AIB ... Cead Milé Failté .... LMAO !!

Culchie

Mrs Culchie's brother is home from New York for a visit, along with his wife and child, who is to celebrate her first birthday in Ireland along with Granny and Grandad....ahhhh:)

Anyways, a gang of them have travelled for the occassion (17 in all) and are having a proper holiday out of it.... bringing plenty dollars to spend in the West of Ireland.

Anyways.... with the banks being closed over the Easter until yesterday, the troops landed down at the AIB in Sligo to get their dollars changed for YoYos.... but the bank wouldn't change them, not the 100 dollar bills anyway ....lol:eek:

Allied Irish Banks (Ireland's biggest bank) won't change 100 dollar bills ! LMAO

When I heard their story I rang the bank and sure enough, because of counterfeit concerns, they will not change $100 bills, any other denomination is fine, just the $100.
Thinking this was just some eejeet at one branch, I rang my local branch in Blanchardstown, and sure enough, I got the same response......but hey, guess what, the branch in Dublin Airport will change them for you:rolleyes:

What a joke !

kluivert

The counterfits where so good that the US teasury had to reprint new $100 dollar bills.

This is nothing new and has been around for about a year now.

I remember vaguely something about this.

Culchie

It's Irelands biggest bank !

How do you suggest tourists change their money ??

Skyuser

Most banks won't even take €500 notes. OUR OWN CURRENCY!!

BuffyBot

It's Irelands biggest bank !

And? What does their size have to do with it?

They're doing what they have to do to avoid being stung. As someone else said, this is common amongst quite a few banks now due to the high quality of the 100 dollar note forgeries which were going around. They were loosing signifigant amounts of money on this.

but hey, guess what, the branch in Dublin Airport will change them for you

Isn't that a Bank of Ireland branch? Anyway, as they deal with large amounts of Foreign Exchange pretty much everyday, the staff there would most likely be able to spot the duds easier.

Culchie

BuffyBot wrote:

And? What does their size have to do with it?

They're doing what they have to do to avoid being stung. As someone else said, this is common amongst quite a few banks now due to the high quality of the 100 dollar note forgeries which were going around. They were loosing signifigant amounts of money on this.



Isn't that a Bank of Ireland branch? Anyway, as they deal with large amounts of Foreign Exchange pretty much everyday, the staff there would most likely be able to spot the duds easier.

So these people should drive from Sligo to Dublin to get their money changed ? .. lol

They have legal tender but can't get it changed at Ireland's largest bank, because just in case it's phoney money !!
Are you really, honestly suggesting that this is a legitimate reason?

How do you suggest they change their money then?

BuffyBot

Culchie wrote:

So these people should drive from Sligo to Dublin to get their money changed ? .. lol

I don't know what they should do. It's really not my problem.

They have legal tender but can't get it changed at Ireland's largest bank, because just in case it's phoney money !! Are you really, honestly suggesting that this is a legitimate reason?

Ermm. Yes. A bank taking reasonable measures to avoid fraudulent transactions doesn't seem unreasonable to me, especially as everytime they get stung, it gets indirectly passed on to the banks other, regular, customers.

How do you suggest they change their money then?

Find a bank that is willing to take the chance. If they can.

Bluetonic

Culchie wrote:

They have legal tender but can't get it changed at Ireland's largest bank, because just in case it's phoney money !!

It's not legal tender in the Republic of Ireland under the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998.

In this day and age anyone who travels with a large amount of physical cash on them is obviously a few cent short of a euro.

Culchie

Well, if banks foreign exhange facilities can't change American Dollars then I'm afraid I just give up.

I'm obviously in the minority here that thinks this is incredible, so I'll retreat back under my stone.

I mean if you were going on holiday and withdrew a grand or two, I'd imagine your bank would give it to you in €50 or €100 notes....so I can easily see how they caught with $100 bills from their bank, especially as $100 in the states is pretty much a standard bill there.

A $100 bill is only €80 or so, so I would hardly call it 'large amount of physical cash'....it's not as if with their commission charges on top of their profit margin on the exchange rate that their risk wasn't built in.
Not everyone has credit cards to withdraw from ATM.

and BuffyBot ... reasonable measures to avoid fraudulent activity to my mind would involve getting photo ID, and checking the notes etc...
Heck, a reasonable measure could involve putting a limit on the transaction e.g €500

However ...

Unreasonable measures would include refusing to carry out the transaction.
Unreasonable measures would include asking the customers to drive up to Dublin to change their money.

It's a joke....and what makes it really 'funny' is that it seems perfectly acceptable to this threads posters at least.

No wonder the banks and financial institutions crap all over us.

RuggieBear

but who travels to a foreign country without first bringing the currency of that country. I didn't bring 100's of euros, the last time i visited the States....I took American dollars!

Bluetonic

Culchie wrote:

A $100 bill is only €80 or so, so I would hardly call it 'large amount of physical cash'

I presume they didn't just travel with 'one' $100 dollar bill. When I said 'large amount of physical cash' I was refering to the fact that who in their right mind travels with anything more than they need for the first 24 hours in hard cash on them. Nevermind even travelling to somewhere with the same currency but to a destination with a a different currency. Even if someone would be so careless to travel with such cash, they'd surely have the cop on to ring ahead and make sure it could be easily changed?

I'm sure you can bankroll them and change the dollars at a later date?

Americans just don't do themselves any favours really do they.

Culchie

Now that is a fair question Ruggiebear ... I'm not sticking up for their short sightedness on that one, and I wouldn't do it...but they're yanks !;)

However .... there's Bureau de Change facilities in every bank with buy and sell prices..... so you'd kinda figure they might be able to sell !

Bluetonic

From google search within Ireland the first FOUR results all state that Irish banks DO NOT accept $100 bills.

http://www.google.ie/search?hl=en&q=accepting+%24100+bills&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryIE

Noones fault but their own for failure to research.

Culchie

*sigh*

I give up ... I retreat bloody but unbowed....

I think it's laughable that our number one bank doesn't change $100 bills, and sad that *we* find it perfectly acceptable.

Cead Milé Failté ... as I said at the start. :rolleyes:

MiCr0

in fairness, they don't take $100 in loads of places in america either

i've family over from the us at the moment too - and exactly the same thing has happened to them.

Bluehair

MiCr0 wrote:

in fairness, they don't take $100 in loads of places in america either

i've family over from the us at the moment too - and exactly the same thing has happened to them.

Was gonna make the same point, we're over there quite a bit and i've long given up on $100 bills due to the sheer number of places that just refuse to take them.

vector

>I don't know what they should do. It's really not my problem...[/QUOTE]
LOL

>Allied Irish Banks (Ireland's biggest bank) won't change 100 dollar bills ! LMAO
well assumuing you're not trying to convert a black briefcase of 100 dollar bills then try another branch in person, and don't mention the previous refusal, this usually works for me whenever one branch cant't (or doesn't want to) do something, for example tomorrow try buying a sterling bank draft for a value less then EUR 10.00 in different branches, some won't sell, and some will.

Our man in Havana

When I lived in the USA I would not accept a $100 bill from anyone not even a bank. They are nigh on impossible to spend in shops. They only place other than a bank that would accept them was a casino.

They really are bad news. Why did you friends not get euros before they left?

Running Bing

Bond-007 wrote:

They really are bad news. Why did you friends not get euros before they left?

Because nobody would take their $100 bills.:D

r3nu4l

Babybing wrote:

Because nobody would take their $100 bills.:D

LOL Yep sorry culchie. It wouldn't surprise me if your American relatives built up a stock of $100 bills that the American shops and banks wouldn't take and probably assumed that the oul paddies wouldn't know any different and so tried to offload them in Ireland...then again I'm a cynic so I would think like that

If US banks won't take them then why shoud Irish banks?

Plus, do you have any idea of the amount of hassle bank counter staff get from their managers if they accept forgeries? This, despite the fact that some forgeries are excellent? I've heard about it as I'm related to someone who works in fraud investigation at one of our larger banks!

nlgbbbblth

Irish banks have been wary of purchasing US $100 bills since as long ago as 1994.

It is quite difficult to get rid of them in the US too.