Bank of Ireland Customer Fees : important

hinault

This is important.

Bank of Ireland has introduced fees to it's customers if they do not have a certain level on deposit and/or if they do not make a certain number of payments on their bank accounts.


http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/1222/boi-business.html
Bank of Ireland has confirmed that some of its customers will face fees and charges for the first time.

Current account holders who do not make at least nine payments every quarter will have fees imposed on them.
From February 21 2011, Bank of Ireland customers will have to have a minimum turnover of least €3,000 per quarter going into their account and make nine payments or more every three months to avoid fees.

Customers can also avoid fees by maintaining a minimum credit balance of €3,000 during the quarter.
Customers who do not meet the new criteria will be charged 28 cent for each transaction.

The majority of the bank's 1.2 million current account holders will be subject to the new fees. 26% of customers will not be affected as they hold 'Golden Years' or student accounts. The bank says providing customers with current account facilities costs it money.

The changes have been criticised by the Consumers' Association.
Look at alternatives - consumer body
The National Consumer Agency has said that customers who are not happy with the new Bank of Ireland policy still had time to look at the changes and compare accounts available with other banks.

'Most current accounts that offer free banking have some conditions attached - and if you don't meet the conditions, you pay transaction fees.
This is already the case for Bank of Ireland current accounts - there have been conditions to getting free banking for some time,' said chief executive Ann Fitzgerald.

She said that even though there were fewer banks - just five - offering current accounts in the Irish market, it was still possible to avoid transaction fees.
The National Consumer Agency has up-to-date comparisons of current account fees, including details of how to qualify for free banking, at nca.ie.


If customers of BOI can switch accounts they should consider doing so.

jc84

BOI are crap, i can't understand why people still bank with them, closed my account last year, applied for a "laser" card for my account and had such a hard time with it, i mean a measly "laser" card like, you'd swear i'd asked for a 2 million dollar credit card limit with the way they carried on. ulster bank threw a visa debit at me no hassle, way better bank too

lmimmfn

Can anyone give any recommendations on better alternatives?, my main thing is decent online banking which TBH BOI do fairly well now.
3K sitting in a current account is a bit of a joke in the current climate as people are trying to max out any returns they can get.

btw. i knew this was coming but thanks for the info.

hinault

lmimmfn wrote: »

Can anyone give any recommendations on better alternatives?, my main thing is decent online banking which TBH BOI do fairly well now.
3K sitting in a current account is a bit of a joke in the current climate as people are trying to max out any returns they can get.

btw. i knew this was coming but thanks for the info.

no problem JC.

just with the election and stuff, this news tends to get buried.

BOI haven't even written to their customers advising them of this policy change:mad::mad::mad:

jc84

people who have less than 3k in their account obviously cannot afford to pay this yet the poorer must pay yet again, i highly recommend ulster bank

hinault

jc84 wrote: »

people who have less than 3k in their account obviously cannot afford to pay this yet the poorer must pay yet again, i highly recommend ulster bank

Aye.

If people can manage to walk away from BOI, they should.
Not many people will have €3k sitting there in order to avoid their banks fees.

Fratton Fred

lmimmfn wrote: »

Can anyone give any recommendations on better alternatives?, my main thing is decent online banking which TBH BOI do fairly well now.
3K sitting in a current account is a bit of a joke in the current climate as people are trying to max out any returns they can get.

btw. i knew this was coming but thanks for the info.

I use Ulsterbank online banking and it is pretty good. Very secure and very simple to use.

naughty1205

you don't need 3k sitting in your account to qualify, you need a turnover of 3k in the quarter, i.e. 3k coming into your account over 3 months.

Peadar_85

naughty1205 wrote: »

you don't need 3k sitting in your account to qualify, you need a turnover of 3k in the quarter, i.e. 3k coming into your account over 3 months.

Yea but don't you also need to make 9 online payments in the quarter?

piaget

Can also recommend Ulster Bank, moved some years ago from AIB and would never go back.

seamus

Peadar_85 wrote: »

Yea but don't you also need to make 9 online payments in the quarter?

Yep.

For me, that's dead easy because I usually buy dribs and drabs on my credit card so can easily do 9 payments to that in 3 months. Since so much is done by direct debit now though I can see how a lot of people would have no need to do online payments.

Tbh, I think it's unfair of BOI to exclude DDs and standing orders from this. The entire reason they incentivise online banking like this is because people aren't using costly paper-based payments and cheques. DDs and SOs are just as cheap for the bank as online payments (cheaper in fact) so they should be equally incentivising people to move all payments onto electronic methods.
The new charges make it more appealing for people to cancel their DDs and SOs and process these payments themselves, which is more costly for the bank.

dan_d

On the dole, therefore haven't a hope of hitting 3 grand in a quarter. And the credit card (naturally) is not being used as a result of that either.

Infuriating. They screwed up. Not their customers. I will be closing my account with them, which is a pity because I've been a customer for a long long time.

Free banking didn't bother them too much when there was plenty of money swilling around the place -I feel inclined to tell them where to stick their fees now to be honest.Their cash flow problems were created by their dodgy banking practices.I know there's no point in saying this, but if they had any kind of decency, they would not be forcing charges such as this on their customers to raise money (and pigs might fly):mad::mad::mad::mad:

Thanks for the info OP - I actually thought this had been brought in already.

Sticky_Fingers

This is retarded on the part of BoI, are they actively trying to commit commercial suicide? I don't bank with them (happy Ulster bank customer) but if I did I would be moving all my accounts to a different bank no matter how much I had in savings. If anything they should be giving people incentives to bank with them and lodge their money instead of going for the quick, shortsighted buck.

schween

It's as though we choose our banks like how we vote...

I know loads of people who bank with a particular bank because their parents did and now they can't face the 'hassle' of switching bank, despite the charges.
I have a friend who paid around €50 in one quarter with BoI, she couldn't even bother going for the flat payment option.

I don't understand the brand loyalty here when they're being screwed.

highgiant1985

hi folks I've a question on this the 9 transactions per quarter... If I'm moving money from my current account to my savings account is this counted in this transactions? or is it only payments off the credit card/Bills/other peoples accounts?

keithclancy

Just pay 1c to 9 Different Charities every month.

ei.sdraob

how about just not banking with them

what is it with people rewarding incompetence

dan_d

ei.sdraob wrote: »

how about just not banking with them

what is it with people rewarding incompetence

+1
Vote with your feet

fergpie

Ive been with bank of ireland for over 10 years. The lack of transparency on whether i will or wont be paying bank charges has just lost them my business. Yet again the less well off will be made suffer the most.
Ulster bank here i come...