Irish Banks are a joke: I'm closing my Irish bank account

galway_lad

Daragh1980 wrote: »

When I worked in England, the bank charges were a lot higher than here. Particularly if you went overdrawn or had a cheque or direct debit bounced on you.

Can't speak to the latter but here's an example of our joint current a/c for November:

Fees: £5
Interest: £9
Cashback: £3.50 (you get this on certain bills)

Net gain of £7.50. No government raid on debit/credit card fees either.

My own personal account doesn't get cashback but due to being paid into it etc, there's enough activity in it to get no fees.

Our instant saver account is with Marcus. No fees and some interest.

Sheep Shagger

Ush1 wrote: »

Well the most obvious is no Irish deposit guarantee.

Use n26 then, they have a German bank guarantee.

Wombatman

Ush1 wrote: »

Well the most obvious is no Irish deposit guarantee.

Lithuanian deposit guarantee scheme protects up to €100k.

If you have more than €100,000 on deposit with a retail bank, you deserve to lose your money.

https://thebanks.eu/banks/18978/deposit_guarantee

Sheep Shagger

Daragh1980 wrote: »

That’s last year’s figures. 2020 very different. The big three banks in Ireland all announced significant redundancies in recent months. A lot of those staff will be out of work.

Feel for the staff but they've been overstaffed for years with their antiquated processes. Banks in other countries of a similar size have a fraction of that headcount.

ratracer

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Needed cash for kids birthday party (in a park today), had to drive home to get my debit card as use my phone for contactless for everything. Used a Euronet ATM (no charges). First time I've used an ATM all year I think.

No longer have an old school bank account, only n26 and Revolut.

Surely the kid has a Revolut account on his/her phone??

senordingdong

daheff wrote: »

Banks are charging more fees so they don't need to charge you for negative interest. PR wise that would be a disaster. People would close accounts in droves to avoid it. Yet extra fees are largely ignored.

Doesn't have to be the banks, didn't Enda Kenny govt. consider this as a 'stimulus' incentive?
Also, if you acknowledge that most people endure fees without a second thought, there's no reason to believe that negative interest rates would drive people away.
Furthermore, if we were hypothetically living in a cashless society and all the banks had adopted negative interest rates, people couldn't leave in droves.
That's the problem I envisage.

Wanderer78

senordingdong wrote: »

Doesn't have to be the banks, didn't Enda Kenny govt. consider this as a 'stimulus' incentive?
Also, if you acknowledge that most people endure fees without a second thought, there's no reason to believe that negative interest rates would drive people away.
Furthermore, if we were hypothetically living in a cashless society and all the banks had adopted negative interest rates, people couldn't leave in droves.
That's the problem I envisage.

why couldnt people leave in droves?

senordingdong

Wombatman wrote: »

Revolut soon to have Irish accounts too.

I also have N26, Fire and Monese accounts.

Never been a better time to find a fee free current account.

Can you have your salary etc paid into the above? And are they valid for proof/financial statements if you were looking for a loan?

senordingdong

Wanderer78 wrote: »

why couldnt people leave in droves?

As I said, if the society was cashless, and all the banks had adopted negative interest rates, where exactly would they go?

Wanderer78

senordingdong wrote: »

As I said, if the society was cashless, and all the banks had adopted negative interest rates, where exactly would they go?

alternatives maybe, cryptos, digital only platforms etc

senordingdong

Wanderer78 wrote: »

alternatives maybe, cryptos, digital only platforms etc

But they're also cashless systems?

Wanderer78

senordingdong wrote: »

But they're also cashless systems?

true, but id say the cryptos would plough on, as theyre not under central bank rules, digital platforms probably are under the rules though. you d be surprised what people would do if you told them, we re charging you to hold your money, id say millions went elsewhere when it was introduced on large deposits

senordingdong

Wanderer78 wrote: »

true, but id say the cryptos would plough on, as theyre not under central bank rules, digital platforms probably are under the rules though. you d be surprised what people would do if you told them, we re charging you to hold your money, id say millions went elsewhere when it was introduced on large deposits

And the use of krypto would not be acknowledged by banks if it can't be monitored.

Wanderer78

senordingdong wrote: »

And the use of krypto would not be acknowledged by banks if it can't be monitored.

would people really care about that?

senordingdong

Wanderer78 wrote: »

would people really care about that?

The banks that control the playing field certainly would.
You can't get a loan or mortgage in krypto.

Wanderer78

senordingdong wrote: »

The banks that control the playing field certainly would.
You can't get a loan or mortgage in krypto.

ah shur all banks control the playing field, we ve allowed them to, we can take back some sort of control over our monetary systems though, and i think the explosion of cryptos is a sign of people wanting that, but you d be surprised of the amount of people dont understand how they work.

of give it time, those crypto folks will figure it out, peer to peer lending has begun in some countries, it allows people to loan money to each other, directly, digitally, but im sure it has limitations

Capt'n Midnight

deandean wrote: »

The only cash I have used in the last few months is a 2 Euro coin for a shopping trolley.

Hah !

A two pence piece works just as well

Mister Vain

Bitcoin is the future.

Wanderer78

Mister Vain wrote: »

Bitcoin is the future.

ah hard to tell, it certainly isnt a currency just yet, way too volatile

parc

PhilOssophy wrote: »

Take it all out and put it under your mattress, nobody will charge you and you can sleep all night safe in the knowledge that you'll never have to pay for an ATM transaction again.

I'm not charged for ATM transactions mate. You are. That's my point.

parc

Sheep Shagger wrote: »

Needed cash for kids birthday party (in a park today), had to drive home to get my debit card as use my phone for contactless for everything. Used a Euronet ATM (no charges). First time I've used an ATM all year I think.

No longer have an old school bank account, only n26 and Revolut.

Nice, so there are alternatives if you're living in Ireland. Although, I probably wouldn't trust Revolut yet with large sums of cash.

Grant Stevens

Wombatman wrote: »

If you have more than €100,000 on deposit with a retail bank, you deserve to lose your money

Tough crowd here I must say.

Mister Vain

Online banks like N26 are great. Very secure and no fees.

Randle P. McMurphy

I'm old enough to remember getting a brown pay packet with my wages in cash. Nothing like that feeling at the end of the week with a bulging wage packet in your pocket. I remember being paid a once off payment to receive my wages by check. Then in later years another payment to open a bank account and get it paid straight in to the bank. There were a few old timers who held out and told us it was a slippery slope and we would regret it. Now I'm the old timer and realise it's too late. They have us all by the balls now.

Mister Vain

Wanderer78 wrote: »

ah hard to tell, it certainly isnt a currency just yet, way too volatile

True enough, although when you see the likes of paypal getting involved it looks promising. I bought a bit on Coinbase back at the start of the pandemic.

Mister Vain

Randle P. McMurphy wrote: »

I'm old enough to remember getting a brown pay packet with my wages in cash. Nothing like that feeling at the end of the week with a bulging wage packet in your pocket. I remember being paid a once of payment to receive my wages by check. Then in later years another payment to open a bank account and get it paid straight in to the bank. There were a few old timers who held out and told us it was a slippery slope and we would regret it. Now I'm the old timer and realise it's too late. They have us all by the balls now.

I remember the little brown envelope with the pay slip. Before everyone had an email address.

Sonic the Shaghog

One More Toy wrote: »

Ah yes the 'I was earning 50 dollars an hour in the mines' d1ckheads. Great and all but a beer costs 10 dollars in a pub you tool.

Pity they're all back now. Shame they didn't stay out there on the farms driving GPS controlled tractors

50 Aus is currently €31.10
10 Aus is €6.22

So getting €31 per hour and beer is €6, have you seen prices in Dublin pubs, how many people are making €31 an hour here? That's €64,688 a year

I get there's clowns but Jesus that's some bitterness and a terrible attempt at a put down

Strumms

j4vier wrote: »

It's not just about taxes though. A cashless society means the banks have full control of people's finances which means if for whatever reason accounts get frozen ( legal, IT glitches etc) you could lose everything and/or won't have access to it for periods of time.

Sci fi stuff for some people but looking at what has been happening in the world this year, is it really that improbable?

^
This.

You all of a sudden become 100% dependent on companies and institutions to have access to what is yours... that is MEGA dangerous....if an older person lives alone, looses their wallet, what the fûck can they do ? It will take about 10 days until they have a card and pin both mailed separately ...

One of us by accident looses our wallet, robbed of it at knife point ? What then ?

Cash is one of the foundations of a true and free society, a democracy....

I go inter railing, card gets chewed in a malfunctioning ATM ? I’m not due home for 3 weeks, how do I get food and accommodation ? Or enjoy the rest of my trip ?

Fûck all these headcases wanting a cashless society. If they don’t want to use cash themselves, simply don’t use cash.. they can swipe their cards wherever they like....

Cash should be here to stay, IS here to stay.

Silent Running

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Hah !

A two pence piece works just as well

Hah!

I'm cashless. I use a 3d printed thingy that I can remove from the trolley.

TK Lemon

How come you can only check your balance at proprietary ATMs in Ireland, ie AIB cards in AIB machines. And AIB customers cannot check available balance in other ATMS.

In contrast to this, you can usually check your balance at any ATM in the UK.

The Mighty Quinn

To all the posters who replied to my post saying I was in favour of a cashless society..

I agree fully with many of the concerns that are raised about it. They're all valid. I wouldn't switch over to a cashless society today leaving the infrastructure in its current condition, that would be lunacy. There would need to be all sorts of checks and balances and ways to guarantee your money is safe and accessible to the customer, not vulnerable to political influence, domestically or internationally etc.

There are major hurdles to it ever being realised, and at present seems like it could only exist in some fantasy Utopia. But. I still like the idea.

Mister Vain

China is pretty much cashless and it looks like Sweden is going in the same direction. Hopefully we don't adopt the Chinese social credit system. That would be a disaster.

Sheep Shagger

ratracer wrote: »

Surely the kid has a Revolut account on his/her phone??

I wish....sooner we phase out the €5 note as a present and move to electronic transfers the better....

PhilOssophy

parc wrote: »

I'm not charged for ATM transactions mate. You are. That's my point.

No I am not - I hardly ever use an ATM or cash and if I do, I go to AIB/BOI/Ulster/etc. So I don't get charged.

Also in Australia, you had to go to your own bank ATM or they absolutely FLEECED you with $1-2 for the transaction.

Also - I'm not your mate.

dinorebel

deandean wrote: »

The only cash I have used in the last few months is a 2 Euro coin for a shopping trolley.

Use a UK 2p coin works everytime.

Canis Lupus

hurikane wrote: »

I now get great enjoyment of hearing how great Oz is and what a sh1thole Ireland is.

*looks out the window at the sun shining on the swimming pool*

Yeah who'd want to live in Australia.

silver2020

TK Lemon wrote: »

How come you can only check your balance at proprietary ATMs in Ireland, ie AIB cards in AIB machines. And AIB customers cannot check available balance in other ATMS.

In contrast to this, you can usually check your balance at any ATM in the UK.

GDPR

kidding - it's usually the default answer to everything.

Up to 3 years ago you couldn't check a balance on a Natwest account from a Barclays machine, but could on many independent machines and I'd guess its because the independent machines will link you to your account directly whereas the others use the visa/mastercard system for checking is an available balance it there

Hellotonever

Mister Vain wrote: »

True enough, although when you see the likes of paypal getting involved it looks promising. I bought a bit on Coinbase back at the start of the pandemic.

Dont use coinbase. They randomly lock accounts and because their customer service team apparently consists of 3 people scatterred somewhere in India most accounts get locked for months or weeks at a time. Look at their subreddit. Nearly every post is how bad the customer service is - There is no way to get hold of a real person. Its all bots.

https://www.reddit.com/r/CoinBase/

Ush1

Wombatman wrote: »

Lithuanian deposit guarantee scheme protects up to €100k.

If you have more than €100,000 on deposit with a retail bank, you deserve to lose your money.

https://thebanks.eu/banks/18978/deposit_guarantee

Other issues are companies accepting non irish IBANs for direct debits.

Ubbquittious

Feck the cashless society. Can't believe people still think it's a good idea given what happened in 2008

senordingdong

PhilOssophy wrote: »

No I am not - I hardly ever use an ATM or cash and if I do, I go to AIB/BOI/Ulster/etc. So I don't get charged.

Also in Australia, you had to go to your own bank ATM or they absolutely FLEECED you with $1-2 for the transaction.

Also - I'm not your mate.

We're still charged for contactless transactions though.

_Godot_

I just have an ebs account (which is free), and use revolut and monese. I don't have to pay any pesky fees.

ILoveYourVibes

silver2020 wrote: »

The alternative was to wipe out all deposits over the guaranteed level.

.

That happened anyway

ILoveYourVibes

Ubbquittious wrote: »

Feck the cashless society. Can't believe people still think it's a good idea given what happened in 2008

More cash wouldn't have stopped that ...not at those sums!

Wanderer78

ILoveYourVibes wrote:

More cash wouldn't have stopped that ...not at those sums!

What do you mean, it was a credit crisis?

ILoveYourVibes

Wanderer78 wrote: »

What do you mean, it was a credit crisis?

I mean you do stuff a whole mortgage worth of cash down your mattress?

It wasn't linked to any other industry here but property lending.

Yes it was a credit crisis....it was excessive borrowing but not like for your car etc ...it was solely for mortgage lending in differing amounts.

People keep that amount of cash in assets EVEN if they have it. Because it would be dumb to keep it just lying around and dangerous.

It would be silly to liquid those assets and maybe stop them reaching maturity ..or sell a profitable business just to buy a holiday home ..even if you can afford it.

Unfortunately this made someone with ten houses a profitable business and some assets look like a billionaire and bankers are dumb.

Wanderer78

ILoveYourVibes wrote:

It wasn't linked to any other industry here but property lending.

Unfortunately the majority of credit is for property lending and speculation globally, it's a mess really, it ultimately just causes continual property and land prices to rise, and banks can create as much of it as they want

ILoveYourVibes

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Unfortunately the majority of credit is for property lending and speculation globally, it's a mess really, it ultimately just causes continual property and land prices to rise, and banks can create as much of it as they want

Honestly I call this topic my personal rabbit hole of RAGE.

:mad:

Wanderer78

ILoveYourVibes wrote:

Honestly I call this topic my personal rabbit hole of RAGE.

It is alright, it would make you extremely angry, it's an incredible dangerous situation we ve allowed to happen, and banks are far from dumb, an incredible idea, indebt the planet, causing the concentration of ownership of virtually everything, ultimately causing the concentration of global wealth, it's one of the main reasons why I advocate for public banking systems

ILoveYourVibes

Wanderer78 wrote: »

for public banking systems

Lol that didn't work ..nat west was a public bank.