IRONIC or what!

fletch

Ok here goes.
I am a student and have a student account with AIB.
I wanted a credit card, filled out their online thingy, posted it off, was called and told to drop in with 2 forms of ID to my bank to finalize it and I would be issued with the credit card.
I brought in my full drivers licence and passport. They accepted either one of them as a single form of ID but needed a letter(official)/utility bill addressed to me.
So off I go, get my bank statement and drop that into them, no problems.

But the bank statement was issued by them themselves so why the need for proof of residency if I already have a bank account with them!? I fail to see the logic???

ballooba

They have no proof that you are receiving your bank statements at that address???

grumpytrousers

Cos the banks credit card arm is probably seen (by the bank) as a separate organisation. Tenuous link, I realise, but the CCard wing probably don't *ever* talk to the retail banking gang.

fletch

ballooba wrote:

They have no proof that you are receiving your bank statements at that address???

The very fact that I had filled out the letter, (which they send to you after filling out the online form), signed it and returned it should be proof enough that I am residing at that address....Think about it

fletch

grumpytrousers wrote:

Cos the banks credit card arm is probably seen (by the bank) as a separate organisation. Tenuous link, I realise, but the CCard wing probably don't *ever* talk to the retail banking gang.

Makes sense....jus ludicrous really

ballooba

fletch wrote:

I wanted a credit card, filled out their online thingy, posted it off,

The fact that they post the form to you is in no way clear from your original post... think about it.

fletch

ballooba wrote:

The fact that they post the form to you is in no way clear from your original post... think about it.

Yeh sorry bout that

ballooba

fletch wrote:

Yeh sorry bout that

No worries,

we all know how the saying goes:

"Fighting on the internet is like the Spe..."

MrPudding

It's all down to the central bank. It is obvious that the letter got to you but it is not recognised by the central bank as proof of address. So that is the letter explained. I had a funny one with NIB. I moved house last year so went to tell them. They told me they could not change my address until I brought them a utility bill or a bank statement. I explained that I would not have any bills for a while, they said they didn’t care. So asked them if they intended to send my private bank statements to an address where they knew I was not living. They said no they would not do that, they would change my address but I would have to bring some proof in when I had it. I said OK. When they sent me my next statement I took it into the branch, nice and simple.

The fact that you are already a customer is a bit harder to explain. I appreciate that it is 2 different divisions but there should be some sharing of information (unless that would be against the law for some reason.)

MrP

ballooba

Is the link between AIB and their Mastercard very slim?

i.e. that they do the billing and customer care on behalf of Mastercard?

grumpytrousers

The fact that you are already a customer is a bit harder to explain. I appreciate that it is 2 different divisions but there should be some sharing of information (unless that would be against the law for some reason.)

Ooh - that's a good point. I'd wager that it *is* against the law. For instance - if you won the lotto and decided to put your 3million deposit with AIB (because you *want* 0.02% p.a. on it !) and similarly decided (for whatever reason) to rack up 30K on your AIB credit card and not pay any of it back, I don't think that part A of the AIB organisation (credit cards) can just go and ask part B of the organisation (retail banking) "OI - does Joe Bloggs have an account with ye, if so how much is in it, cos we want to write him a stinker of a letter telling him to hurry the feck up with the 30K)

Is the link between AIB and their Mastercard very slim?

i.e. that they do the billing and customer care on behalf of Mastercard?

There's no link AFAIK. Mastercard is a logo that AIB use under license. There isn't a mastercard office as such in Dublin. AIBs credit cards are run by (probably) "AIB Credit Card Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of AIB plc) or something like that.

You can find out more about what Mastercard does here

dmeehan

AIB visa (in donnybrook) have a sort code similar to the rest of the aib branches
ie it starts with 93-

grumpytrousers

AIB visa (in donnybrook) have a sort code similar to the rest of the aib branches
ie it starts with 93-

Yes - another potential 9998 branches also have such 'similar' sort codes...

I'm not saying AIB (visa) and AIB (retail) aren't related - I'm just saying that between various functions of their banking empire, the information may not flow as freely as you'd think.

I.e. the marketing bods probably have a fair bit of access to everybodys data for the purposes of promoting goods and services. (remember that box you ticked on the form!) However, as i've said, the debt retrieval lads would have to jump through a lot more hoops in order to (assuming they can ever) get hold of your other personal information...

Victor

grumpytrousers wrote:

However, as i've said, the debt retrieval lads would have to jump through a lot more hoops in order to (assuming they can ever) get hold of your other personal information...

Nope, you can assume they know everything that the bank has on you and more (Irish Credit Bureau). You sign it all away.

grumpytrousers

REALLY...

*changes name by deedpoll*

shoegirl

Victor wrote:

Nope, you can assume they know everything that the bank has on you and more (Irish Credit Bureau). You sign it all away.

Not quite. There was a test case a few years ago which is documented on the Data Commissioners website. They are only allowed to pass details regarding the debt which you owe them, and the collection agent cannot keep details for their own purposes (for example to build up a database of "bad borrowers.") It was established that the creditor had a right to pass over personal details for debt collection, but that the debt collector couldn't use that info for his own purposes.

shoegirl

grumpytrousers wrote:

Cos the banks credit card arm is probably seen (by the bank) as a separate organisation. Tenuous link, I realise, but the CCard wing probably don't *ever* talk to the retail banking gang.

They will start to link together account information if you are in default on borrowings. They only seem to use this information so that a central collections department has a single point of contact, which is more effective than having one person ringing about your mortgage, one about your overdraft, one about your credit card, and another about your bank loan.

Usually id means proof of identity (passport, driving licence) and proof of address (utility bill or bank statement etc). It would be unusual for a bank to refuse its own statements, but you'd need to show them the physical copy. Proof of address is not exactly a reliable proof of id, but still required.