The increasing cost of having an AIB current account with AIB

hamster

Hi. I recently got news of the changes that AIB plan to introduce this June.

Up to now I tried to minimize charges by keeping 500+ Euro in my account. I hear now they will
charge me regardless. So I decided to work out my year cost to AIB:

Cost Summary:
1. Current Account
2. Online share account
3. Approved OverDraft
4. Credit card / Chequebook


Costs:
#####

1) Current Account:
Average Transactions (all online):
12 x 0.20 euro = 2.4 Euro per month = 28.8 Euro per year

Quarterly account charges: 7.5 x 4 = 30 Euro per year

Effective Account cost: 58.8 Euro

2) Online share account

Ongoing costs:
2 x 13 euro = 26 Euro per year (bi-annual charge.. bit like a "management" charge)

To get out of this I need to withdraw my stocks (of which I have 4)
Cost: 4 stocks x 13 Euro = 52 Euro


3) OverDraft:

I have an approved overdraft which I never really need.
Facility FeeCost: 25.39


4) Credit card / Chequebook:

Credit card Cost: 40 Euro per year
Cheque book: Will last for a few years at current rate of consumption



Total ongoing costs per year: 150.19 Euro

This is a bit much. It's got to stop. I plan to stop:

i) overdraft (Save 25 Euro per year)
ii) Withdraw stocks back into paper form (Save 26 per year)
long term hold anyway, cost to withdraw 52 Euro
iii) medium term to change bank

I understand that like any share owned business that AIB's first concern is towards it's
shareholders. I am an AIB shareholder but my dividends are twice exceeded by my own bank account!
Time to move.

Questions:

i)
Can anyone recommend an alternative cheaper bank that can provide more reasonable
charges? Free banking can't be free but it can be more competitive. Ulster bank or NIB ?

ii)
Is it a hassle to sell paper shares at any Bank? Could a recommended bank above sell these
for me? I believe I need to have a bank account with said bank?

Would Ulster Bank's standard current account be recommended?
http://www.ulsterbank.com/new/roi/products/roi_p_standard_current_account.asp



Thanks for any help!

hamster

Ulster Bank standard current a/c offering
Is this too good to be true?

Standard Current Account

This account offers you all the standard features of a Current Account ie

Cheque book
Servicecard or Cashcard
Direct Debits & Standing Orders
Statements
Overdrafts
Telephone and Internet Banking
You can arrange to have your salary paid directly into your Current Account and withdrawals can be made using your Cashcard, Laser Card or Chequebook.

Provided your account remains in credit, you will benefit from transaction free banking.

You can keep up to date with your account balance either through the ATM network or through Ulster Bank Anytime Telephone and Internet Banking.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

hamster

AIB plan to change the charging structure from allowing transaction free banking if you left 500 E in your a/c. That's now scraped and they will charge you anyway. 7.5E per quarter minimum and .20 per transaction (.30 per paper transaction). They will blind you by offering .5% on a maximum of 1000E giving you a whopping 4 Euro after Dirt. Woohoo! :mad:

gurramok

Reducing ATM transactions is one way of reducing cost

As my bank is TSB, and my nearest ATM most of the week in work is a BOI, i now only do 1 withdrawal for the month (BOI or not) so i carry around months expenses in wallet. Risk is my responsibility not to lose it !
ATM transactions are about 23 cents a go(free in other EU countries), direct debit transaction is nearly same cost hence i try to pay bills as much by credit card as possible as credit card bill is paid on time every month.
I use to have free banking for 18 months with them when i opened current account years ago, now i just learned it cost 20 cents each time i check my account over the internet, bloody scam ! (me ignorant of bank charges for years)
tsb current account charges

Anyway, what da heck is a maintenance fee ?
It cost me about 3.80 every quarter !

Silvera

I have recently closed my AIB current account (after 22 yrs with them).
I checked out NIB's "Freebanking" account but, unless you have a very big salary paid in each week/month, it seems they don't want to know.
So I opened an Ulster Bank current account.

It's high time more people told AIB (and BOI) where to go !

Banks in the UK tried to introduce fees some years back, but hundreds moved their accounts elswhere, hence accounts over there are now free of transaction charges.

Regarding share accounts. I have a Nominee Account with Fexco, which, until recently was free to maintain.
However, now it will cost €40 a year (€20 in March and €20 in Sept) to keep open. Therefore I too will be putting my shares into cert form (even this costs €15 !).


Time to stop the rip-offs :mad:

hamster

Silvera,

Is the Ulster bank account a Standard Current Account with description I gave above or here ?

Apparently this is cost free...!

davelerave

you're not doin' too bad my quarterly fee is up about 40 euro =160 year

Cork

I have an account with the AIB. I don't intend paying fees for them keeping my money. I have a Credit Union Account. They used have an ATM service but they recently dropped it.

Does anybody know when CUnions will be resuming this service?

How easy is it to change banks if you have direct debits set up on your bank account?

Silvera

hamster,
Yep ! Thats the one (UB Standard Curent Account)
You only pay govt charges (as with any bank account) and you are charged for setting up direct debits or standing orders. But not for transactions re. dd , ss or withdrawls etc.

davelerave,
I suggest that you change banks. It's the only way they will get the message. Why pay fees when you don't have to ? It's just another rip-off.

Cheers,
Silvera.

hamster

Silvera,

Thanks for the confirmation.

I asked for info from the bank and got the following:

"Thank you for our email. If you remain in credit you will not incurr any irregular or transaction charges on your account. You will still however be charged for the setting up of standing orders/direct debits etc.

Any irregular account charges occur e.g. for being overdrawn will be charged to your acount quarterly. If you have any further queries lease do not hesitate to contact us."


I have a few DD to set up (including the SSIA one). Do you know is much or just a once off for setting up each one ? I check it out if you'd don't.

Anyway I plan to move on it this week, set up the Ulster bank a/c in parallel with the AIB one and gradually shift my transactions across. A lot to do.. I even have to redirect cash dividends... (and it looked like a time saving tool initially).

Silvera

Sorry, hamster, don't know what the cost is to set up dd/ss - haven't set up any yet. Doubt if it would be much more that €4-€5.
I pay my SSIA over the counter at present, at my local Credit Union, until I set up a new dd.

It may be a bit time consuming to move accounts but, GO FOR IT !
It's time we showed the banks that we mean business

l3rian

I read an article in the Sunday times a while back, which spelled out the huge differences in bank charges between us and Britain. Im a student so I get the free banking, but I am not looking forward to them.

now i just learned it cost 20 cents each time i check my account over the internet, bloody scam ! (me ignorant of bank charges for years)

Thats not true

hamster

Ok,

I checked with Ulster Bank today and found that to set up each Direct debit cost a one off payment set up charge of 3.17 euro. That's seems fair for a once off situation.

De Rebel

Originally posted by hamster
I checked with Ulster Bank today and found that to set up each Direct debit cost a one off payment set up charge of 3.17 euro. That's seems fair for a once off situation.

Its been the same for at least 6 or 7 years, I can remember signing a raft of DD mandates in 1997 and being charged IEP2.50 (€3.17) for each one. Apart from that the only charges I have incured are the government charges for plastic cards, and an overdraft arrangement fee - which they were charging anually if you had an overdraft facility even if it was unchanged and unused, however they seem to have stopped that again. (It was IEP10.00 in 1999,2000,2001). I have about 20 transactions a month going through my c/a and have paid no fees for many years now, despite the fact that the balance regularly reaches 0.

There are changes afoot in Ulster Bank and things could change I suppose, however the charging regeim is by far the best in terms of the fullest range of facilties for the best price. As I said here when I first recommended Ulster Bank in the previous thread on this topic, for the ordinary user, the standard current a/c s the one to go for, not the U-First one