TSB - opinions

marktsang

hi,
i had an account with AIB for over ten years - the fees are ridiculious but the service was always great - moved over to tsb a month and a half ago to get fee free banking. i have an ssia due to mature in april - tsb assured me that everything would be sorted out by them all i had to do was call into the branch once with stuff they listed for me... i was delighted at this as i dont have time to take multiple luches off work to go to the bank and queue.

the reality of it was that the only thing they did was mange to mess every little thing up - from not gettting me to sign all the forms the day i came in to not even telling me that they couldnt sort out my ssia (they had assured me this would all be handled by them) AIB actaully rang me 4 days before the payment was due and told me that my account was closed by tsb and they hadnt sorted my ssia over to themselves, so i had to go down and sort it out myself by opening a deposit account with aib.

i also applied for a credit card at the same time - i called back in again (they dont answer the phone they just leave it ring out) and they hadnt process it yet - the girl there said the lady who did my first creditcard application was busy when i came in so she couldnt see me - she said it would be quicker to re apply and she would cancel the other one- it was the 24th of nov and she said i would have the card by the 29th. yet again no card and no phone call to let me know what the story was -

i just feel like the level of service is really reallly **** and feel like i should already switch banks - so my question is
what are other people personal experiences of Tsb in general ??

should i stay and see if it improves or go now before i have to spend another 5 lunch times sorting out their mistakes?

BuffyBot

I've never been to impressed with TSB's service, to be honest. Their products may be ok, but sometimes they seem not to quite have it all together.

Colonel Sanders

Similar thing happened to me. I asked did I have to contact my company payroll that I had changed banks, was told that TSB would, they didn't. So it took me over a week to get my salary as it was sent to my old BOI account.

I heard the service was poor enough before I opened an account but very rarely venture into a branch so don't mind as their phone service is good enough.

Also the every day transactions are free but what they do charge for they charge high fees. Copy statement cost me a fiver and the charge 3.5% on a foreign currency withdrawal on top of the bid/offer spread.

sofireland

Their service can be poor.
One piece of advise i was given by someone who works in a bank, is that you never do their switcher process cos inevitably they balls it up.
Set up the new account and slowly change everything over, best advise i was given tbh.

Stark

The "switcher" service is a joke, be prepared to do all the work yourself. After that they're good for what you pay for them. I've been with them for years. The only real downside of them is that they're not the greatest bank if you work 9-5 Typical avoid all full-time workers by opening at 10am, closing at 4pm, most branches closing from 12 to 2 for lunch, limited ability to do things over the phone. They're getting better in the latter respect though. They recently let me setup a standing order over the phone without having to go through the "call in and give us your signature" rigmarole.

Colonel Sanders

All branches in Dublin open during lunch times and I've never had a problem over the phone. However as I said I did have to inform my company of the switch eventhough i was told they would do it for me.

Sonnenblumen

I've been a ptsb for a number of years, but over the last 3 years the service levels have deteriorated to a level beyond being a joke. In the strictest sense they really a bank more like a wannabe. Depends what your needs are: student loan, car loan or even mortgage. OKish for loans, deposits, personal current stuff. Lousy business banking and patchy online.

Aggressive cold callers (telephone up to 9.00pm for christsake!!) pumping crappy Irish Life prods.

I'll switch soon, and from what I've seen AIB are very impressive esp for business banking.

But still I might keep a small ptsb deposit so that one day I can bollock a careless branch manager out of it with my 50 year customer loyalty spiel.

They're also pathetic handling account administration, lease finance, credit card and even account switching within the group!!



If group is sold it will be for insurance not banking.

marktsang

hhmm not positive, looks like ill be switching again this month - anyone recommend a good bank preferrably with good internet banking?


cheers for your opinions all

mark

sofireland

Imo BOI are quite good, you get free banking if you use their easy to use 365 online 3 times per quarter or maintain credit balance of €500

I used to work for Irish Life and Permanent, and i had a PTSB account, even as staff i couldn't recommend them to anyone i knew cos of the bad times i'd had with them.

With BOI you have the comfort of a tried and tested model as well, which works well for me...

Colonel Sanders

sofireland wrote:

Imo BOI are quite good, you get free banking if you use their easy to use 365 online 3 times per quarter or maintain credit balance of €500

I used to work for Irish Life and Permanent, and i had a PTSB account, even as staff i couldn't recommend them to anyone i knew cos of the bad times i'd had with them.

With BOI you have the comfort of a tried and tested model as well, which works well for me...

A friend of mine worked with them a few years ago and had free banking as a perk. He still continued to use his own bank despite the fact he was paying high enough fees at the time. What does this say about them?

marktsang

hi thanks for the tips
colonel sanders what bank is the one he worked at? boi or tsb?

cheers
mark

lostinsuperfunk

Much of the above sounds familiar to me.
I applied for a credit card with them and it took months, and several visits to the branch to receive it.
Several weeks after first applying I realised that my first application had been "lost", so I brought everything in again. I even brought my passport, but the helpful counter staff assured me it wasn't required. About a month later I got a call asking me to bring some ID to the branch in order to complete my application.
Finally, I received the card. And, just to show that they are not slouches, they sent me *another* credit card on the following day.

However, now that everything has been set up, I find them ok, albeit very slow, and their internet banking system is completely weird. It relies on a magical "open24" number that they claim to be printed on my card, but actually only exists on a letter they sent me during the early confusion. In my experience, it is impossible to deal over the phone with them. Often when I have called them I have found that the person I needed was "on break" or "only works mornings" and that nobody else could help me.

In summary: they are cheap but inflexible and they make lots of mistakes and they are very slow. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

Stark

lostinsuperfunk wrote:

However, now that everything has been set up, I find them ok, albeit very slow, and their internet banking system is completely weird. It relies on a magical "open24" number that they claim to be printed on my card, but actually only exists on a letter they sent me during the early confusion.

That's strange, any TSB card I've seen has had the open24 number on it.

lostinsuperfunk

That's strange, any TSB card I've seen has had the open24 number on it.

Yes, the whole system seems to be setup as if the number should be on the card. I think it might be down to the fact that I don't have any other accounts with them, just the credit card. Actually, I am going to just write the number on the card now. Why didn't I think of that before?

Colonel Sanders

marktsang wrote:

hi thanks for the tips
colonel sanders what bank is the one he worked at? boi or tsb?

cheers
mark

TSB, he continued to bank with AIB as he didn't want to touch TSB even though he worked for them!!!

marktsang

closed my account at lunch today - gotta find a new bank now!

cheers for all the advice everyone

mark

stepbar

well BOI mite be a choice (even for good service) but its up to you

marktsang

what is boi internet banking like? they seem like a good option now
cheers
mark

stepbar

In truth its not bad, not as up to the mark compared to AIB, but its not bad. At least you can cancel direct debits online which is something AIB havent started to do yet. From Jan 07 you will be able to make payments abroad so that will be handy. I use both AIB and BOI havent had probs with either

Bottle_of_Smoke

TBH the free fee thing is a joke. With my bank it costs 12.40 every three months. I just dont think it's worthwhile opening a TSB account to save 4 euro a month!

marktsang

ahhaa, ok 5 days after i close my account tsb send me out a pin number for a credit card.... well how stupid is that, well i dont want a credit card with them now so they can keep it

what bank you with bottle of smoke?

Bottle_of_Smoke

boi thats there flat rate fee. would actually be free if i used online payments more

marktsang

joined ulsterbank today - first impresssions are good... i.e they rang me back when they said they would......

Glazun

Ionno, I have no problems with them at all, they're really fast with their internation transactions aswell. If I get a payment from another country into an Ulster Bank account it takes ages, as they seem to wait a wee bit to get the best of the conversion rate or something bizare, but TSB gets my money freakishly on time.

blowtorch

TSB Service? Right from the top down its non-existent. I know! Had numerous complaints about overcharges, sharp-practise, lying, supplying incorrect information to me, bullying - you name it - and got totally unprofessional treatement at Branch, Customer Complaints and even the Top Dog!!. They always try to direct you to the Ombudsman - every letter mentioned that -. I'm currently going legal with them and hope their enjoy their day in court.