Who do you bank with and why?

Alpha505

After a rather erratic service from PTSB lately I think Im going to take my money elsewhere. Some of their customer service is simply a disgrace. Im thinking of going with BOI or AIB. So the question is: who do you bank with and why?

grimloch

Bank of Ireland, for no other reason that they have a branch very close to my gaff. No huge issues with them yet.

Lump

AIB, cause they're good, and my dad has shares in them. Although he banks with BOI. I have an account with BOI, but they messed me around. I lodged €8,000 with them, then asked for a credit card, which was fine, I got it. I then asked for an ATM card that I could use in England (as I was living there in Uni) They said it took 6 months to authorise (IE I had to be with the bank for 6 months before I could get an ATM card that would work in the UK. This I didn't understand, since they'd give me a credit card, the same day I opened the account, but not an ATM card to use in the UK.

I promptly withdrew my €8,000 and went to the AIB.....

But at the moment, I have accounts with the EBS,Credit Union, BOI, AIB and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

John

Rabies

I have been with the AIB for about 13yrs. No reason to change, first bank I created an account with and have stayed with them.

Alvis

Bank Of Ireland.

I joined them when I was like a kid and they came to our school and gave out free radios and all we had to do was fill an application form for an account with them to get it. I lost that little radio now

Bank Of Ireland are slow. Especially when I asked them for an ATM card it took 5 weeks for it to come and many phone calls.

Alpha505

Lump wrote:

But at the moment, I have accounts with the EBS,Credit Union, BOI, AIB and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

:eek:


Can I have a loan of a grand please?

Sparky

BOI for me, nice staff, especially this nice girl on the front desk, also they give me a quick service

is_that_so

85% of people stay with the same bank for life which is why banks offer all sorts of goodies to students.
BOI for me until they really mess me about. Generally found them OK and they just LOVE to offer you money that you can't afford.

angeldelight

Ulster Bank purely cause 2 of my relatives have jobs pretty high up in the company and so whole family banks with them! Annoying though cause there aren't as many atms as other banks. Irritating when I want to check my (very low) balance!

Wertz

BoI

Convenient when I joined them, like their web service (dunno when I was in a real branch) but their fees are a complete laugh alongside their savings accoutn interest % rate, so it's off to rabodirect I go in a few weeks.
Still have to use BoI as an IRL bank for cash withdrawals/lodgements though...
Shame no-one can come up with a way to lodge cash/cheque at an ATM.

Alpha505

My problem with PTSB is that I was told I couldnt use my Personal account to lodge my cheques. Im a sole trader and they're telling me I have to set up a business account with them seperately? This sounds like nonsense.

is_that_so

Wertz wrote:

Shame no-one can come up with a way to lodge cash/cheque at an ATM.

Seem to remember AIB used to do that once upon a time, even did it myself . It came and went just as quickly.

Vikings

Sparky_S wrote:

BOI for me, nice staff, especially this nice girl on the front desk, also they give me a quick service

Might have to make a change to BOI

Tar.Aldarion

ptsb,always have.no reason to change that i can see.

is_that_so

Alpha505 wrote:

My problem with PTSB is that I was told I couldnt use my Personal account to lodge my cheques. Im a sole trader and they're telling me I have to set up a business account with them seperately? This sounds like nonsense.

I don't believe so. Most banks will advise that. I use both personal adn private accounts. It also makes sense from an accounting point of view - i.e. all business stuff going through the same account. Thsi was teh advice I was given.
For business accounts go to BOI - fee free for 2 years and the excellent online business service is free for at least six months.

Wertz

is_that_so wrote:

Seem to remember AIB used to do that once upon a time, even did it myself . It came and went just as quickly.

I'm sure there were problems with people "depositing" foreign bodies in lieu of actaul legal tender

frodi

Personal banking PTSB
Mortgage Bank of Scotland
Business, PTSB, Ulster, IIB
credit card PTSB, MBNA
Previous experience with Bank of Ireland, Northern Bank, ACC & EBS

At one time or another all have been a PITA and OK.
Some time ago a group discussed which bank they were with and why. it turned out that we had all been around them all and left different ones for the same reason, ie lousy service. I had left BoI for PTSB, the next guy had left PTSB for AIB, same reason and the next had left AIB for BoI. equally bad

Endurance Man

Bank Of Ireland, banks a bank to me really, maybe when i start having more money ill look into which bank is best :rolleyes:

Rb

AIB simply because my parents set me up an account there when I was real young and just upgraded it to a student plus account when i got into college.
Great services (24hr & internet banking), great all round service so i can't see myself switching any time soon.

Pepe LeFrits

First Direct, because they aren't cúnting Nat West.

AIB when I lived in Ireland, because they were much less hassle than Ulster ****.

Rabies

Forgot another reason.
They gave me a student account in '98 and I still have it. No bank charges for me so far

Paddy20

Personally, I consider answering this type of ' seemingly innocent ' personal finance question as potentially dangerous, and no ! I will not explain why, you either understand why or you are a plonker

P.

Rhyme

Sparky_S wrote:

BOI for me, nice staff, especially this nice girl on the front desk, also they give me a quick service

Does the girl give you a quick service?

AIB for me, popped into the branch in DCU and set it all up

BuffyBot

AIB in Ireland, thinking of going to NIB's Freebank, sometime in the future..

Nationwide Building Society in the UK (pretty good, wish they operated here!)

Alpha505

Paddy20 wrote:

Personally, I consider answering this type of ' seemingly innocent ' personal finance question as potentially dangerous, and no ! I will not explain why, you either understand why or you are a plonker

P.

Are you ok there Paddy?

Pepe LeFrits

Paddy20, every customer service rep's worst nightmare.

Alpha505

The only thing I think he could be talking about with be internet security? Slightly paranoid when the question's only asking where you bank and why! (Not your PIN number )

Stench Blossoms

BOI. Signed up with them when they came to my school and gave me a free pen

Sarsfield

Current a/c & mortgage with BOI
Credit cards with BOI & NIB
Deposit a/c with RaboDirect

Paddy20 is from Donegal - He's probably more worried about the Revenue Commissioner than Internet Security

vector

AIB because they have the
-more branches (in Munster anyway) and even these days that is handy
-have the best internet banking
-lodged cheques appear in your balance immediately (althought I have yet to test whether their funds are actually drawable immediately)
-their quick lodge box has a door on it (bank of ireland just use a wooden box so if it fills up people can take out envelopes!)
-you aren't asked to fill out dockets for everything, I mean you can walk up to a counter and ask (in words) for a bank draft payable to John Smith for 500 EUR, whereas in BOI you would have to write that down with your name and address for feck sake
-their cashsave account doesnt have maintenance fees (and sort of thing matters)
-their ATM cards work abroad (many BOI cards, even from 2000 don't not even in the UK)
-you can use your card in post offices, although thats just a human operated ATM

However AIB did close my deposit account without me asking (I got the funds back by draft)

Agent Smith

AIB:
why? offered me the sun moon and stars on freshers week in college,
gave me a bag of stuff, including free pen! and 50 euro credit, gave me a credit card for free, a lazer card, and for some bizzare reason a check book arived in the last week, handy... but they are slow about my wages going in,
mate of mine works in dunnes stores and we get paid on fridays, his goes threw at 12:01am and mine goes in at 6am, annoying,

Lazer cards, i have desided are thwe best invention ever, you VERY rarely have to have cash on you, which is a great plus.

have a account in ulsterbank as well, but the less said about them, the better

Lump

I think you'll find with AIB, your wages will actually arrive some time around 2.30 to 3 am. I feel sorry for you, if that wait, even if it is 6am disrupts you

John

skywalker

agent smith wrote:

Lazer cards, i have desided are thwe best invention ever, you VERY rarely have to have cash on you, which is a great plus.

Do you get charged per transaction with lazer cards?

Tobias Greeshman

Started a BOI a/c when I was about 16 and sorta grew to dislike the feckers because it was the bank was really far away and a pain to lodge money with.

When I was in first week of college (week before freshers week), I signed up with AIB for a student account for a free phone. I've used AIB constantly now and have very few complaints. I find there service more friendly, there's something more friendly about walking into an AIB bank than a BOI bank.

Loads a benefits with AIB, Victor said most of them...

Alpha505

If I set up an account with AIB or BOI today how long would it be before I got an ATM/Lazer card?

is_that_so

Alpha505 wrote:

If I set up an account with AIB or BOI today how long would it be before I got an ATM/Lazer card?

BOI could be 5 days but you have to collect the card, a fact they usually neglect to tell you. So call them to check if it's in, if you go with them. You'll get your pin by post.

Alpha505

And can that be used outside of Ireland?

xzanti

I was with Bank of Ireland since I was at school (aged 15) and had to change to AIB about a year ago because despite repeated requests for them to change my withdrawal limit from €130 a day they never did... Not only that but I went to the service desk in the Blanchardstown Centre one saturday to inquire about why my limit had not been changed and the teller assured me that as and from midnight that night I could withdraw anything up to €500... So off I went out with my friend into town... waited till 12am to get money (In the middle of town dolled up to the nines I might add) and not only did they not put my limit up... Now I could only withdraw €30 a day... So needless to say my big night out was a disaster because not only was I smashed but I had also promised my friend a lend for the night cause she was smashed too... So that was the last straw for me with Bank of Ireland.. Sorry for rambling on but had to get that off my chest when the topic of banks came up...

Paddy20

Alpha505 wrote:

Are you ok there Paddy?

Alpha505,

Yes I am fine, as I have never been the victim of a scam in my life .
Just a bit paranoid when it comes to my personal banking affairs, thats all, with all due respect too your thread :cool: .

P.

Einstein

Alpha505 wrote:

My problem with PTSB is that I was told I couldnt use my Personal account to lodge my cheques. Im a sole trader and they're telling me I have to set up a business account with them seperately? This sounds like nonsense.

not nonsense. A sole trader is a business. You file your own returns etc. This requires a business account. Trust me, been up and down that road with PTSB.

Back on topic, i've remortgaged from PTSB to First Active and I too am removing all my accounts from PTSB.
Last Christmas i asked for an overdraft of €1000. They refused stating that they needed Tax certificates blah blah blah(which is rubbish as the overdraft was requested for a personal account).
Besides the fact that in the past I've had 2 mortgages, 2 car loans, a 7K overdraft facility and a business account thats highly active. they still refused.

They rang me a week later asking if I wanted a new car loan.

Priorites up their pooper...

I'm off to BOI and First Active.

is_that_so

Alpha505 wrote:

And can that be used outside of Ireland?

Laser cards can as it is part of Cirrus.

byte

AIB for me for the past 9 years.

It's handy simply as I used to be able to lodge via ATM, also I can now bank in the post office which is handy as I can't get to a bank during their opening hours and can just walk into a postie Saturday morning and lodge money.

jrey1981

BOI here - all my family are with them and they are 5 mins up the road. Also I find the service is friendly enough. I made a transfer with them from my business account to the UK and it went through twice to my colleagues account. We have had the free use of 6 grand for a few months and BOI are very easy going about it!

Barclays in UK - had the best overdrafts when I was a student...rubbish and impersonal customer service though. Apparently you have to threaten to close your account then they take a bit of notice.

They also messed me about on a cheque issue when I had a business account and claimed I owed them a grand when they made a mistake. In the end I just did not pay it back and they wrote it off. I still have an overdraft with them.

vector

Divers wrote:

not nonsense. A sole trader is a business. You file your own returns etc. This requires a business account. Trust me, been up and down that road with PTSB.

Back on topic, i've remortgaged from PTSB to First Active and I too am removing all my accounts from PTSB.
Last Christmas i asked for an overdraft of €1000. They refused stating that they needed Tax certificates blah blah blah(which is rubbish as the overdraft was requested for a personal account).
Besides the fact that in the past I've had 2 mortgages, 2 car loans, a 7K overdraft facility and a business account thats highly active. they still refused.

They rang me a week later asking if I wanted a new car loan.

Priorites up their pooper...

I'm off to BOI and First Active.

but I thought that PTSB were supposed to be the "different" of "better" or whatever their slogan is, they are the underdog etc?

RainyDay

NIB - Discounted mortgage rate for the 'Premium' customers, no fees on their Freebank account, great online banking service

Jorinn

skywalker wrote:

Do you get charged per transaction with lazer cards?

No transaction charges.

Jorinn

Was with Ulster Bank until last week.

Have been meaning to change from them for a while now.

At the last count the number of times I have tried to get thwem to mark my account as student in the last 2 years so I wouldn't be charged forex fees and so is 5. I even tried to do it in multiple branches.

Up until last week they still hadn't done it.

Their internet banking is worse than a pain in the ass to use. And of course you can't see your transactions on your credit card.

To top it all of they thought it was a great idea to issue me a chip and pin laser card while I was using my current one that doesn't need replacement for another 2 years on another continent.

So they cancelled the one I had with me and I had my new one waiting at home for four weeks prior to getting back home.

Eventually after getting home I went to my local branch, I explained what happened, the guy behind the desk laughed. So I asked was there a way to prevent this from happening again. He laughed more and kind of raised his arms in a kind of "no idea" type of way.

I will never change back to Ulster Bank.


Switched to permanent TSB, all I've had so far is helpfull and very efficient customer services and in the short while I've used their Internet banking it seems a lot better.

Final judgment on them is reserved of course.

englander

Was with BOI when I moved over here until I realised I was paying through the nose for using my account that was in (lots of) credit. WTF ?

I still can't get my head around people 'happily' paying bank charges when the bank will be using their money to make more money. Even writing a cheque costs money (a government stamp duty!) Again... WTF ?

I suppose abroad (in the UK) banking is just different (and free).

I went in to enquire about bank charges at BOI one lunchtime and I had to wait 35 mins to get to see someone. I asked why they were so short staffed - they had all gone out to lunch apparently. That was the final straw.

Moved to Ulsterbank - where they offer free banking. They are far from perfect but at least I am not paying through the nose for their ineptitude !

Jorinn

Love to know how you reckon UB give free banking, I have a few hundred euro worth of charges on my account over the last few years. And of course they charge you to replace card that don't need replacing.

Elessar

NIB - I'm with them because their staff are nice, the internet banking is great and I have never, EVER been charged a penny from them, for anything. Also my mother is with them too and helped me get an account set up when I was younger.

grey wolf

Just got an unsolicited letter from a crowd called Citifinancial based in Blanch-
APR on loans charged at a whopping 27%-dont think I will be doing any biz with these guys.