Post Office Banking.

kneemos

The PO is to offer current accounts from early next year.
Direct debits,standing orders,debit cards,electronic banking etc.
Seems like an excellent alternative to the penny pinching banks.Why would you darken the door of a bank if you could avoid it?
Would you move your account?I'd definitely seriously consider it.

jimgoose

A fine notion indeed. About time these asshole banks had the wind put up 'em with genuine alternatives available to folk. :cool:

donegaLroad

yep... zero percent commission charge on Sterling, American and Canadian dollars when you exchange Euros through the Post Office. For this alone its worth it.

Valetta

After a while, when the Post Offices realize how much it actually costs to operate current accounts, they will go the very same way as the banks, and introduce a suite of charges to keep their bottom line intact.

Dodge

kneemos wrote: »

The PO is to offer current accounts from early next year.
Direct debits,standing orders,debit cards,electronic banking etc.
Seems like an excellent alternative to the penny pinching banks.Why would you darken the door of a bank if you could avoid it?
Would you move your account?I'd definitely seriously consider it.

You don't think the Post Office is doing it to make a profit?

The Backwards Man

donegaLroad wrote: »

yep... zero percent commission charge on Sterling, American and Canadian dollars when you exchange Euros through the Post Office. For this alone its worth it.

And a crap exchange rate that negates the commission saving.

Post office banking will be just the same bank banking.

petes

Do some credit unions offer this already?

biko

Good for old people in villages without banks.

SEPT 23 1989

and who do An Post bank with?

jimgoose

petes wrote: »

Do some credit unions offer this already?

They do indeed, they tend to call them things like "link" accounts and what-not. The local one here even tried introducing a Mastercard-esque debit card on theirs, but binned it less than twelve months later due to, I don't know, Imponderable Ramifications or something. :pac:

kneemos

Dodge wrote: »

You don't think the Post Office is doing it to make a profit?

Imagine so yeah.
Lets not be over negative till we see what they're charges are,if any.
Even if they charged the same I think I'd move just to get away from the banks,at least they have reasonable opening hours.

jimgoose

Dodge wrote: »

You don't think the Post Office is doing it to make a profit?

I would imagine they are. The point is, they'd be an alternative provider of the service.

It's so handy to be able to go into the post office on a Saturday morning (or even after 5 during the week) and lodge money to my AIB account.

I can walk to the post office in 2 minutes rather than a 15 minute drive to my nearest branch and another indefinite time finding a parking spot.

ScumLord

biko wrote: »

Good for old people in villages without banks.

Ah jaysus, they already waste enough time doddering around for change so they can buy a stamp. This will just had another 20 minutes to their time at the counter.

If the postman acts like a home delivery ATM then it could be good. Feck walking 2 minutes to the hole in the wall.

KomradeBishop

Go the whole way and give them the power to give out loans - remove the banks ability to profit off of interest and reckless lending - any profits from interest would go to the state then.

kneemos

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

It's so handy to be able to go into the post office on a Saturday morning (or even after 5 during the week) and lodge money to my AIB account.

I can walk to the post office in 2 minutes rather than a 15 minute drive to my nearest branch and another indefinite time finding a parking spot.

Don't know if they'll maintain this service.

kneemos

kneemos wrote: »

Don't know if they'll maintain this service.

Well they should, kneemos, they should! :mad:

DVD-Lots

One word. Postbank. Was tried already and failed. Started in 2007 and closed it's doors in 2010.

the groutch

another case of An Post being way behind the times.
Bank of Ireland mentioned recently that only 4% of their transactions are over the counter.
There will be very little uptake on this, and will only further aggravate people who go to the post office to actually post stuff, leading to them finding alternatives.

MOH

The Backwards Man wrote: »

And a crap exchange rate that negates the commission saving.

This.

Great advertising though, I've heard so many people swear by it since it's commission free.
Until you point out to them that it can actually be more expensive than their bank depending on the rate difference.

Guy:Incognito

Strawberry Milkshake wrote: »

Well they should, kneemos, they should! :mad:

Yeah. Having the postman carrying a load of cash, what could go wrong :-)

Mike Guide 69

Lets hope this operation is more successful than the original Post Bank system when Fortis tried to come into the market a few years ago and piggy back on The Post Office network!!!!

Turtyturd

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

and who do An Post bank with?

All kept under the mattress at the postmasters house.

kneemos

Mike Guide 69 wrote: »

Lets hope this operation is more successful than the original Post Bank system when Fortis tried to come into the market a few years ago and piggy back on The Post Office network!!!!

This is purely a PO effort I think .
If they keep their charges down and market it well it might be quiet successful.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Only if they have online banking, as the post office queues here are always to the door.

fleet_admiral

DVD-Lots wrote: »

One word. Postbank. Was tried already and failed. Started in 2007 and closed it's doors in 2010.

My thinking exactly.

Why do it again when it didnt work the first time

danjo-xx

But p.o. is not a Bank so what bank will they be using?

gctest50

danjo-xx wrote: »

But p.o. is not a Bank so what bank will they be using?

AIB maybe

http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/MainContent/Personal+Customers/Money+Matters/An+Post+Financial+Services/BankingWithAIB.htm

Missed the bank? Try the Post Office. As an AIB customer you can do a significant part of your banking at your local post office.

You can:

Lodge cash using your AIB Banklink card or with a personalised lodgement book pre-ordered through your AIB branch.
Withdraw cash using your AIB Banklink card
Pay your AIB credit card bill with cash using the credit transfer attached to the bill

kneemos

fleet_admiral wrote: »

My thinking exactly.

Why do it again when it didnt work the first time

The last lot were part of Bank of Scotland and were probably a victim of it's difficulties after the recession.Badly timed and poorly marketed as well.
The PO idea of a decent profit may not be the same as a banks.

donegaLroad

The Backwards Man wrote: »

And a crap exchange rate that negates the commission saving.

Post office banking will be just the same bank banking.

you are right.... I just checked the Canadian Dollar rate against the Euro via An Post, versus XE.com rate and there is a considerable difference.

An Post: €5000 = $6828 Canadian

XE.com currency converter: €5000 = $7127 Canadian



#whocanyoutrust

pgj2015

fleet_admiral wrote: »

My thinking exactly.

Why do it again when it didnt work the first time

yes if something does not work the first time, you should just give up and never try again.:rolleyes:

Badly Drunk Boy

pgj2015 wrote: »

yes if something does not work the first time, you should just give up and never try again.:rolleyes:

That's why we don't have hoverboards!

DVD-Lots

kneemos wrote: »

The last lot were part of Bank of Scotland and were probably a victim of it's difficulties after the recession.Badly timed and poorly marketed as well.
The PO idea of a decent profit may not be the same as a banks.

It was Fortis actually. Bank of Scotland weren't involved in the joint venture.

fizzypish

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

That's why we don't have hoverboards!

I think lexus have made a stab at this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwSwZ2Y0Ops

Amirani

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Go the whole way and give them the power to give out loans - remove the banks ability to profit off of interest and reckless lending - any profits from interest would go to the state then.

I don't want my taxes funding loans. Particularly when the issuer of said loans is unlikely to enforce repayment for political reasons. Whatever about having a state investment bank to fund infrastructure programs, having a state retail bank funding consumer loans is stupid.

Superhorse

If it puts AIB and BOI out of business I'm all for it.

MOH

Superhorse wrote: »

If it puts AIB and BOI out of business I'm all for it.

The same AIB that's about to start repaying €3 billion to the State?

Yeah, be great if they went out of business :rolleyes:

wordofwarning

KomradeBishop wrote: »

Go the whole way and give them the power to give out loans - remove the banks ability to profit off of interest and reckless lending - any profits from interest would go to the state then.

Credit unions were designed to do the same thing. But a fair amount of them have gone under as they were more wreckless than banks at lending. Ie directors giving 100% loan to buy apartments in Eastern Europe. Not even banks dared to do that.

I imagine any profit (there won't be as current accounts are loss making) will just go to an post never ending losses. These an post "banks" won't serve the whole purpose of a bank. It's not like aib where you can walk in and get €4k from your account. My post office rarely can fulfil social welfare requests at €200.

I imagine the customers will have to pay for the beefing up of an posts security. They can't carry money like banks and have the same security

Vandango

DVD-Lots wrote: »

It was Fortis actually. Bank of Scotland weren't involved in the joint venture.

Fortis or BOS, it still wasn't An Post though. I'd imagine An Post themselves will make a better go of it.

D Trent

Nope.

Come hell or high water I'll be staying with KBC.
So cheap, so convenient, so easy to resolve any issues/queries etc

KBC4life

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

An Post don't have anything like the capital required to undertake full retail banking. It will be a joint venture with another bank. So just another bank but with both parties to the venture seeking profits.

kneemos

Braylee Immense Pumpkin wrote: »

An Post don't have anything like the capital required to undertake full retail banking. It will be a joint venture with another bank. So just another bank but with both parties to the venture seeking profits.

See no mention of a bank.Looks like a purely An Post effort.

seamus

Looks like they're going for current accounts. Doesn't really affect me, I'm not looking for anything else from a bank unless they're going to start offering zero-rate loans to current account customers or massive discounts elsewhere. I don't pay any fees and I have no issues with my current bank.

As said though, they'll discover very quickly that the volume of transactions done in-branch is tiny and if they don't have full-featured online banking at launch, they're already dead in the water.
Only catering to the, "I don't do online, I'll only go to the counter" brigade would end up being unsustainable, as they cost too much.

KomradeBishop

Amirani wrote: »

I don't want my taxes funding loans. Particularly when the issuer of said loans is unlikely to enforce repayment for political reasons. Whatever about having a state investment bank to fund infrastructure programs, having a state retail bank funding consumer loans is stupid.

That's not how loans work. Banks don't actually lend from savings/deposits, neither would a state-run bank.

Works fine in North Dakota:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_North_Dakota

KomradeBishop

wordofwarning wrote: »

Credit unions were designed to do the same thing. But a fair amount of them have gone under as they were more wreckless than banks at lending. Ie directors giving 100% loan to buy apartments in Eastern Europe. Not even banks dared to do that.

I imagine any profit (there won't be as current accounts are loss making) will just go to an post never ending losses. These an post "banks" won't serve the whole purpose of a bank. It's not like aib where you can walk in and get €4k from your account. My post office rarely can fulfil social welfare requests at €200.

I imagine the customers will have to pay for the beefing up of an posts security. They can't carry money like banks and have the same security

If they are given the power to issue loans (which they are not being given, but should be), there is profit on the interest.

An Post is a part of the state, so any profit it makes, inherently helps the states finances (either by An Post requiring less public funding, or having a surplus profit it can provide to the budget) - I'd rather banking profits go to help public funding, than go to subsidize the banking/financial industry - banks literally get to profit from interest on money created from nothing (it's the most massive unwarranted subsidy there is), and the fact that this is allowed continue after all that's happened, is really taking the piss tbh...

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Like others, I already have a current account with no fees, have never had any problems with it regarding DDs or such, I use internet banking all the time in conjunction with the ATM. Nothing in An Post banking for me.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

KomradeBishop wrote: »

If they are given the power to issue loans (which they are not being given, but should be), there is profit on the interest.

An Post is a part of the state, so any profit it makes, inherently helps the states finances (either by An Post requiring less public funding, or having a surplus profit it can provide to the budget).

Yes, but as it stands, were is the profit in current accounts for An Post?

KomradeBishop

Braylee Immense Pumpkin wrote: »

Yes, but as it stands, were is the profit in current accounts for An Post?

I'm not talking about the current accounts - I made it clear I'm talking about giving An Post the power to create loans as well.

kneemos

Braylee Immense Pumpkin wrote: »

Yes, but as it stands, were is the profit in current accounts for An Post?

They take in huge splodges of money and it makes them money,isn't that the theory behind banking.
Also if current accounts don't make money why did AIB turn everybodies account into a current account several years ago without choice?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

kneemos wrote: »

They take in huge splodges of money and it makes them money,isn't that the theory behind banking.
Also if current accounts don't make money why did AIB turn everybodies account into a current account several years ago without choice?

They won't be lending the money held, however. Profits will have to come from fees. Fees are the income source to banks from current accounts if they can't lend the reserves.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

KomradeBishop wrote: »

I'm not talking about the current accounts - I made it clear I'm talking about giving An Post the power to create loans as well.

I realise that but it is not on the cards. There are many "ifs" that could turn a profit for the state.