Why is BOI charging me interest for credit card bills I didn't recieve?

miriamoc

I have been a Bank of Ireland customer for 30 years. For the past 25 years I have paid every single credit card bill in full each month as soon as I received the bill. This week I received a letter from Bank of Ireland saying that my credit card account was in arrears. I  was very surprised and then I realised that I hadn't received a credit card bill for the past 2 months. Even though I have repeatedly asked, Bank of Ireland will not give me access to my own credit card bill via Banking 365 as the credit card is in my husband’s name.  I usually pay the household bills through my B365 accounts and my husband very rarely  accesses his Banking 365 account.  When my husband logged into his  Banking 365 account yesterday we found that BOI had charged us 65 Euro in interest for not paying 2 credit card bills that we had never seen. It looks like BOI  decided to change to eStatements without informing us and then penalised us when we didn't pay the bills we never got.
  I phoned up Banking 365 today and they confirmed 
a)  they had decided to stop posting us paper Credit Card Statements without our agreement, and without notifying us.
b) they cannot give me acccess to my own credit card statement on my Banking 365 account. 
c)  they were unwilling to remove the charge of 66 euro interest on overdue bills that we had never saw.
This is totally unacceptable way to treat your customers
I am planning on moving all my accounts from Bank of Ireland. I know this will take time and effort to change all my bills but I just do not trust this bank with my money after treating me like this.

Emmadilema123

miriamoc wrote: »

I have been a Bank of Ireland customer for 30 years. For the past 25 years I have paid every single credit card bill in full each month as soon as I received the bill. This week I received a letter from Bank of Ireland saying that my credit card account was in arrears. I  was very surprised and then I realised that I hadn't received a credit card bill for the past 2 months. Even though I have repeatedly asked, Bank of Ireland will not give me access to my own credit card bill via Banking 365 as the credit card is in my husband’s name.  I usually pay the household bills through my B365 accounts and my husband very rarely  accesses his Banking 365 account.  When my husband logged into his  Banking 365 account yesterday we found that BOI had charged us 65 Euro in interest for not paying 2 credit card bills that we had never seen. It looks like BOI  decided to change to eStatements without informing us and then penalised us when we didn't pay the bills we never got.
  I phoned up Banking 365 today and they confirmed 
a)  they had decided to stop posting us paper Credit Card Statements without our agreement, and without notifying us.
b) they cannot give me acccess to my own credit card statement on my Banking 365 account. 
c)  they were unwilling to remove the charge of 66 euro interest on overdue bills that we had never saw.
This is totally unacceptable way to treat your customers
I am planning on moving all my accounts from Bank of Ireland. I know this will take time and effort to change all my bills but I just do not trust this bank with my money after treating me like this.

Banks have been taking the piss out of Irish people for way too long. They don't really care if you change banks. Hit them where it hurts and make a complaint to the ombudsman.

Carlos Orange

miriamoc wrote: »

Bank of Ireland will not give me access to my own credit card bill via Banking 365 as the credit card is in my husband’s name.  
b) they cannot give me acccess to my own credit card statement on my Banking 365 account. 

Whatever about anything else this seems to be your husbands credit card not your own.

screamer

Emmadilema123 wrote: »

Banks have been taking the piss out of Irish people for way too long. They don't really care if you change banks. Hit them where it hurts and make a complaint to the ombudsman.

You'll find you don't have a leg to stand in with the ombudsman. Boi posted a notification to everyones account who had 365 online when i logged in it used to come up in big red letters about the move to estatements from feb i think. They also had notifications in the newspapers. Move your account it's about all you can do and remember when you call 365 it's not the person on the phone's fault they're just trying to help you. These sorts of decisions are not theirs.

Emmadilema123

screamer wrote: »

You'll find you don't have a leg to stand in with the ombudsman. Boi posted a notification to everyones account who had 365 online when i logged in it used to come up in big red letters about the move to estatements from feb i think. They also had notifications in the newspapers. Move your account it's about all you can do and remember when you call 365 it's not the person on the phone's fault they're just trying to help you. These sorts of decisions are not theirs.

Did they send out a paper letter to inform customers of the change also? If so then I would be inclined to agree but if a change is made to someone's account regarding correspondence preferences I think it is only fair to first make them aware of the change through that channel first. If they did not, the customer has nothing to lose by bringing a complaint to the ombudsman.

Bank of Ireland: Sarah

miriamoc wrote: »

I have been a Bank of Ireland customer for 30 years. For the past 25 years I have paid every single credit card bill in full each month as soon as I received the bill. This week I received a letter from Bank of Ireland saying that my credit card account was in arrears. I  was very surprised and then I realised that I hadn't received a credit card bill for the past 2 months. Even though I have repeatedly asked, Bank of Ireland will not give me access to my own credit card bill via Banking 365 as the credit card is in my husband’s name.  I usually pay the household bills through my B365 accounts and my husband very rarely  accesses his Banking 365 account.  When my husband logged into his  Banking 365 account yesterday we found that BOI had charged us 65 Euro in interest for not paying 2 credit card bills that we had never seen. It looks like BOI  decided to change to eStatements without informing us and then penalised us when we didn't pay the bills we never got.
  I phoned up Banking 365 today and they confirmed 
a)  they had decided to stop posting us paper Credit Card Statements without our agreement, and without notifying us.
b) they cannot give me acccess to my own credit card statement on my Banking 365 account. 
c)  they were unwilling to remove the charge of 66 euro interest on overdue bills that we had never saw.
This is totally unacceptable way to treat your customers
I am planning on moving all my accounts from Bank of Ireland. I know this will take time and effort to change all my bills but I just do not trust this bank with my money after treating me like this.

Hi miriamoc, 

Thank you for contacting us on Boards. 

We're sorry to hear that you're unhappy and that you wish to move your accounts from Bank of Ireland. 

With the move to estatements for active 365 Online users, we notified our customers of this update through national papers in September 2015, an interrupt message when logged into 365 Online and there was also an insert with your Credit Card statements. Please note that additional card holders are unable to add the credit card to view on 365 Online, however the primary card holder can add it to view transactions and estatements. 

The primary card holder can request to receive postal statements as well as estatements by going to Manage Accounts on the left hand menu and then the Manage Statements option. If this option isn't available to view, please send the query under the Online Service Desk option and our representative can look into this. 

We understand you're unhappy with the switch to estatements and will forward your feedback to the team. If you wish to make a formal complaint, please see our Customer Complaints policy here. 

We do hope that you reconsider switching your accounts from us and please let us know if we can help with any other query. 

Thanks,
Sarah

miriamoc

I am glad that you have started to offer the option to get electronic statements but I think that the transition  has been badly managed. I was not aware that I would no longer get my credit card bills by post.  I had seen notices that you were introducing e-statements but I assumed that this was in addition to posting out bills.  I don't accept that I should have to pay interest on a bill that was not delivered to me but was sent to an online account that we do not use.
I think this will be a real  issue for customers who are not computer literate and don't have access to on-line banking.

Bank of Ireland: Sarah

miriamoc wrote: »

I am glad that you have started to offer the option to get electronic statements but I think that the transition  has been badly managed. I was not aware that I would no longer get my credit card bills by post.  I had seen notices that you were introducing e-statements but I assumed that this was in addition to posting out bills.  I don't accept that I should have to pay interest on a bill that was not delivered to me but was sent to an online account that we do not use.
I think this will be a real  issue for customers who are not computer literate and don't have access to on-line banking.

Hi miriamoc,

Thanks for your reply. 

Just to clarify, it is still possible to receive postal statements for a Credit Card in addition to estatements. As mentioned above, to change the statement preferences, the primary card holder can go to Manage Accounts and then Manage Statements. Estataments were turned on for customers who have been active on 365 Online in the last 12 months. If a customer was not active online in the 12 month period or has not registered for 365 Online, their postal statements were not turned off.

If there is any other query we can help with please let us know.

Thanks,
Sarah

Chopper Dave

Sarah

I came very close to getting caught out by this change myself.

I'm not sure who in BOI thought that a unilateral move to e-statements was a good idea but it's nonsenscical to say that this was communicated clearly.  

This type of arrangement only works where someone is paying in full by direct debit.   For example, my electricity company emails me a bill, it also sends an email with the amount due in a clear, large font and then takes the amount by direct debit.

BOI on the other hand issues an email telling my that my "statement" for account XXXXXXXX1234 is now available to view.   Most people might pay attention to a "bill' rather than a 'statement' but there is no mention of any amount being due or by any date.   Given that I also get a large amount of spam emails purporting to be from Bank of Ireland, you are not making it at all easy for customers to focus in on the fact that an amount is due and by a certain date; particularly when everyone has been used to getting a paper bill. 

Bank of Ireland: Elaine

Chopper Dave wrote: »

Sarah

I came very close to getting caught out by this change myself.

I'm not sure who in BOI thought that a unilateral move to e-statements was a good idea but it's nonsenscical to say that this was communicated clearly.  

This type of arrangement only works where someone is paying in full by direct debit.   For example, my electricity company emails me a bill, it also sends an email with the amount due in a clear, large font and then takes the amount by direct debit.

BOI on the other hand issues an email telling my that my "statement" for account XXXXXXXX1234 is now available to view.   Most people might pay attention to a "bill' rather than a 'statement' but there is no mention of any amount being due or by any date.   Given that I also get a large amount of spam emails purporting to be from Bank of Ireland, you are not making it at all easy for customers to focus in on the fact that an amount is due and by a certain date; particularly when everyone has been used to getting a paper bill. 

Good Morning Chopper Dave, 

Thank you for your post. 

I am sorry to hear that you are unhappy about the switch to estatements. As my colleague mentioned previously, notification was sent to all our customers by post, public newspapers and Online. If estatements do not suit your specific needs, you can choose to receive paper statements by logging into 365Online and choosing the option for Manage Accounts and then Manage Statements. 

Bank of Ireland will send an email or text (depending on your preference) to confirm that your statement is ready to view. Within this message, we state 'At Bank of Ireland, we will never request personal banking details (e.g. account numbers, PIN and /or other login details) via email'

This email is a simple notification and, we will certainly pass on your feedback regarding including extra information like amount and due date. Also, if you are suspicious about any emails pertaining to be from Bank of Ireland just let us know here and we will be happy to look into this for you. You can also send them to 365security@boi.com.

I hope this helps address your concerns and if you need anything else, please let us know. 

Thanks, 
Elaine 

miriamoc

The problem with your suggestion is that I can't access my credit card account through my Banking365, so I am not able to change the options

Bank of Ireland: Elaine

miriamoc wrote: »

The problem with your suggestion is that I can't access my credit card account through my Banking365, so I am not able to  change the options

Good Afternoon miriamoc, 

Thank you for coming back to us. 

In order to request paper statements in addition to eStatements your husband will need to log onto 365Online using his own User ID and 365Pin. He will then see the option to select paper statements as outlined in our previous posts. 

We also offer an additional Online Service for Principle Credit Card holders called Card Care. This service offers a wide range of features including the option to switch to paper statements. You can read more about this service here. Just to clarify, this service is only available to the Principle Cardholder. 

Thanks again, 
Elaine