Bank of Ireland change criteria for Free Banking from November 2012

NuMarvel

There's an ad in today's Irish Times and Irish Info from Bank of Ireland. It says they are changing the terms of the No Transaction Fee Offer as follows:

"Personal Current Account transaction fees will not apply if over the course of a fee quarter, you maintain a minimum credit balance of €3,000 in your Personal Current Account throughout a full fee quarter."

And here's the kicker:

"The previous qualifying criteria to lodge at least €3,000 throughout the fee quarter and make 9 debit transactions using 365phone or online will no longer qualify you for the No Transaction Fees Offer."

Also, the charge for a replacement current or deposit account card is increasing from €5.90 to €8.00.

Change comes into effect from 19th November 2012.

seamus

You have got to be fncking kidding me.

http://personalbanking.bankofireland.com/fs/doc/wysiwyg/pca-press-ad-final-18thsept.pdf

Bye bye BOI. A minimum balance of €3k over a 3 month period? I'm running a current account. If I had €3k for three months it would be in a savings account, not a current account.

Bloody idiots.

Brian2850

Its incredible! What makes it worse is that they produced their schedule of fee's for current accounts before AIB. When BOI realised that AIB's are more stringent than theirs, they amend their criteria as per todays ad. So much for competition from the two pillar banks!

danthefan

Seems similar to the charges AIB brought in. I was actually going to move to BoI but didn't bother because I knew they'd end up charging too. I think Ulster Bank have no charges currently but it's obviously not going to last.

listermint

This is RIDICULOUS.

Right so whos left?

Wheres the competition ? Shafted!

Kopparberg Strawberry and Lime

just aswell I'm still in college

and will be until I'm bout 80 years old....

smcgiff

UB have extended their free banking for a year as recompense for their recent mess.

Is there any current account like options that will allow direct debits and allow cash to be taken out of an atm, but don't charge banking fee?

Building society/ an post (or is that tied into aib?)

I'm with ub, but expect them to start charging in a year's time.

Toto Wolfcastle

I was going to change to BOI tomorrow from AIB but there's no point now. I'll go to Ulster Bank.

wmpdd3

Moved to boi from aib 2 months ago. atleast I saved 1 quaters fees. looks like the best option for me is pay my 28c x 5 for my credits per month, spend another 28c x 4 taking it out and pay billd in the post office. Any saving made by paying bills by dd is wiped out by bank charges.

Zaph

It's a ridiculous move by BoI, they could have picked up a lot of business from people moving from AIB. Now they'll lose a large deposit base themselves and will have to fund their balance sheet at the market rate as opposed to getting free funding from current account balances. It's an incredibly short sighted move on their part.

areyawell

Bank of Ireland are the bigger shower of w****** ever! Any one with Permanent TSB or Ulster bank, defintly changing

Jim2007

Zaph wrote: »

It's a ridiculous move by BoI, they could have picked up a lot of business from people moving from AIB.

Not at all, processing transactions costs money - rewarding people who generate additional costs for the bank, with free banking was the stupid part! In most other Euro zone countries, people only get free banking if they have large amounts on deposit with the bank, why should it be any different here?

In time the other banks will be bound to do the same because the current logic just adds costs to their bottom lines.

SCOOP 64

Jim2007 wrote: »

Not at all, processing transactions costs money - rewarding people who generate additional costs for the bank, with free banking was the stupid part! In most other Euro zone countries, people only get free banking if they have large amounts on deposit with the bank, why should it be any different here?

In time the other banks will be bound to do the same because the current logic just adds costs to their bottom lines.

so people with large deposits who can afford to pay, don't have too.
people with little money in accounts have too pay, sounds fair.
and why cant we be different here ?

chasm

Jim2007 wrote: »

Not at all, processing transactions costs money - rewarding people who generate additional costs for the bank, with free banking was the stupid part! In most other Euro zone countries, people only get free banking if they have large amounts on deposit with the bank, why should it be any different here?

In time the other banks will be bound to do the same because the current logic just adds costs to their bottom lines.

Banks in the UK seem to offer fee free current accounts without the need to have large amounts on deposit. Having your account in credit is enough.

So glad i opted for Ulster Bank now instead of BoI. I know fees are coming in next year but i deal with it nearer the time!
It's a pity the banks wouldn't bring in a fee free Basic current a/c but i doubt that will ever happen in this country :mad:

Islander13

Only a minor point I suppose but in this new era of banking charges everyone should be putting all transactions on their credit cards if they can and then transfer once per month from bank account. Otherwise a 3eur coffee has a 10% bank commission on it.

Charges were probably inevitable but being without them for so long, makes them hard to palate but I suppose why should we get a service for free?

Mannix80

All banks bringing in charges. Similar rules.
Certain words come to mind.

Price Fixing
Cartels
Anti Competition

vicwatson

sugarman wrote: »

Bye bye Bank of Ireland!

+1 not putting up with this.

Jim2007

nig1 wrote: »

so people with large deposits who can afford to pay, don't have too.
people with little money in accounts have too pay, sounds fair.
and why cant we be different here ?

Remember the saying: "There is no such thing as a free lunch", well there is no such thing as free banking either! If you have money on the bank, it's true they pay you interest, but they still have a very good margin on it and can afford to cover the transaction costs, on the other hand giving free banking to someone who is only generating transaction costs can result in only one thing - a loss.

In addition to all the current issues, the banks are facing another big challenge known as "Basle III", meeting this requirement means that the banks have to build up more reserves and to do so, they need to stop cash out flows (expenses in other words) and start turning a profit ASAP, otherwise they will have to look to the government once again.....

This is a common problem for all European banks, here in Switzerland where I am, the biggest bank has had to stop paying dividends and lay off 16,000 staff in order to try and meet the reserve requirements. And because unlike Ireland we don't have a great state pension, this has a big impact on the retried as traditionally they invested in the banks and lived of the dividends.

Jim2007

chasm wrote: »

Banks in the UK seem to offer fee free current accounts without the need to have large amounts on deposit. Having your account in credit is enough.

So glad i opted for Ulster Bank now instead of BoI. I know fees are coming in next year but i deal with it nearer the time!
It's a pity the banks wouldn't bring in a fee free Basic current a/c but i doubt that will ever happen in this country :mad:

Well to start with, comparisons to the UK are not very useful because they have a different monetary policy, different regulatory authorities and different economic policies, in fact apart from speaking the same language that is about it! We are an Euro zone country and as we move to a more federalised banking model comparison with other Euro zone countries is more appropriate.

That said, the banking industry is on the brink of some major changes: there is massive over capacity and margins are very slim, so therefore there will have to be a big downsizing exercise in the next few years. On top of this, having spent so long dealing with the mess the banker dumped on them, European politicians are starting to turn their attention to ensuring that the mess will not land on them next time - so there are a lot of new regulations on the way, the most important being Basle III and the ECB taking over supervision of the major Euro zone banks.

Given this I would expect in five or six years the Irish banking model will be very much in line with that of middle Europe rather than the current anglo-american one.

Jim2007

Mannix80 wrote: »

All banks bringing in charges. Similar rules.
Certain words come to mind.

Price Fixing
Cartels
Anti Competition

No it just means that reality has started to bit - it's now a fight for survival and giving away free services is not part of the game.

You are only at the start... My bank requires a minimum of 10K permanently on deposit in order to get free banking, all ATM withdrawals other than from their ATMS cost 2 euro a pop, bank statement costs 7 euros a month if you want one, ebanking transfers to IBAN accounts is about 90 cents each and to other accounts several Euros... and cheques no long exist.

BuffyBot

Even as it stands, UK banks have been making noises about re-introducing fees for personal customers.

avalon68

So does this mean they wont link accounts? I have a current account and savings account with them - would having the 3k in my savings cover me for free fees? I havent used the account much of late, but now that they finally brought in visa debit I would probably be using it a lot more.

Islander13

avalon68 wrote: »

So does this mean they wont link accounts? I have a current account and savings account with them - would having the 3k in my savings cover me for free fees? I havent used the account much of late, but now that they finally brought in visa debit I would probably be using it a lot more.

The purpose of the 3k requirement is that they get their money by not paying you interest on it instead of through fees. They wouldn't give free fees because you have 3k in a savings account as they'd be paying you a decent rate on it, presumably, so they wouldn't be making much from you on that

augusta24

Islander13 wrote: »

Only a minor point I suppose but in this new era of banking charges everyone should be putting all transactions on their credit cards if they can and then transfer once per month from bank account. Otherwise a 3eur coffee has a 10% bank commission on it.

Charges were probably inevitable but being without them for so long, makes them hard to palate but I suppose why should we get a service for free?

Trying to get my head around all the fees and possible ways around them.

I was thinking of getting a BOI Mastercard. So can anyone clarify for me:

1. with the mastercard am I right in saying there are no charges for transactions in shops etc.

2. Are there charges to use the mastercard at an ATM? And if so are these only when you are taking money on credit? OR are there also fees if there is money already in the credit card account? And what are the fees in comparison to the fees for the current account??

avalon68

Islander13 wrote: »

The purpose of the 3k requirement is that they get their money by not paying you interest on it instead of through fees. They wouldn't give free fees because you have 3k in a savings account as they'd be paying you a decent rate on it, presumably, so they wouldn't be making much from you on that

Well that sucks, no one keeps that sort of money in a current account. Shouldn't they be encouraging people to save to build up their reserves? And it isn't like they pay a huge amount of interest on savings in the first place.....I've been with them since college but will now consider my options....charging to use Internet banking....ffs, ridiculous.

jimmynokia

sugarman wrote: »

Bye bye Bank of Ireland!

And from me,ive been with them 20 yr :mad:

UDP

I wouldn't mind changing but who is a real alternative?

Kensington

UDP wrote: »

I wouldn't mind changing but who is a real alternative?

Long term, no-one.
The days of fee free-banking are well and truly numbered.

fits

The cost of living creeps ever higher.

avalon68

I can understand maybe ATM fees as they need maintenance and someone has to restock them etc, but fees for electronic transactions in a shop or for online banking seem ridiculous. People using Internet banking has allowed them to shed huge numbers of staff, so has actually saved them a lot of money. Charging per use I'd debit card defies the purpose and convenience of having one. I could live with maybe one cent per transaction.....but I think I read 20 cent on here somewhere. That could get very expensive very quickly.

jimmynokia

We bail out the banks and they shaft us #ireland