Switched from Halifax to PTSB account, no fee free banking

Ush1

This may have already been posted. I switched from Halifax to PTSB assuming from their website that I would be getting fee free banking with credit interest.

When I opened my account and rang open24 they said I would be charged quarterly fees and can't avail of the credit interest.

Fairly annoyed at this. I was told to ring the branch to check it which I did. Guy on the phone didn't seem to have much of a clue, simply said I didn't qualify. I asked why and he is sending me out a booklet.

Anybody else had any experience on this and have this booklet?

unclebill98

There are not many banks that offer interest credit on a current account. Open a reg savers with them to avail of interest.

Some banks offer free day to day banking but charge extra for anything else.

If you being charged a standard quarterly fee then thats not great. Other banks offer no such fees. I'd move to one of them.

Lux23

BOI have fee free banking if you use internet banking four times a quarter. There overdraft rates and fees are massive though.

Ush1

unclebill98 wrote: »

There are not many banks that offer interest credit on a current account. Open a reg savers with them to avail of interest.

Some banks offer free day to day banking but charge extra for anything else.

If you being charged a standard quarterly fee then thats not great. Other banks offer no such fees. I'd move to one of them.

BOI and AIB both offer credit interest on current accounts, and PTSB are supposed to:
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=21774

I have a savings account also opened so the interest is not as annoying an issue as the quarterly fees.

In fact what is most annoying is they don't tell you if you will or won't be charged quarterly fees until you open the account.

unclebill98

Ush1 wrote: »

BOI and AIB both offer credit interest on current accounts, and PTSB are supposed to:
http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=21774

I have a savings account also opened so the interest is not as annoying an issue as the quarterly fees.

In fact what is most annoying is they don't tell you if you will or won't be charged quarterly fees until you open the account.

Interest on Current Accounts is not really worth anything. Its limited to the first 1500euro!! Most have dumb conditions and charge you high amounts for simple day to day stuff.

As for the fee's, when opening an accounts its mandatory to get a T&C booklet to show you all the fees and its illegal for them not to notify you of the charge before its applied to the account.

I think charges for day to day banking is poor service. It does make
Banks a mint.

dotsman

unclebill98 wrote: »

I think charges for day to day banking is poor service. It does make Banks a mint.

Afraid not. The day-to-day banking is extremely expensive as it is very labour intensive, high volume, low value transactions, dealing with high volumes of customers who are not financially savvy, but are highly regulated.

The idea of fee-free banking and high-interest current accounts is loss-leading. During the boom, with extremely tight competition, banks saw their profits being ripped apart on day-to-day banking (hence why property development lending grew so rapidly as it was hugely profitable).

OP, as already mentioned, they should state clearly in the booklet what conditions have to be satisfied in order to receive fee-free banking. They are usually very clear-cut (not very familiar with PTSB current accounts at the moment). Don't know why the guy on the phone couldn't tell you.