eStatements for ex-pats

spiderbaby2000

I live on the west coast of the USA, my Irish mobile phone account was cancelled since I stopped topping up, and I want to sign up for Banking365 eStatements. This is 2014 - should be easy, right?

Wrong. I've wasted more than an hour over five phone calls trying to do this.

The first call was me trying to see whether there was any way for me to sign up. In the second call, I changed my phone number associated with my account to my mother mobile phone (this number was verified in all the following calls). I request eStatements but never receive any text message. Fail. Back to 365. The next call was to a <snip> just after Christmas who transferred me to a technical support number which was closed that day. The fourth call was to complain about the third call (I doubt the complaint was registered). In that call, I was promised that technical support would call me back the next day (I was in Ireland at the time). They did not. The fifth call lasted 15 minutes, most of which was me getting bounced around on hold. First, I asked for technical support and <snip> transferred me to some internal number who then routed me back to technical support who asked whether they could ring me back on my US mobile number. They did not.

The problem may be, I am guessing, that I registered my mother's phone number which is already registered to her 365 account. That is my guess but BOI have been unable to give me any indication whether that is the problem.

<snip> It's not a truly online system if you need to own a mobile phone to do the simplest task. I signed up for paperless statements on the Bank Of America site. How? I clicked a button. What I am trying to do has no security risk but you have to run hoops to do it. I doubt that I am the only ex-pat whose Irish mobile phone has been cut off.

And Bank Of Ireland: "For complaints/issues, we commit to... Make it easy for you to complain". Bull****. You can phone in (9am-5am GMT which is 1am-9am over here) and WRITE A LETTER. Write a letter? No option to email? FFS.

I don't appreciate the 365 agents lying about calling me back. But hey, <snip> just continue to waste money sending me paper statements every month. It all goes straight in the bin every Christmas.

murphaph

Hmmm. Did you originally try with your US mobile and it didn't work? I opened my BoI account as an expat when I was home visiting one time and I just gave my German mobile phone into the system and it works fine for receiving activation codes to do things like switching on estatements or adding a payee. You can also request activation codes by post if you don't need them very often (switching off paper statements is a one time thing after all).

When you say that the statements go in the bin every Christmas it sounds like you are still using your home address in Ireland? If so, why not inform the bank that you live in the US? 

spiderbaby2000

Yep, in the first phone call the agent said that they couldn't use my US number. In fact, they said that it had to be an Irish mobile which conflicts with your experience. No agent since then has suggested the use of a US mobile. However, I wouldn't be surprised if that was possible and my time has been wasted.

I requested an activation code by post for switching the mobile number but again have always been told that I would need to use a phone to switch to e-statements. When you click to change to e-statements online, it sends a message to the registered number. <snip> It's an online system; switching to e-statements should be possible without using: i) the postal system; ii) a mobile phone. What annoys me even more is that e-statements are more secure than paper statements and allowing a user to sign up to them online is not a security risk.

I've informed the bank that I live in the US on each call. It's usually the first thing I mention. I don't want them to change my address in their system... plus they might send me statements in the mail :-/.

murphaph

Indeed they will. I don't use estatements and BoI post mine to Germany each quarter. I think you need to establish what the problem with a US mobile is, if there is even a problem using one. Foreign (at least my German) numbers are acceptable, but perhaps there's a particular reason a US mobile is not. Reps?

Bank of Ireland: Sean

Hi, 

We just want to clarify, you can register any mobile phone number in order to receive activation codes by text message.  We will always send the text message however we cannot guarantee your mobile phone provider will allow you to receive these text messages.  But you can always check with them first. 

Many thanks

Seán

Boards.ie: Niamh

Personal abuse such as I have just removed from your posts is not allowed OP. You have received an official warning - do it again and you will receive an infraction or ban from this forum.

spiderbaby2000

Hi Sean,

Thanks for confirming murphaph's post. I was told previously by a BOI agent that I could only use an Irish mobile number.

@murphaph: Thanks for your input. I will ring BOI one more time.

@Niamh: I made disparaging (and frank) remarks about the BOI system as it was explained to me by a BOI agent and I referred to two unnamed persons who were terrible at their job (and never described in any detail) in unflattering terms. I do not consider any of this to be personal abuse.

Boards.ie: Niamh

spiderbaby2000 wrote: »

Hi Sean,

Thanks for confirming murphaph's post. I was told previously by a BOI agent that I could only use an Irish mobile number.

@murphaph: Thanks for your input. I will ring BOI one more time.

@Niamh: I made disparaging (and frank) remarks about the BOI system as it was explained to me by a BOI agent and I referred to two unnamed persons who were terrible at their job (and never described in any detail) in unflattering terms. I do not consider any of this to be personal abuse.

You need to familiarise yourself with the forum charter and our Terms of Use.

Personal abuse such as that I removed from your posts is completely unacceptable. Questioning a moderator action on-thread is also not allowed - should you have something to say about a Mod action, you contact that Mod by PM to discuss rather than taking the thread off-topic. You are new to the site so I have not issued any further action, however make sure to read the charter and Terms of Use as instructed.

spiderbaby2000

I signed up my US mobile phone number with Banking 365 - no text message arrived but the website said that the phone was activated. I signed up to eStatements but never received a text message. This has been a huge waste of my time. BOI can waste their money and lots of paper sending me statements that will get shredded and binned once a year for all I care. Alternatively, I might just take the small amount of money left in the account, move it into the credit union, and close the BOI account. If I ever move back home, I'll be transferring my funds into the credit union or another bank.

How do Bank Of America let you sign up for eStatements? Log in, click sign up to eStatements, done. If a bank cannot handle this level of customer service, it worries me to think of how they would handle my finances.

Bank of Ireland: Elaine

Hi Spiderbaby2000,

Thanks for your post.

We're very sorry to hear this issue is still on going. From what you have explained in your post above it appears there may be some confusion with regards to the process of setting up eStatements.

As you have already done, the 1st thing to do is to register your own US mobile phone number. Once you have done this a 7 digit activation code is automatically sent to your address. When you receive this you can activate your mobile online using this code. As you have mentioned previous, your address is currently in Ireland so this code should be at your Irish address. For more information on activating your mobile please see here. 

Once you have activated your mobile number you can then sign up for eStatements. When signed into your 365Online, go to manage accounts in the left hand menu and select the account you wish to receive eStatements from. Just to mention eStatements are currently not available for Credit Card accounts. For further help with signing up for eStatements please see here.

Also just to mention, as you are registered for 365Online you can send any account specific queries through the Online Service Desk while you are logged into your 365Online. The representatives who work this secure channel have account access and can assist you with more account specific queries.

If you would like to change your address for the future please follow this link.

Finally we like to apologise for any previous mis leading information you have received. We hope this helps resolve the situation. If you need anything further, please don't hesitate to get back in contact with us here.

Thanks,
Elaine

spiderbaby2000

Elaine, there is no confusion on my part. I requested the PIN and it was sent to my Irish address. I then rang home and they told me the PIN. I have been using 365 for years, I know how this antiquated system works. I do not see why setting up eStatements requires this bizarre two-factor authentication process - if someone is in the position of being able to log into my 365 account and request a PIN online, I would have deeper security concerns than them being able to see my bank statement.
 
As I mentioned in my post, when I activated my phone online, the website said that the phone was activated but no text message arrived to confirm this. I have been given different information from different agents - all the phone operators said that I could not use my US mobile, Seán above said that I could. It appears that I cannot since I am receiving no codes on my phone (AT&T, smart phone). In all prior communications, no one else has ever mentioned to me that eStatements are not available for credit cards (this also begs the question, "why not?"); I am trying to sign up to eStatements for both a current account and credit card account (and I have mentioned this) so this information would have been important for them to make clear. Misinformation and empty promises of calling me back make for an extremely unhappy customer.
 
If you had read my posts, even the edited versions, you would have realized that I have tried the phone line many times. It was all a complete waste of my time since the agents' knowledge of how the system worked contradicted each other.
 
Similarly, changing my address would be pointless - then the paper statements that I do not want would be delivered to my current address at an even higher environmental cost. Please try to understand the customers complaints before offering unhelpful advice (and then perhaps do not offer that advice).
 
Again, I have wasted too much time on the phone, on the site, and on this forum trying to accomplish a simple task that other online banking systems allow easily. That's it for me. If you want to help, contact the security team and point out the lack of real security in using this dumb two-factor system for online statements and then contact the credit card team and ask them to get their act together regarding eStatements.

Bank of Ireland: Billy

Hi spiderbaby2000, 

Many thanks for your post.

We can most definitely pass your comments and suggestions to the B365 Team and the Credit Card Team. All feedback is very much appreciated. 

As my colleague mentioned, it is possible to register and use a non-Irish mobile number on B365. We have many customers using non-Irish mobile numbers successfully. If you are not receiving a text message to the active mobile, please ask your phone provider if they allow texts from financial institutions. Please also ensure you have international roaming enabled on your phone. 

In terms of credit card eStatements, this is something that is being looked at. The facility will be available although we haven't been given a date as of yet. It will be advertised as the launch date gets closer. 

Thanks

Billy

spiderbaby2000

Hi Billy,

If it is possible to use an AT&T phone to receive texts from BOI then that is fine. But why do the agents here and the agents on the phone give the opposite information to customers? Please tell the B365 team to train their agents properly and improve the information on the website so other customers do not also decide to cancel their accounts.

Bank of Ireland: Paula C

Hi spiderbaby2000,

Apologies if you feel you were given incorrect information regarding this, as mentioned above we have many customers using non-Irish mobile numbers to receive activation/ security codes successfully

We can assure you the information posted on our website regarding this is correct, we will certainly ensure this feedback is passed on to our BOI365 Phone team for review.

Thanks,
Paula C