most functional banking website?

stabu

is there anybody fairly happy with the functionality their banking website offers them?
currently i'm using ulsterbank, and although it has been reliable, and quite straightforward, you canna do too many things on it.
to add a payee for example, you need to ring up.
Now, they have introduced card readers for authorising payments, except they never told me, and they never sent me one.
you'd swear that being part of the big boy league now (RBS), they'd have a 21st centruy web instead of a 20th century one.

BuffyBot

AIB's is generally considered one of the better ones in Ireland. I quite like NIB's functionality, but the look and feel of it isn't the most visually appealing or friendly. Ulster doesn't have a good rep round these parts from previous threads. ptsb's isn't too bad from my own experience

newbusiness

National Irish Bank.

There's nearly nothing you can't do with your account online that you can't do in branch. No ringing anyone either. International transfers, DD, you name it.

The only qualm is that you have to meet the bank manager (or senior) to set up an account. This is a one off though.

MAKE SURE YOU SAY YOU HAVE AN APPLE MAC. That way they have to give you the Activcard which is much safer than the key file method they give you by default, especially in public Internet cafes (random one time use codes, no good to anyone 30 seconds later)



I'm sick of BOI online banking, though they have been good in other ways.

homer911

I agree with the NIB comments - A favourite feature of mine is SMS alerts: Lodgements/Withdrawals over a certain value, Balance over/under a certain value, daily/weekly reminder of balance - and its free!

Any number of payees can be set up online

The only thing you cant do is set up savings accounts

I recently extended my service to a custody account - you get real time stock market infromation and your portfolio is repriced as you watch!

The counter service from NIB is unfortunately very poor - I've found branches to be grossly understaffed and very hard to contact over the phone

Definitely tell them you have a Mac, or that you have no home PC and your work PC is secured and you cant install anything on it - they seem to be very reluctant to issue Activecards, even though banks like Rabo issue them as routine

IrlJidel

homer911 wrote: »

I recently extended my service to a custody account - you get real time stock market infromation and your portfolio is repriced as you watch!

Hmm - I thought I read on askaboutmoney.com here that the quotes weren't real-time.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

seamus

BOI recently upgraded theirs. You can now add third party accounts and set up standing orders online.

Only problem is that when you do, they send you out a piece of paper with an activation code, making it quicker to do over the phone. :rolleyes:

BOI have definitely always been lacking features.

MIN2511

AIB definitely

• User friendly
• Add accounts
• International transfers
• e.t.c.

I have found that their internet and phone banking to be the most superior in Ireland.

stabu

many thanks from the comments.

have to say, it's really surprising that the AIB can be so far ahead of BoI in this category. Usually the biggest banks in a country are looking at each other so much, that they end up being the same.

my feeling is that from these answers and their difference in sizes, is that NIB might be slightly ahead of AIB, as the smaller banks usually stifle innovation less.

Cheers!

PS: Hang on, NIB doesn't take firefox ... oops.

BuffyBot

Well in fairness, NIB's used to be pretty awful. It's only improved now that they use the same system as their parent Danske Bank and all it's other subsiduaries - which combined are much bigger than AIB and BOI

broker2008

I had such bad experiences with NIB that I would not consider again eventhough they have changed ownership.

I find AIB to be excellent.

Supercell

Currenty, I find the Halifax online banking the best, really like being able to setup (and cancel) standing orders etc online with no form filling. It does all the usual stuff too, I can even change how often they send me a bank statement in the post which is nice.

Worst by a bajillion miles is the BOI website, its awful, don't miss banking with them at all.
I like the AIB online banking too, only minus was you couldnt set up standing orders online but that was a few years ago, maybe its possible now.

HungryJoey

With AIB now, although its perfect and does the job, I found NIB's interface much more appealing and functionality better. Although both banking websites offer pretty much the same task's, I prefered NIB's.

Hj

Mingus08

I've only used AIB and found them to be excellent and always improving, you can now set up standing orders, transfer international which is great.

For a while they've been trying to introduce estatements as an option, I avoided it because after 8 or so statements, they disappear, and if you haven't saved them to hard copy or backup - they're gone. But then I got my back up software together and thought it would be handy for inputing the data into Microsoft Money, or another spreadsheet, so I swapped.

Then I copied and pasted and each line comes out in a single cell with no formatting. Aaarrrgh :eek:

It's a PDF File. I heard ulster bank had a format in the north that you can import directly to Microsoft money from online. That would be fantastic. I don't see why AIB can't make life a little easier, I had been looking forward to the function for a few years.

Cheers!

:RANT OVER:

techguy

I have been using Bank of Ireland 365Online for the past couple of years.. I never had any problem with it and they have added a few new features lately.

**
In the past week my view has changed however. I had to add a payee(or benficiary) to my a/c to buy something online. Sumbitted all the details to be told to wait for an activation code in the post. which hasn't arrived after 2postal days!(too slow for a slip of paper, I once ordered a part from dell at around 3PM. It was in my hands the following morning!!)

Linked to the above problem, I had topped up my credit card a/c with the extra funds to purchase online. I then wanted to transfer the funds back to my current a/c as online store didn't take credit card.

The clerk in the bank today wanted to charge me 1.75% as it was a cash advance and "it was the only way to do it"!! Basically €5.25 to transfer fund from one a/c to another both in my name!!!RAGE!

Sangre

PTSB and BOI have both recently won awards for their websites. They're both pretty weak compared with competitors. I hate the BOI activation postal thing.

BTW techguy, you can't transfer funds from most CCs to other accounts. Not a BOI issue.

techguy

Ok then, I stand corrected.. The postal activation is holding me up big time at the moment too..

MartMax

i've been using AIB from the beginning and find it is excellent enough. Improvements made over time which are great. However, it can't beat Malaysia's HSBC on-line banking which I have since 8 years ago. It does almost every over-the-counter transactions.

Marty

stepbar

Haven't used NIB's online system but it looks better than AIB's, but not by much. Agreed that there are some nice features on BOI's but not in the same league as AIB. Being able to cancel Direct Debits and schedule payments for a date in the future are very handy. Setting up beneficiaries are a nightmare. But it's the only workaround they have at the moment.