Bank fees and best overall value

slave1

Right,

Been with Bank of Ireland, they started charging me fees so I left.

Now with AIB for nearly two years and they now want to start charging me fees, so I'm packing my bags again.

So what do I want?

I want free banking with a decent online service - see my balance, pay some bills
Obviously a cheque book and ATM card

Thoughts from those of you out there with remaining financial institutions on where to go would be great.

Tks

ShaneHogan

Try NIB's Freebank account - no fees once you remain in credit.

nlgbbbblth

Ulster Bank's regular current account - free if in credit i.e. no transaction fees

sadly from May onwards there will be a minimum balance requirement of €500 at all times to avail of no quarterly fees

AntiRip

i went in to ulster bank the other day to ask for advice about moving. There was a long queue so I read the notice on the wall for fees. it said there was 0.20c fees for transactions & other fees. i though they had free banking?

secret_squirrel

No overdraft with that NIB account - otherwise it looks quite good.

Seriously considering moving as well since Ulsterbank want to start charging me.


[edit] btw have you noticed how crap most of the banks websites are, finding the account charges is like find a needle in a haystack [/edit]

daveg

TSB - if you have an adverage of 1,000 Euro in your account (if you wages are paid into your account you ok) you qualify for free banking.

asmith

I moved to NIB from BOI a few months ago. So far it's been great. Their online banking is superior to BOI's as well. I think it'a because they're part of National Australia Bank so have access to applications developed by larger banks for larger banks.

slave1

NIB closed their branch in my town so they're out of the question

I'll try the TSB website.

Does anyone out there have experience of TSB's online facilities?


Can we chip in and get a full view of all the major bank's current account typical fees?

AIB charges are about 12-14 yo yo's a qtr with average cheque/online usage
Ulster bank is - exc tranaction fees - 9 yo yo's a month on their U first account

slave1

Well, had a look at the PermanentTsb.ie site and then phoned them

Basically, if you get your wages paid in and have a min balance of $1k, no fees of charges
except once offs like setup of direct debits

Has anyone got this setup? good, bad, indifferent???

Looks hard to beat if the internet service is decent

eirmail

I had free banking with AIB until recently when they started charging me 16 euros a quarter.They charge per withdrawal from an ATM machine so It is more cost efficient to withdraw large amounts less often than small amounts regulary.I am thinking about changing as well , I would like to know are the smaller banks ATM cards accepted in the bigger banks ATM machines.

slave1

I followed up on that NIB link and then phoned my local branch that is not actually closed/closing
to avail of free banking no minimum balance - just stay in credit - and no setup fees for the likes of direct debit
also the site has a pretty good demo of what looks like a good online facility

NIB seem to be the cheapest then

Oh and NIB card will be accepted in all bank ATM's

Does anyone have a horror story to persuade me otherwise?

BuffyBot

Pretty much any of the main banks (AIB, BOI, Ulster Bank, permanent tsb, NIB) will accept each others bank cards in their own machines.

slave1

got the NIB application form in the post today

Good God in heaven, what they don't want to know about you
Fair enough on the money laundering aspect and all, but these are mandatory and I'd like to hear your thoughts before I pop in on Monday with a half completed form

the year I graduated - how did they know?
whether I'm married or "partnered"
how much my mortgage is and who it's with
a value of my entire asset pool
how much I spend on food a week
my other bank account with other banks

I could go on, all I want is an account to pay my wages into and for me to have an ATM card and cheque book

all the field are "mandatory" after talking to the Ass Manager

WTF, are those questions not passing the line of required knowledge?
Thoughts????

l3rian

all of those questions are reasonable

slave1

all of those questions are reasonable

MMmmmm, can't agree, if I'm looking for a loan/mortgage/overdraft then fair enough, but I'm not, I simply want access to my own funds and be able to do some online transactions
what does the year I graduated have to do with being given an ATM card or cheque book
my mortgage details and relevance to ATM card??
it looks like they the forms have been designed by marteting people who want a detailed profile for their purposes

Am I making a mistake taking my business to NIB?
Any scary stories?

nlgbbbblth

Originally posted by slave1
MMmmmm, can't agree, if I'm looking for a loan/mortgage/overdraft then fair enough, but I'm not, I simply want access to my own funds and be able to do some online transactions
what does the year I graduated have to do with being given an ATM card or cheque book
my mortgage details and relevance to ATM card??
it looks like they the forms have been designed by marteting people who want a detailed profile for their purposes

Am I making a mistake taking my business to NIB?
Any scary stories?

they probably have standard forms for all account opening - nothing sinister,

however there should be separate application forms for current/overdraft and regular/non-overdraft accounts - but if that's the way it is............

from my experience in banking I usually found that the people who were cagey about giving information on the application form were usually the people that would cause trouble down the line. By trouble I mean unreasonable requests and petty complaining.

casper-

Originally posted by l3rian
all of those questions are reasonable

No, not all of those questions are "reasonable" by any stretch of the imagination.

The worst one being:


how much I spend on food a week


What in god's name does that have to do with getting a regular bank account? That is perhaps the sort of type of question you get asked when going for a mortgage (and not even that specifically).

BuffyBot

I would assume its part of the standard customer profiling they do. Helps them find out what products and services to offer you.

Sometimes that can work in your favour, specifically if they see something they like.

shoegirl

I have to agree that some of the questions were a bit ridiculous.

If you want to profile your customers you ask them relevant questions, not questions about how much you spend on food - which I agree is arbitary and ambiguous. A lot of people will also not know exactly how much they spend so its not even accurate.

Having said that I put in an application to NIB to open an account as AIB are currently fleecing me - 16 euro per quarter for a cashsave account which doesn't even give me an overdraft, chequebook or laser card. NIB seem to do a lot more with your application, however, I was asked for proof of income and they do a credit check on you even for the non-overdraft Freebank account. However I've been waiting for over three weeks to hear the outcome of my application (cagey, since I had debt problems two years ago - all of which has since been resolved) so I'm not too impressed with their service - however, early days yet, so it should be interesting to see how they perform.

PS I had always excellent counter service from AIB. I previously had a BOI current account and found their customer service extremely poor (though in fairness I was a crap customer!)

casper-

Oops..I forgot to mention, I'm with permanent tsb - no problems so far at all (at least my local branch has nice people in it). I'm in about the worst situation you can get I think for opening an account (no credit history, self-employed, etc.) and I still didn't have to go through any rigmarole or answer a weird list of questions. The rates are reasonable, and as someone mentioned earlier, there are a variety of ways you can get end up with no fees on your account.

Tazz T

I've moved from BOI to NIB's freebank and, yes, it's free but the customer service is appalling.

Just yesterday I discovered I'm not allowed to withdraw any money because of errors they made. On Thursday I had a balance of 500, put in 1200 (450 cash 750 cheque over the counter) yet my card was disallowed in Tescos on Good Friday.

I phone to ask why and am told that I'm 450 overdrawn. I said this was imppssible. The reason they gave was 'forecasting'. 1000 is due to be taken out for rent and credit card next Tuesday and if they let me have any money now I'll be overdrawn next week. So I asked what about the 1200 I put yesterday, they said they had no trace of it on their system yet and I would have to wait until Tuesday to check with the bank.

So I have 1700 in the bank at the moment and have no money to spend over Easter - there is going to be so much trouble when I get in there on Tuesday!

They messed up a standing order I cancelled over the counter last month as well and charged me for it not being paid. I complained in writing and was ignored.

Think it's time to move again.

shoegirl

Well, I finally had my account sorted out by the Cork branch and they were apologetic. They've also offered me a very good rate oin a credit card. Its 2% less than what I pay to BOI, and interest free for 6 months. I'm going to wind down my AIB cashsave account and bank only with NIB as I cannot justify paying over 60 per annum for what is basically a very basic bank account.

So a pat on the back for NIB in the end . .. .

Tazz T

Just as a follow up on my story. After raising hell at my branch yesterday, I discovered that if you deposit cash in a branch of the NIB other than your own, it takes two days to clear - apparently due to the fact that the branches aren't 'online'.

Unbelievable!!!

shoegirl

Originally posted by Tazz T
Just as a follow up on my story. After raising hell at my branch yesterday, I discovered that if you deposit cash in a branch of the NIB other than your own, it takes two days to clear - apparently due to the fact that the branches aren't 'online'.

Unbelievable!!!

I'm not sure if thats true. I had a problem like this with Bank of Ireland Swords in the early 1990s. It would have been a plausible excuse except for the fact that I also had another Bank of Ireland account in a different branch in Dublin city and the same thing didn't happen. So I simply closed the account and never heard anything again . . . I have found enormous discrepancies between different branches of the same bank, and different treatment depending on their perception of you as a customer.

GreeBo

Did you try ringing up AIB and telling them you will leave if they dont stop the charges?

Worked for me.

slave1

Did you try ringing up AIB and telling them you will leave if they dont stop the charges?

Yep, no joy, never overdrawn, always a 5 figure sum on deposit
my plan of action is to open a NIB account - filled out the forms on Monday - and then it will be no idle remark when I say I'm closing my account because of charges
I'll only stay if I get it in writing that no charges will hit my account for a number of years at least

casper-

If you haven't already .. I'd give permanent tsb a try. So far they've been quite good with my accounts and there's a million ways to pay no charges with them.

LizardKing

I'm with Permanent TSB too .. don't pay charges , except for the government levy's and card duty ... I have ATM , Laser , Cheque Book

www.open24.ie is their online service and its fine ... might not be as good as AIB's but it does more than enough for what I want ...

nlgbbbblth

when I worked in branch banking an individual came in to apply for a loan

We hit the subject of bank charges - his attitude was "I don't pay bank charges"

Then we discussed the interest rate - he turned to me and said "I don't pay interest"

.....