service is good that'll do me.

Thanks all for your comments.

pablo21

Ive been with tsb for the last 10 years and I think they are great! One or two little things,e.g no online banking for business accounts, you cant view your credit card details online, but they more than make up for it in flexibility! And if its the mullingar branch your going for I swear by them!!

bambam

end of last year we moved all our accounts over to Ulsterbank for the zero fees. TBH I've found them to be a great bank. Staff are really easy to talk to and provide a really good service. The only bad point is not being able to view my Ulsterbank credit card on their internet banking (which is grand apart from that)

sceptre

I opened an Ulster Bank account last Monday. Over the next few days I'll be moving into it properly from BoI

slave1

if you're happy with AIB's service then just tell them to stuff their charges, every qtr i get a letter outlining charges and I phone up the bank and TELL them to refund immediatly or I'll move, they always do
I was with BOI and got away with this for 5 years, am with AIB a year now and no charges to date - and the online service I could not live without.

LFCFan

I've had so many loans with BOI at this stage that if I moved bank I'd be back to square one on my Credit history. At the moment BOI are nearly throwing money at me so I never have a problem getting a loan. Have the mortgage with Ulster bank after moving it there from Permanent TSB last year. Lower rates etc.

nlgbbbblth

Originally posted by slave1
if you're happy with AIB's service then just tell them to stuff their charges, every qtr i get a letter outlining charges and I phone up the bank and TELL them to refund immediatly or I'll move, they always do
I was with BOI and got away with this for 5 years, am with AIB a year now and no charges to date - and the online service I could not live without.

do you go into shops, pick up a loaf of bread and say "I'm not paying for this" or "I'm only paying what you paid the manufacturer" too?

banks are entitled to charge for their services,
ringing up and intimidating/bullying someone into refunding presumably legitimate charges is not something to be proud of.

LFCFan

Originally posted by nlgbbbblth
banks are entitled to charge for their services

Great, another apologist. Just what Ireland needs! We have some of the highest bank charges in Europe. Do you go into a shop and pick up a loaf of bread that costs €5 and pay for it anyway because the shop is entitled to charge what they like????

nlgbbbblth

Originally posted by LFCFan
Great, another apologist. Just what Ireland needs! We have some of the highest bank charges in Europe.

have you ever seen the charges in Northern Ireland or the UK. could be up to £25 for a bounced item etc. Referral fees/unauthorised borrowing fees are much higher there - and the service is way worse than Ireland. Plus they're not too keen on refunding fees.

anyway - forget about "higher"/"highest" fees, people here don't want to pay anything - they simply want the service for free,

Accountants and solicitors charge excessive fees too - yet the complaints about them are not as frequent. I met an architect for a 20 minute meeting two years ao - a discussion about a site - and got a bill for IR£250 plus VAT afterwards

Originally posted by LFCFan
Do you go into a shop and pick up a loaf of bread that costs €5 and pay for it anyway because the shop is entitled to charge what they like????

No I wouldn't. I would look elsewhere. But I do believe the shop are entitled to make a profit from the sale of the bread.

LFCFan

Originally posted by nlgbbbblth
have you ever seen the charges in Northern Ireland or the UK. could be up to £25 for a bounced item etc. Referral fees/unauthorised borrowing fees are much higher there - and the service is way worse than Ireland. Plus they're not too keen on refunding fees.

anyway - forget about "higher"/"highest" fees, people here don't want to pay anything - they simply want the service for free,

So, because the UK have high fees, we should too? Anyway, it's not about getting the service for free but you have to remember that the banks are using our money to make more money. They are selling it on to others to gain interest so not only do they profit from us that way but they also charge excessive fees. Per transaction fees are rediculous.

No I wouldn't. I would look elsewhere. But I do believe the shop are entitled to make a profit from the sale of the bread.

Of course they can make a profit, not an excessive profit though. Some shops really do take the piss. A spar tried to charge me €1.80 for the Star newspaper even though it says €1.35 on the cover. When I pointed this out they u-turned and tried to fob it off as a mistake and gave it to me for the proper price. I sent my girlfriend in after me to try and buy the same paper and again they tried to charge her €1.80. Too many shops are getting away with this kind of crap because the Irish are useless for standing up for themselves and demanding a fair deal.

nlgbbbblth

Originally posted by LFCFan
So, because the UK have high fees, we should too?

not at all. I was just pointing out that they do have high fees.

The Star in the Spar story is outrageous. That's unacceptable carry-on. Is €1.35 a RRP? Surely they cannot charge over the odds for Irish magazines or newspapers?

LFCFan

Originally posted by nlgbbbblth
The Star in the Spar story is outrageous. That's unacceptable carry-on. Is €1.35 a RRP? Surely they cannot charge over the odds for Irish magazines or newspapers?

Yes, €1.35 is the RRP written on the paper. That's my point. Shops are doing stuff like this and getting away with it. If more people questioned prices and then went elswhere if they're not happy then competition would actually start to work.

Victor

Originally posted by LFCFan
Yes, €1.35 is the RRP written on the paper. That's my point. Shops are doing stuff like this and getting away with it. If more people questioned prices and then went elswhere if they're not happy then competition would actually start to work.

RRP is not binding - if it were the shops and papers would be done for anti-competitive behavior.

LFCFan

Originally posted by Victor
RRP is not binding - if it were the shops and papers would be done for anti-competitive behavior.

I should have known you'd pop up to defend the rip off

It's the RRP, but usually it's a case that shops will sell at that price or slighly less! Spar and shops like this who up the price of Newspapers are BLATANTLY ripping us off. Quit defending them, just like you defend the government for their fcuk ups in transport. I'm seriously beginning to think that you are only on these boards to piss people off and defend all the muppets who are ruining this country.

sceptre

Originally posted by LFCFan
I should have known you'd pop up to defend the rip off

I wouldn't say he is doing anything like that - he's merely making the quite logical and correct statement that price fixing works both ways. It's either illegal or it's not. If it's illegal, then forcing shops to stick to an RRP is in fact illegal.

(keeping in mind that from an economics point of view I'm pretty adamant that competition on its own (or presence of purported competitors) isn't enough to stimulate most markets and drive prices down and that effective regulation is necessary so you can hardly accuse me of being the laissez-faire type)

And this is rather off-topic for the thread - look at the title...

RainyDay

And indeed the Competitions Authority did act on RRP's for newspapers in this recent ruling.

LFCFan

Originally posted by sceptre
I wouldn't say he is doing anything like that - he's merely making the quite logical and correct statement that price fixing works both ways. It's either illegal or it's not. If it's illegal, then forcing shops to stick to an RRP is in fact illegal.

Ok, it's off topic but my original story was that after pointing out the price difference they backed down and sold it to me at the RRP and apologised for the mistake. When my girlfriend went in though they tried selling it at the over inflated price again.

monument

I haven’t used any other, but Ulster Bank has a pretty good and easy to use online service.

shoegirl

I have an AIB cashsave account at the moment (historical reasons for this) and am appalled at the high level of charges which is imposed for a very basic bank account. I was previously with BOI on a personal bank account and because I was taking the flat rate option is was actually the same for the BOI account with an overdraft, laser card, cheque card and cheque book than it costs me now for the AIB account with nothing but an ATM card.

I lived in the UK for nearly a year and ALL "basic bank accounts" (current accounts without cheque books or overdrafts) and most ordinary current accounts are free. If you want a higher level of service then you can get a Premium account which you'll pay for and many current accounts require your wages to be paid in.

I think it reflects very badly on AIB to be charging so much for very basic accounts. If a person on social welfare has a cashsave account and uses it to revie their welfare cheque and takes the full amount out every week they will be charged almost €10 per quarter for a minimalistic service. For somebody on welfare this can equate to a huge amount.

I for one am definite going to change my bank account over the next few months to National Irish Bank as AIB are just taking me for a ride. Please don't think I'm against bank charges per se - I just think you should pay for what you get and its highly unfair to load basic cash accounts with the same charges as more flexible accounts.