Who do you bank with and why?

Lump

I think you'll find with AIB, your wages will actually arrive some time around 2.30 to 3 am. I feel sorry for you, if that wait, even if it is 6am disrupts you

John

skywalker

agent smith wrote:

Lazer cards, i have desided are thwe best invention ever, you VERY rarely have to have cash on you, which is a great plus.

Do you get charged per transaction with lazer cards?

Tobias Greeshman

Started a BOI a/c when I was about 16 and sorta grew to dislike the feckers because it was the bank was really far away and a pain to lodge money with.

When I was in first week of college (week before freshers week), I signed up with AIB for a student account for a free phone. I've used AIB constantly now and have very few complaints. I find there service more friendly, there's something more friendly about walking into an AIB bank than a BOI bank.

Loads a benefits with AIB, Victor said most of them...

Alpha505

If I set up an account with AIB or BOI today how long would it be before I got an ATM/Lazer card?

is_that_so

Alpha505 wrote:

If I set up an account with AIB or BOI today how long would it be before I got an ATM/Lazer card?

BOI could be 5 days but you have to collect the card, a fact they usually neglect to tell you. So call them to check if it's in, if you go with them. You'll get your pin by post.

Alpha505

And can that be used outside of Ireland?

xzanti

I was with Bank of Ireland since I was at school (aged 15) and had to change to AIB about a year ago because despite repeated requests for them to change my withdrawal limit from €130 a day they never did... Not only that but I went to the service desk in the Blanchardstown Centre one saturday to inquire about why my limit had not been changed and the teller assured me that as and from midnight that night I could withdraw anything up to €500... So off I went out with my friend into town... waited till 12am to get money (In the middle of town dolled up to the nines I might add) and not only did they not put my limit up... Now I could only withdraw €30 a day... So needless to say my big night out was a disaster because not only was I smashed but I had also promised my friend a lend for the night cause she was smashed too... So that was the last straw for me with Bank of Ireland.. Sorry for rambling on but had to get that off my chest when the topic of banks came up...

Paddy20

Alpha505 wrote:

Are you ok there Paddy?

Alpha505,

Yes I am fine, as I have never been the victim of a scam in my life .
Just a bit paranoid when it comes to my personal banking affairs, thats all, with all due respect too your thread :cool: .

P.

Einstein

Alpha505 wrote:

My problem with PTSB is that I was told I couldnt use my Personal account to lodge my cheques. Im a sole trader and they're telling me I have to set up a business account with them seperately? This sounds like nonsense.

not nonsense. A sole trader is a business. You file your own returns etc. This requires a business account. Trust me, been up and down that road with PTSB.

Back on topic, i've remortgaged from PTSB to First Active and I too am removing all my accounts from PTSB.
Last Christmas i asked for an overdraft of €1000. They refused stating that they needed Tax certificates blah blah blah(which is rubbish as the overdraft was requested for a personal account).
Besides the fact that in the past I've had 2 mortgages, 2 car loans, a 7K overdraft facility and a business account thats highly active. they still refused.

They rang me a week later asking if I wanted a new car loan.

Priorites up their pooper...

I'm off to BOI and First Active.

is_that_so

Alpha505 wrote:

And can that be used outside of Ireland?

Laser cards can as it is part of Cirrus.

byte

AIB for me for the past 9 years.

It's handy simply as I used to be able to lodge via ATM, also I can now bank in the post office which is handy as I can't get to a bank during their opening hours and can just walk into a postie Saturday morning and lodge money.

jrey1981

BOI here - all my family are with them and they are 5 mins up the road. Also I find the service is friendly enough. I made a transfer with them from my business account to the UK and it went through twice to my colleagues account. We have had the free use of 6 grand for a few months and BOI are very easy going about it!

Barclays in UK - had the best overdrafts when I was a student...rubbish and impersonal customer service though. Apparently you have to threaten to close your account then they take a bit of notice.

They also messed me about on a cheque issue when I had a business account and claimed I owed them a grand when they made a mistake. In the end I just did not pay it back and they wrote it off. I still have an overdraft with them.

vector

Divers wrote:

not nonsense. A sole trader is a business. You file your own returns etc. This requires a business account. Trust me, been up and down that road with PTSB.

Back on topic, i've remortgaged from PTSB to First Active and I too am removing all my accounts from PTSB.
Last Christmas i asked for an overdraft of €1000. They refused stating that they needed Tax certificates blah blah blah(which is rubbish as the overdraft was requested for a personal account).
Besides the fact that in the past I've had 2 mortgages, 2 car loans, a 7K overdraft facility and a business account thats highly active. they still refused.

They rang me a week later asking if I wanted a new car loan.

Priorites up their pooper...

I'm off to BOI and First Active.

but I thought that PTSB were supposed to be the "different" of "better" or whatever their slogan is, they are the underdog etc?

RainyDay

NIB - Discounted mortgage rate for the 'Premium' customers, no fees on their Freebank account, great online banking service

Jorinn

skywalker wrote:

Do you get charged per transaction with lazer cards?

No transaction charges.

Jorinn

Was with Ulster Bank until last week.

Have been meaning to change from them for a while now.

At the last count the number of times I have tried to get thwem to mark my account as student in the last 2 years so I wouldn't be charged forex fees and so is 5. I even tried to do it in multiple branches.

Up until last week they still hadn't done it.

Their internet banking is worse than a pain in the ass to use. And of course you can't see your transactions on your credit card.

To top it all of they thought it was a great idea to issue me a chip and pin laser card while I was using my current one that doesn't need replacement for another 2 years on another continent.

So they cancelled the one I had with me and I had my new one waiting at home for four weeks prior to getting back home.

Eventually after getting home I went to my local branch, I explained what happened, the guy behind the desk laughed. So I asked was there a way to prevent this from happening again. He laughed more and kind of raised his arms in a kind of "no idea" type of way.

I will never change back to Ulster Bank.


Switched to permanent TSB, all I've had so far is helpfull and very efficient customer services and in the short while I've used their Internet banking it seems a lot better.

Final judgment on them is reserved of course.

englander

Was with BOI when I moved over here until I realised I was paying through the nose for using my account that was in (lots of) credit. WTF ?

I still can't get my head around people 'happily' paying bank charges when the bank will be using their money to make more money. Even writing a cheque costs money (a government stamp duty!) Again... WTF ?

I suppose abroad (in the UK) banking is just different (and free).

I went in to enquire about bank charges at BOI one lunchtime and I had to wait 35 mins to get to see someone. I asked why they were so short staffed - they had all gone out to lunch apparently. That was the final straw.

Moved to Ulsterbank - where they offer free banking. They are far from perfect but at least I am not paying through the nose for their ineptitude !

Jorinn

Love to know how you reckon UB give free banking, I have a few hundred euro worth of charges on my account over the last few years. And of course they charge you to replace card that don't need replacing.

Elessar

NIB - I'm with them because their staff are nice, the internet banking is great and I have never, EVER been charged a penny from them, for anything. Also my mother is with them too and helped me get an account set up when I was younger.

grey wolf

Just got an unsolicited letter from a crowd called Citifinancial based in Blanch-
APR on loans charged at a whopping 27%-dont think I will be doing any biz with these guys.

Norinoco

Rabies wrote:

Forgot another reason.
They gave me a student account in '98 and I still have it. No bank charges for me so far

That is exactly why im still with them, but as soon as they start charging me for transactions im out of there!!

Although my time may be running out :
"Conversion from an existing AIB Student Plus Account or opening of a new Graduate Account must take place within two years of graduation."

20c for every online transaction made
EUR4.50 per quarter for a current accounts

Madness!!

GP

BOI - 2 years ago I requested they contact me re: opeing an account. They never did. Eventually I was in there one day and handed in a feedback form telling them how useless they were. 20min later (no jokes) I got a cal form the manager, requesting a meeting. Opened a business account VERY quickly and with no charges (YET).

With Ulster for Mortgage....pretty disorganised.

Opening savings with Rabobank - may as well make some use out 3% as opposed to 0.02 that BOI offers.

NotInventedHere

was with BOI changed to AIB (18 months free banking) and when that is up moving to permanent TSB. Pay banks nothing if you can help it I say.

D'Peoples Voice

GP wrote:

BOI - 2 years ago I requested they contact me re: opeing an account. They never did. Eventually I was in there one day and handed in a feedback form telling them how useless they were. 20min later (no jokes) I got a cal form the manager, requesting a meeting. Opened a business account VERY quickly and with no charges (YET).

With Ulster for Mortgage....pretty disorganised.

Opening savings with Rabobank - may as well make some use out 3% as opposed to 0.02 that BOI offers.

Had a dual or student account with Ulster Bank, but kept get charged for direct debits and standing orders. This in addition to the fact that I heard some rumours that Ulster Bank were to do a review of their dual account holders given originally to students for a limited period, as part of the "Know your Client" requirement under the Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) Act 2005, which is just an update from of Criminal Justice Act 1994 (section 32) on money laundering, so I said I'd take the opportunity to move to a free fees account with Permanent tsb.

A few teething problems but then its difficult to blame a bank for its bad service. Usually if an Irish person had a bad experience with a bank, they just accepted it and never moved. So there was no need for a bank to worry about poor service. Just look at AIB's overchanrging!
I can see this changing as more people adopt internet banking and use credit cards, and have less need to actually live need a bank branch, and hence distance from local branch no longer becomes a deciding factor.
Any surplus cash in my Ptsb account goes into Rabodirect, because they have a higher credit rating than AIB, BOI or Ptsb
http://www.moodyseurope.com/mdcsRatingWatchListsPage.aspx?template=ratinglists-f&mdcsId=2

As for credit card, has to be the world biggest credit card company, MBNA, for the travel benefits etc, as long as you pay off your balance each month or never have a direct debit fail, you're laughing.

dazberry

1. As a student I banked with BOI 'cos they had a branch in the college.
2. My first job was in AIB - so I had to open an AIB account - got free staff banking for years .
... skip on a decade ...
3. My current job is not in UB (but a related company) so I get free UB staff banking

TBH I would have happily stayed with AIB but paying direct credit charges for incoming electronic money transfers is enough to p1ss me off. Of course don't start me on the ATM and credit card taxes - that's just a pure disgrace - bet IFSRA don't have an opinion on those

D.

swissmkt

I open a Swiss account thru www.swissbankingaccounts.com
so I recommend them two thumbs up (Y) (Y)

kelle

Ulster Bank, because my mother always banked there, and opened our communion and confirmation savings acccounts there (all £25 of it). I feel I'm better with the devil I know than the devil I don't. Anyway, I like the way you don't pay charges once you're over E500 in credit.

vector

THe idea of paying for inbound transfers is wrong.
Paying 10cents every time ha,

What is to stop me sending you (via my free banking) 1cent and you being charged 10cents!
I could drain your account (bit by bit)

Jorinn

swissmkt wrote:

I open a Swiss account thru www.swissbankingaccounts.com
so I recommend them two thumbs up (Y) (Y)

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Scum

Slice

I've had accounts with EBS, Ulsterbank, PTSB and AIB. I have to say I've found all of them to be very good in terms of customer service. I can't figure out how to use the Ulsterbank online services though so I can imagine if I have Ulsterbank as my main personal account I'd be pretty ticked off since I do all my banking online. PTSB are good though I find that if I have a weekly standing order set up to come out of my account on Fridays it usually doesnt debit my bank acc until sometime over the weekend or even mondays in some cases.

I would recommend avoiding Usterbank or NIB if you make alot of online bill payments. Basically, unlike all other banks if you pay your bills using money transfer with one of these two they don't give a reference for the payment - in other words the utility/service provider/person you're paying the money to wont know who it's coming from. For example when I pay my phone bill I give my mobile phone account number as reference for payment - if I pay that bill with my Ulsterbank account they don't give a reference so my mobile provider wont know to allocate that payment against my mobile account