Best Bank for online banking

HelloPeeps

Hello All,

My husband and I are looking at streamlining our bank accounts and setting up a joint bank account to manage all our day to day banking. ie. wages in, direct debits and standing orders and other basic payments out.

Mostly we are looking for an account with a good online banking experience. Does anyone have a good experience to share. Some features we would like include:

- Set up new payees & transfer online or through an app without a physical key
- set up and manage standing orders online.
- easily search transactions (by debit, credit, payee, amount etc) over an extended period of time and if possible export to excel.

All thoughts welcome,

Cheers

Wheety

We use KBC as our joint account. Our salaries are paid in and we both get paid i
a weekly 'allowance' from this. All bills, mortgage and other household expenses come from this account.

Regarding your requirements

- Set up new payees & transfer online or through an app without a physical key
- set up and manage standing orders online.
This can be done easily enough. Although on the website you will need to use your phone to generate a key.
You can't set up a standing order in the app but can transfer.

- easily search transactions (by debit, credit, payee, amount etc) over an extended period of time and if possible export to excel.
You can search alright but can't export to excel.

I know people give out about KBC but it's basically just a holding account for us. We both get our 'allowance' to our own accounts for our own spending.

The J Stands for Jay

Wheety wrote: »

We use KBC as our joint account. Our salaries are paid in and we both get paid i
a weekly 'allowance' from this. All bills, mortgage and other household expenses come from this account.

Regarding your requirements

- Set up new payees & transfer online or through an app without a physical key
- set up and manage standing orders online.
This can be done easily enough. Although on the website you will need to use your phone to generate a key.
You can't set up a standing order in the app but can transfer.

- easily search transactions (by debit, credit, payee, amount etc) over an extended period of time and if possible export to excel.
You can search alright but can't export to excel.

I know people give out about KBC but it's basically just a holding account for us. We both get our 'allowance' to our own accounts for our own spending.

KBC can't export to excel. Whenever I've asked about it, they say there's no need because you can download statements as PDFs. Which is useless, because whatever way they have them formatted, they refuse to copy and paste into Excel in any useable manner.

killbillvol2

I wouldn't recommend KBC.

Their app is very limited and they insist on posting statements. And you can't opt out of postal statements. In fact, they love posting stuff. If you lodge 10 cheques they'll post 10 separate letters to acknowledge the lodgements.

Wheety

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend KBC.

Their app is very limited and they insist on posting statements. And you can't opt out of postal statements. In fact, they love posting stuff. If you lodge 10 cheques they'll post 10 separate letters to acknowledge the lodgements.

This is true tbf. I used to have a standing order set up to pay money into my N26 account every week. They sent a letter every time, telling me how much I sent

Now I just top up my Revolut account and send it to N26 from there.

dotsman

AIB are, and always have been, ahead of the other banks when it comes to online/app.

It's certainly light years ahead of KBC (who I also bank with).

With regards your specific questions, yes it does require a physical key to set up new payees, but I read recently that they are looking to get rid of it. Yes, you can create/manage your standing orders (and direct debits too). You can also export to CSV.

Dardania

Check out bunq. You pay for it, but it is streets ahead of the Irish competition.

HelloPeeps

Who has a better app that you'd recommend?

The paper thing would really annoy me, so pointless and wasteful

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend KBC.

Their app is very limited and they insist on posting statements. And you can't opt out of postal statements. In fact, they love posting stuff. If you lodge 10 cheques they'll post 10 separate letters to acknowledge the lodgements.

HelloPeeps

Dardania wrote: »

Check out bunq. You pay for it, but it is streets ahead of the Irish competition.

Interesting, I'll look into it. It seems to be an actual licenced bank,

HelloPeeps

dotsman wrote: »

AIB are, and always have been, ahead of the other banks when it comes to online/app.

It's certainly light years ahead of KBC (who I also bank with).

With regards your specific questions, yes it does require a physical key to set up new payees, but I read recently that they are looking to get rid of it. Yes, you can create/manage your standing orders (and direct debits too). You can also export to CSV.

Thanks, I'm actually with AIB at the moment and find it only alright. I didn't know that you could export to CSV. I'll have to investigate that.

Dardania

HelloPeeps wrote: »

Interesting, I'll look into it. It seems to be an actual licenced bank,

Indeed. Very powerful. And so far, the only neobank that does proper joint accounts.

See review here: https://youtu.be/cu_Tw7cWHK0

Only thing to be wary of is IBAN Discrimination - some older utility providers or even employers can be difficult about accepting non Irish IBANs. It's illegal for them to do so, but enforcement is not the best yet. A good list of good and bad utility companies are here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=105293286&postcount=136

killbillvol2

HelloPeeps wrote: »

Who has a better app that you'd recommend?

The paper thing would really annoy me, so pointless and wasteful

I left PTSB because they were introducing fairly hefty charges and moved to KBC for free banking. Given that they market their online credentials I thought they'd be up to speed with the latest tech. Unfortunately they're in the dark ages.

Even PTSB has far more functionality online and through their app.

I suppose you get what you pay for!

coylemj

If you're not in a hurry, might be worth waiting for the soon to be launched new Bank of Ireland app.

coylemj

killbillvol2 wrote: »

I wouldn't recommend KBC.

Their app is very limited and they insist on posting statements. And you can't opt out of postal statements.

Don't knock printed bank statements, they are sometimes required to satisfy requirements against money laundering when dealing with other financial institutions.

I have an EBS Money Manager account, they send me a statement in the post after each calendar quarter which I'm happpy to receive. I do everything online so I don't give the paper statement a second glance but I always have the last two ready if required.

killbillvol2

coylemj wrote: »

Don't knock printed bank statements, they are sometimes required to satisfy requirements against money laundering when dealing with other financial institutions.

I have an EBS Money Manager account, they send me a statement in the post after each calendar quarter which I'm happpy to receive. I do everything online so I don't give the paper statement a second glance but I always have the last two ready if required.

Did you read the post you quoted?

I don't have an issue with paper statements if I wanted them, I have an issue with not being able to opt out.

KBC generate a ridiculous amount of unnecessary paper.

The J Stands for Jay

HelloPeeps wrote: »

Interesting, I'll look into it. It seems to be an actual licenced bank,

I use them without a debit card, so they're free (it's possible that it's no longer a free option at sign-up). I use separate accounts with them for different expenses. Being able to approve or reject direct debits is amazing.

sunnyday1234

AIB online banking is excellent, have zero complaints about it

The J Stands for Jay

sunnyday1234 wrote: »

AIB online banking is excellent, have zero complaints about it

The Mrs uses AIB, and they don't let you set up payments to non-Irish SEPA bank accounts. It's pretty annoying, and I wonder about the legality of it.

Sunrise_Sunset

I find Ulster Bank online and app very good.

s_carnage

I have and use both Ulster Bank and AIB apps and online facilities. Find Ulster Bank much better. Both could do with taking a look at Revolut for some of the services they offer in their app though.

Wife uses Bank of Ireland and it's next to useless. Its like they developed it with basic services and just left it at that.

The J Stands for Jay

Mr.S wrote: »

How do you mean? You can send payments to any bank a/c within the SEPA zone for free (if it's in EUR)

With other banks, all sepa transfers are done through the same option and you can save payees. On AIB, you have to go through a separate option for non Irish IBANs and you can't save the account as a payee.