The banks are screwing over current account holders, and here's why...

...because we let them.

AIB & Bank of Ireland, the two "pillar banks" (hah) of Ireland as we know have been raising their fees at regular intervals over the last couple of years, slowly bringing everyone into the loop so you will pay current account fees no matter what your circumstances. BoI who were initially insistent that they were just trying to combat people who weren't really using their account have recently brought in a flat rate fee that is unavoidable, no matter how much business you do or how much money you lodge. Finally revealing that what they really want is to use your money to earn interest and to also charge you for the privilege. Having their cake and eating it too.

AIB have become equally restrictive and it'll be a matter of months before they too move to the same place as BoI.

We spit feathers about this, there's a huge thread on the BoI forum every time the fees change, and yet the complaints are ignored. Why? Because for all our complaining and ranting, we don't actually do anything about it. Statistics about this stuff are hard to come by. Banks tend not to release any survey information because they know that banking consistently rates as the sector with one of the worst customer satisfaction ratings of any industry. Banks maintain the status quo, particularly in Ireland, by using cartel-esque policies where all banks are equally poor at what they do and they don't spend much effort competing.

In a nine-month period from Oct 10 to June 11, just 6,000 Irish people switched their current account. This despite a later survey showing that less than half of people would recommend their current bank. Yet 90 percent of people said they had no desire to leave their current bank. This makes no sense.

So banks continue to shaft us purely because they know that we'll do nothing about it. We let them do it and we stay with them despite it.

So do something about it. Switch. One of the more wonderful EU initiatives was a requirement to provide a simple switching mechanism for all customers. Effectively a "redirect" is set up on your old bank account, so any direct debits or standing orders don't go unpaid and ruin your credit history, instead they get sent to your new bank account.
So all the banks are pretty ****, but the smaller banks are trying to compete and are offering better deals. If everyone starts switching for the better deals, then all of the banks will be forced to innovate, to offer better choices.

Here's a good review of what's available:
http://www.bonkers.ie/blog/the-best-current-accounts-in-ireland---the-bonkers-ie-review/

When AIB & BoI raise their fees again, and they will, remember; If you won't switch, then don't bitch. Whatever reasons they give for the increases are bull. They do it because they can. Because we let them. So it's time to take the power back, force banks to shift from their 1970s mindsets to a 21st century one where companies compete for their customers.