PTSB making it harder to dodge quarterly fees

Fanny Wank

I switched to PTSB in 2005 or 2006. Promise was no fees for life

PTSB has kept that promise so far

EDIT: it shows up on Open24 as "Switch Current A/C"

Ice Storm

As far as I know, the Switch Current a/c is the only one with free fees as it was advertised as free for life at the time.

Subsequent accounts with free banking didn't advertise as free for life so there was the option to introduce fees at a later stage. It just depends on when you switched as to what account you got. I think I opened mine in 2007.

5star02707

Account now is showing as Current Account 4. Like others have said just keep a minimum balance of 2500 and no fees

https://www.permanenttsb.ie/about-us/notices/2019/january/account-changes/

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

"just"... Easier said than done for a lot of people.

5star02707 wrote: »

Account now is showing as Current Account 4. Like others have said just keep a minimum balance of 2500 and no fees

https://www.permanenttsb.ie/about-us/notices/2019/january/account-changes/

bonjurkes

it's somewhat easy to put that money into the account but not spending it by accident is the trick, if it even goes down to €2499, boom they charge you with quarterly fee.

plus if somehow you can keep €2500 in your current account balance everyday, you should stick to AIB at least you don't have to wait for their branch to open to lodge some cash, and their mobile app and UI is more modern compared to PTSB.

Eggs For Dinner

This month I got 4.50 in cashback on my Explore account. If you annualise those figures, it will be 72 in bank charges and 54 in cash back. I can live with 18 net per year in bank charges for the service I get

veryangryman

Eggs For Dinner wrote: »

This month I got 4.50 in cashback on my Explore account. If you annualise those figures, it will be 72 in bank charges and 54 in cash back. I can live with 18 net per year in bank charges for the service I get

Therein lies the problem lad.

If your "only being charged x" and dont switch, they continue to increase it bit by bit. Classic business tactic. Figure out your breaking point.

Mine is a cent. And i moved.

Bob24

veryangryman wrote: »

Therein lies the problem lad.

If your "only being charged x" and dont switch, they continue to increase it bit by bit. Classic business tactic. Figure out your breaking point.

Mine is a cent. And i moved.

Plus quiet frankly PTSB doesn’t offer the best banking experience on the Irish market by quite a margin. I actually don’t mind at all paying for a good banking service, but PTSB need to up their game if they want loyal paying customers.

_Kaiser_

veryangryman wrote: »

Therein lies the problem lad.

If your "only being charged x" and dont switch, they continue to increase it bit by bit. Classic business tactic. Figure out your breaking point.

Mine is a cent. And i moved.

The issue is that all of the main banks are now charging some variety of fees, or likely will (as PTSB has done), or seem to come with enough downsides not to make it worthwhile (N26, Revolut etc)

The days of "Free Banking" are coming to an end. It's something people are going to have to live with I fear. If we could compare and move easily to other non-Irish banks though it could get interesting locally, but I can't see that happening anytime soon.

FaganJr

_Kaiser_ wrote:

The issue is that all of the main banks are now charging some variety of fees, or likely will (as PTSB has done), or seem to come with enough downsides not to make it worthwhile (N26, Revolut etc)

Downsides ?? Been with N26 a few months now and have had no issues??

bonjurkes

downsides of N26 as only 5 free atm withdrawals per month plus no option to lodge cash into your account.

FaganJr

bonjurkes wrote:

downsides of N26 as only 5 free atm withdrawals per month plus no option to lodge cash into your account.

I only ever use one ATM cash withdrawal per month.
And I don't lodge cash.
But if I really had to I'd simply lodge in my credit union and transfer across.
The app gives you a great monthly breakdown of what you're spending so easy to withdraw what you need in one go.
Day to day spending is tap.

bonjurkes

Well because those are not downsides for you doesn't mean it won't be a downside for others. I use N26 and PTSB, actively looking to replace my bank. I have two requests, not having to wait for branch to open to lodge cash. And take out all money in my account from branch whenever I want (I am aware I need to let branch know that I want to cash my money out). There is only one bank fits to this request and it's AIB.

FaganJr

bonjurkes wrote:

Well because those are not downsides for you doesn't mean it won't be a downside for others. I use N26 and PTSB, actively looking to replace my bank. I have two requests, not having to wait for branch to open to lodge cash. And take out all money in my account from branch whenever I want (I am aware I need to let branch know that I want to cash my money out). There is only one bank fits to this request and it's AIB.

I'd say your a fringe customer with requests like that, especially withdrawing all your money at once???
N26 is suitable for the majority of People and it's free.

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

This simply is not true. N26 has serious short comings, especially for the elderly.

FaganJr wrote: »

...
N26 is suitable for the majority of People ...

FaganJr

Gracelynn Ashy Alfalfa wrote:

This simply is not true. N26 has serious short comings, especially for the elderly.

The elderly have been with the same bank all their lives and are highly unlikely to change.
They are not in N26 or revolut's target demographic.
But the majority of the targeted demographic are suitable to this offering.
Hope this clears it up ??

ct5amr2ig1nfhp

Of course their target demographic are suitable??? That is just a nonsense statement.

The fact is that Revolut and N26 are targeting 18 to 40 year olds or about 30% of the population. Start removing other demographic groups from that and you'll end up reducing that figure significantly.

I'm not trying to have an argument about it. But their services are limited and their target market is limited. Btw, I use Revolut myself. It's great.

FaganJr wrote: »

The elderly have been with the same bank all their lives and are highly unlikely to change.
They are not in N26 or revolut's target demographic.
But the majority of the targeted demographic are suitable to this offering.
Hope this clears it up ??

FaganJr

Gracelynn Ashy Alfalfa wrote:

The fact is that Revolut and N26 are targeting 18 to 40 year olds or about 30% of the population. Start removing other demographic groups from that and you'll end up reducing that figure significantly.

I'm not 18 - 40, sadly
God be with the days

But I do all my banking now with N26. & Credit union.
No need for a bank anymore, or specifically an Irish Bank.
It's easy, it's free and is accessible.

Not arguing either just saying there are options.

kenmc

FaganJr wrote: »

The elderly have been with the same bank all their lives and are highly unlikely to change.

They are also most likely exempt from fees in most if not all of the Irish banks, so have no need to change to something like n26 or revolut or any internet-based banking solution

Eggs For Dinner

Bob24 wrote:

Plus quiet frankly PTSB doesn’t offer the best banking experience on the Irish market by quite a margin. I actually don’t mind at all paying for a good banking service, but PTSB need to up their game if they want loyal paying customers.

I've had at least 20 years with PTSB and never paid fees. The service is everything I want in a bank. I'm happy with the level of fees I'm now charged and would tolerate more. Of course there is a tipping point to move and I reached it with the recent imposition of fees on my old current account. Luckily, I found the Explore Account suited my needs better than anything else out there

Bob24

Eggs For Dinner wrote: »

I've had at least 20 years with PTSB and never paid fees. The service is everything I want in a bank. I'm happy with the level of fees I'm now charged and would tolerate more. Of course there is a tipping point to move and I reached it with the recent imposition of fees on my old current account. Luckily, I found the Explore Account suited my needs better than anything else out there

IMO the service is adequate but not outstanding and with some annoying gaps.

Exemples of where I feel they are behind the curve is the lack of Apple/Android Pay and a somewhat dated mobile/online banking experience (one exemple of this amongst others: unless it changed in the past 2 months, they don’t even bother with something as simple and easy as implementing Touch/Face ID on the iOS app while all the other banks have have recently dealt with support that feature).

Also I have mixed experience with in branch service. Smaller branches seem better, but at the main one I used to go to (Dublin O’Connell Street), it was fairly common to have a long queue both for human and ATM service (partly because most of the time half the ATMs where out of service, which doesn’t show a very good level of care for what is probably one of their key branches).

Eggs For Dinner

Well, I've only had to go in to a branch 4 or 5 times in those 20 years and am fine using Open24 and my debit card. The other user methods you mention, I don't bother with

Bob24

Eggs For Dinner wrote: »

Well, I've only had to go in to a branch 4 or 5 times in those 20 years and am fine using Open24 and my debit card. The other user methods you mention, I don't bother with

That’s the thing, different people will value different things. But the thing is: if a bank wants to start changing for a service which used to be free (which is absolutely fine), they also need to expect customers to on average become more demanding and to start comparing the service with other paying options (which is fair: while it’s free no one can criticise the value for money, but once it becomes a paying service then the notion of value for money comes into play). I’m not sure PTSB is quite prepared for this.

jack in the box

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Hang on... am I reading the above right?

I switched to them from AIB about 3/4 years back and then got a letter a few months ago like everyone else telling me I'd need to maintain a ridiculous daily balance, or pay fees

I moved to their Explore account and have now received a letter telling me the fees are going up there too.

But, should I not have been charged on the original account in the first place??

Your account wasn't a switch current account then. The switch current account was available about 12 years ago.

Xenji

Happy to have my free PTSB account for my wages and DDs, but I use N26 for buying anything, you can rake up some ridiculous charges with PTSB when purchasing in sterling over time.

F1ngers

Xenji wrote: »

, you can rake up some ridiculous charges with PTSB when purchasing in sterling over time.

You should get Revolut.

Bob24

F1ngers wrote: »

You should get Revolut.

If it is just to make foreign currency purchases, yes N26 is overkill.

An actually for that use case and provided spendings don't go over 500 GBP per month, Curve is even simpler than Revolut. Just translates any foreign currency payment to euros with no fees and instantly debits the euro amount to you main debit card.

Cape Clear

bonjurkes wrote: »

Yes but isn't it more expensive to use AIB? Pay quarterly fee, pay per transaction, each time you cash out money and use their machines to lodge cash etc.

If you ave a mortgage with AIB you will get free banking for a current account if you are paying it from that account.

Gracelynn Ashy Alfalfa wrote: »

This simply is not true. N26 has serious short comings, especially for the elderly.

Thiught most banks offered free banking to the over 60/65?

Autecher

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice on this.
I am getting a mortgage with PTSB and was considering the explore account that they keep mentioning to me. The monthly €4 charge is now going up to €6. My mortgage repayments will be relatively low so 2% of the monthly payment will be €10 but of course €6 goes back to the bank immediately. My current account is with BOI and I don't know if it's worth moving for the extra €48 per year (obviously not to be sniffed at, any "free" money is good now that I have a mortgage!). I'm not sure how it works, if I open an Explore Account that my mortgage payments come out of should I then close my BOI account and move all my money from there to the Explore Account? Or would it work like I set up a direct debit to move the €500 odd monthly from my BOI account to the Explore Account for the mortgage payment to come out of?
Oh and another question, if I open an explore account do I have to pay these quarterly fees too?

I hope that makes sense to read as it's a bit of a ramble and any help or advice would be appreciated!

dotsman

Autecher wrote: »

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice on this.
I am getting a mortgage with PTSB and was considering the explore account that they keep mentioning to me. The monthly €4 charge is now going up to €6. My mortgage repayments will be relatively low so 2% of the monthly payment will be €10 but of course €6 goes back to the bank immediately. My current account is with BOI and I don't know if it's worth moving for the extra €48 per year (obviously not to be sniffed at, any "free" money is good now that I have a mortgage!). I'm not sure how it works, if I open an Explore Account that my mortgage payments come out of should I then close my BOI account and move all my money from there to the Explore Account? Or would it work like I set up a direct debit to move the €500 odd monthly from my BOI account to the Explore Account for the mortgage payment to come out of?
Oh and another question, if I open an explore account do I have to pay these quarterly fees too?

I hope that makes sense to read as it's a bit of a ramble and any help or advice would be appreciated!

Wait a second - you are getting your mortgage from PTSB, so likely paying thousands of euro more than you should be every single year compared to other banks, but are worried about a few quid in C/A charges?

Forget your current account. Do yourself a huge favour and put your due diligence in to choosing a decent mortgage provider.