nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Avoid Permanent TSB

Andy454

I opened a current account about 3 years ago with Permanent TSB.

I lodged over 2k a month in, but I was given some spiel when I asked for the "transaction free" account that this account was not available at St Stephens Green branch.

Despite their website stating that Quarterly fees are 12 euro if you do not comply with the following requirement:
•No quarterly fees if you lodge €1,500 monthly

I had a direct debit declined in September for the lack of 30 cents in the account (despite my regular weekly wages going in the day after the direct debit!) A failed direct debit charge of over 12 euro was then applied to the account instead.

I decided to close the account and find another bank as this sort of rubbish never happened me before - AIB were smart enough to hold it for a day until the wages went in!

SO the following month during the winding up - there was 20 euro left in the account - which I took out on a Saturday and sent in a letter to close the account, the following Tuesday they charged their fees of 12 euro to the account and charged a "referral fee" of 5 euro for the pleasure of authorising their own fees! - Therefore its obvious that they pick and choose which transactions they will let through and which ones they won't!

When I called customer service they gave another spiel blaming the last ATM withdrawl on the referral charge - however this bank never gave me a cent over the available balance on the card!!

UPC overcharged me by 159 euro during their initial startup (instead of 59 euro) - again I was charged a 10 euro fee for failed direct debit - despite going into the bank and clawing the direct debit back due to it being incorrect - I was never refunded the fee due to the incorrect debit - The Branch manager said "that it was up to UPC to refund the fee - PTSB was entitled to its transaction fee"

I was also told incorrectly on numerous occasions when stopping direct debits that I had to get the debitor to stop the debits and I always had to get the branch manager to cancel / recall debits despite this facility being available at the customer service desks of AIB, BOI etc etc.

During their wage payment Meltdown on 28th of August - I was actually told by Customer Service that my wages could be delayed up until 2nd of September - The manager in PTSB on the Walkinstown roundabout actually told me to "F*CK OFF" out of the bank when I asked him about a facility to tie me over until Tuesday the 2nd of September if the outage was going to take that long!

I also note that their debit cards frequently suffer "outages" so always be prepared to pay cash for items otherwise you may be left stuck - again according to Customer Service this is a feature of their account and they do not guarantee reliability of their debit cards!

What an absolute joke of an Institution - I would avoid if at all possible!

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

vicwatson

On the flip side, I've had nothing but good experiences with them.

[Deleted User]

Never had a problem with them.

This didn't happen I'd say

The manager in PTSB on the Walkinstown roundabout actually told me to "F*CK OFF" out of the bank when I asked him about a facility to tie me over until Tuesday the 2nd of September

Andy454

it actually did - there was about 10 other customers who where just as flabbergasted as me when he came out with it - the bank was full of people demanding their wages at the time.

Andy454

vicwatson wrote: »

On the flip side, I've had nothing but good experiences with them.

Do you work for them?

Andy454

I've nothing to win, loose or gain from this institution - I'm just putting this up as my experiences with them.

The customer care is non-existent and they never responded to the formal complaint I raised over the incident in Walkinstown TSB and I had witnesses to verify what happened.

Slippin Jimmy

Can only say positive things about them. I have been with them a few years and out of all the banks I have dealt with they have been superb. Op if you don't have money in your account of course they will decline the dd, even if it's only short 30c. It's up to you to manage your own finances.

JackieChan

I've AIB and PTSB and never had issues with my PTSB a/c

Im sure it would be no problem to find others thay have had a related experience with every other bank.

As for expecting a bank to 'wait' until you get paid before honouring a DD...that's laughable. Get an overdraft if you find you need it.

Escalate the issue you had in the branch, there is certainly no place for that alleged carry on by staff

Andy454

Duffff-Man wrote: »

Can only say positive things about them. I have been with them a few years and out of all the banks I have dealt with they have been superb. Op if you don't have money in your account of course they will decline the dd, even if it's only short 30c. It's up to you to manage your own finances.

Yes but they decided to charge a referral fee for their own fees when the account is closed and drive the account into arrears with it - IT's not really a bank as banks don't generally carry on in this way - building societies though always did this!

I've never had a direct debit refused before for the lack of 30 cent - If I had of known this at the time do you think I would have let it go and been charged 10 euro for the sake of 30 cent??

Andy454

JackieChan wrote: »

I've AIB and PTSB and never had issues with my PTSB a/c

Im sure it would be no problem to find others thay have had a related experience with every other bank.

As for expecting a bank to 'wait' until you get paid before honouring a DD...that's laughable. Get an overdraft if you find you need it.

Escalate the issue you had in the branch, there is certainly no place for that alleged carry on by staff

It was a matter of hours the dd appeared at 5pm the wages were lodged at midnight - It wasn't as if they had to "wait" days - AIB often gave 2 - 3 days grace on dd's for much larger amounts!

I got rid of overdrafts, loans and credit cards, I wouldn't borrow a penny of any institution now...

I escalated the issue at the time - never heard so much as a peep back - don't really care now - I'm with a proper bank.

Riverireland

Had the same experience with wages as the OP last August so can verify that that did happen. Have become increasingly uneasy with them over the past few years due to an accumation of small stuff. Have been considering leaving for some time now due to customer service issues and their maximum daily withdrawal.

[Deleted User]

You cant complain about having a direct debit refused because there wasn't enough to cover it. That's the responsability of the customer.

Slippin Jimmy

Andy454 wrote: »

I've never had a direct debit refused before for the lack of 30 cent - If I had of known this at the time do you think I would have let it go and been charged 10 euro for the sake of 30 cent??

No any reasonable person wouldn't have let it go through. However any reasonable person would ensure there is enough funds in their account for payment of their dd. And any reasonable person would not hold the bank responsible for their own oversight.

Andy454

rarnes1 & duff-Man - You guys have obviously either work for PTSB or have never had a proper bank account!!
Good luck!

They were able to hold my Wages for a 24 hours - why couldn't they have held on to a direct debit for 7 hours?

Riverisland - yes you get my point - its not just one thing the unpaid direct debit doesn't bother me that much - but it's in a long string of things!

Nervous Wreck

Andy454 wrote: »

rarnes1 & duff-Man - You guys have obviously either work for PTSB or have never had a proper bank account!!
Good luck!

Yeah. Someone in the film forum loved Taken 3, even though I thought it was shît. He obviously works for Liam Neeson or has never seen a proper film.

dobsdave

Andy454 wrote: »

I had a direct debit declined in September for the lack of 30 cents in the account (despite my regular weekly wages going in the day after the direct debit!) A failed direct debit charge of over 12 euro was then applied to the account instead.

An unauthorised O/D means you aren't eligible for the no fee deal

Andy454 wrote: »

I decided to close the account and find another bank as this sort of rubbish never happened me before - AIB were smart enough to hold it for a day until the wages went in!

SO the following month during the winding up - there was 20 euro left in the account - which I took out on a Saturday and sent in a letter to close the account, the following Tuesday they charged their fees of 12 euro to the account and charged a "referral fee" of 5 euro for the pleasure of authorising their own fees! - Therefore its obvious that they pick and choose which transactions they will let through and which ones they won't!

When I called customer service they gave another spiel blaming the last ATM withdrawl on the referral charge - however this bank never gave me a cent over the available balance on the card!!

So your fees were due and you had 0 balance to meet them

Andy454 wrote: »

UPC overcharged me ........

I think UPC was the issue here actually

Andy454 wrote: »

I also note that their debit cards frequently suffer "outages" so always be prepared to pay cash for items otherwise you may be left stuck - again according to Customer Service this is a feature of their account and they do not guarantee reliability of their debit cards!

What an absolute joke of an Institution - I would avoid if at all possible!

Frequently? really?

endacl

I had a bad experience with them too. Closed the account. Moved on.

That's all really. Now do all my banky things with another bank.

Osborne

Never had an issue with them. I suppose i must work for them too.

Then again, I have an AIB account too which has never caused me bother.

In fairness, many of the issues you listed were not the banks fault.

Saipanne

Ptsb are awesome.

Andy454

dobsdave wrote: »

An unauthorised O/D means you aren't eligible for the no fee deal

There was no unauthorised O/D in the previous 3 years - this only came up when I closed the account and they wanted their "final fees"!

I think UPC was the issue here actually

Frequently? really?

UPC direct debit was clawed back -However it took 40 minutes to convince the "branch manager" that I was entitled to claw back any direct debit that was incorrect from my bank!!

IPSO.IE website extract:
-If it is established that an unauthorised direct debit was charged to your account, you are guaranteed an immediate refund by your bank of the amount so charged where you notify your bank without undue delay on becoming aware of the unauthorised direct debit, and in any event no later than 13 months after the date of debiting of such direct debit to your account

-You are entitled to request a refund of any variable direct debit which exceeded the amount which you could reasonably have expected, subject to you so requesting your bank within a period of 8 weeks from the date of debiting such direct debit to your account; your bank is entitled to ask you to provide factual elements relating to your request for a refund.

I was actually entitled to a refund of the 10 euro charged due to the direct debit being in excess of the account balance - but PTSB refused to return it stating that I should ask UPC for a credit! Which is ridiculous!

Its funny that after 40 minutes a standard direct debit return form was produced and the funds where back in the account that evening - My Aunt (also PTSB) had the same issues with Permanent TSB refusing to refund incorrect direct debit amounts - In every instance the staff where stand-offish and took a very condescending attitude!

They are very friendly when your lodging thousands of euro - but if you have even the slightest mediocre issue there's an awful attitude - "That's part of our terms and conditions" seems to be the hymn sheet!

Each time it was down I actually kept a record in my gmail - in some instances I got a acknowledgement from the CustomerRelationsDepartment@permanenttsb.ie> but no more:

The following are instances where funds where available in account but the card would not work and also instances where wages were delayed until near midday

11/4/2012 9am - 12pm - customer service number also unavailable - paid cash
11/7/2012 16:50 - 17:30 Service unavailable on PTSB card - customer service also unreachable (used credit card ok)
15/12/2012 12am - 1.30am - Service unavailable message on handheld (hand held machine)
12/5/2013 6pm - Superquinn - Service unavailable message on handheld unit

9/10/2013 4pm - Esso garage - Service unavailable message on handheld unit

4/4/2014 3am - Service unavailable message at ATM

14/8/2014 - Wages not in account until 11am
28/8/2014 No Wages in account all day - Card service unavailable

It is interesting that it seems to occur mid-month! -

It was also a pain that every time a cheque was lodged it took a full 5 days to clear into the account - I've often lodged cheques to other banks and been able to draw on the balance immediately.

Take what you want from it - I'm just publishing my experiences with them!

hoodwinked

i have had both AIB and PTSB accounts, i left AIB for PTSB, after AIB started charging ridiculous charges for using my visa debit..etc, out of the two, i would say PTSB were the best to deal with, and more courteous (my local branch is in Cork though)

i have had free banking since i joined them other than a €5 fee for my debit card (which used to be €10 with AIB they said they charged €5 for the card and €5 for using chip and pin services)

Slippin Jimmy

Andy454 wrote: »

rarnes1 & duff-Man - You guys have obviously either work for PTSB or have never had a proper bank account!!
Good luck!

You got me. I do indeed work for them. I am part of the secret service here on boards, I try to convince people to stay with them.

I do have a proper bank account, a Ptsb current account. I just manage it will and take ownership of my finances.

Andy454

Duffff-Man wrote: »

You got me. I do indeed work for them. I am part of the secret service here on boards, I try to convince people to stay with them.

I do have a proper bank account, a Ptsb current account. I just manage it will and take ownership of my finances.

Yea you sound like the customer service rep I was talking to this afternoon!

While my finances are well in charge - they were extremely difficult to manage with this institution - take a look at the rest of my post - its not just a failed direct debit!

Slippin Jimmy

Andy454 wrote: »

Yea you sound like the customer service rep I was talking to this afternoon!

While my finances are well in charge - they were extremely difficult to manage with this institution - take a look at the rest of my post - its not just a failed direct debit!

Do you still have an account open with them?

ted1

+1 for PTSB was paying about 40 euro a quarter with AIB and the same with BOI. Free banking rocks

HeidiHeidi

I've had an account with pTSB for donkeys years and have had very few problems.

Biggest is with the lodgement machines that they practically force you to use in the branch - I'd say I've experienced an 80% failure rate when trying to lodge cheques. Sends me into orbit.

However their online banking is a dream, and I have never once been subjected to fees - I always ensure that there's a cushion in the account, even though I had an authorised overdraft for years (can't even remember how or why it was set up).

I too fell foul of that wages debacle last year - but if I'm thinking of the same incident, wasn't it something to do with another bank which was used by the wage-payers? Can't remember the exact details, but I'm fairly sure it wasn't pTSB's fault.

Far be it from me to defend a bank - and I can't quite believe I'm doing it, I hate the feckers - but it'd be a +1 from me for pTSB.

(and before you ask - no, I don't work for them!)

punisher5112

Had huge fees with AIB and when looked for a credit card with €5000 lodged and wages going in they declined.

Got a credit card with mbna no problem and surprise surprise AIB wouldn't leave me alone after I got it.

Closed my account and moved to permanent tsb and have always had great dealings with them and no fees so very happy with them.

Seems a very very strange situation op.

To Elland Back

Andy454 wrote: »

- the bank was full of people demanding their wages at the time.

Are you saying the bank was refusing to let customers withdraw their money on request?

I've been with TSB/PTSB for over 20 years and delighted with the service. I'll ask the wife when she gets home if I work for them and get back to you

Gillo

I've been with PTSB for eighteen years and never had a problem, I've been charged a few times for a missed DD, entirely my fault for not making sure I had money there.
The customer service in both the branch and on the phone was always great.

As one of the other posters pointed out, I'm pretty sure the wages issue was caused by a different bank. And in fairness to the manager, they can't just hand you out extra cash with approving an over draft through the normal channels and I've no idea what those channels and procedures are. (Unless the previous posters I don't work for them).

Toots

Andy454 wrote: »

I had a direct debit declined in September for the lack of 30 cents in the account (despite my regular weekly wages going in the day after the direct debit!) A failed direct debit charge of over 12 euro was then applied to the account instead.

This is automated, the vast majority of the time the DD will be bounced automatically, without a member of staff checking over it. The rare exception to this would be if an account was blocked for some reason (person was deceased, order of discovery, attachment order, etc) or if it was an absolutely enormous DD (revenue or the like), then it would flag. Small bills and the like don't get decided on one-by-one anymore because the man hours it took was unreal.

I decided to close the account and find another bank as this sort of rubbish never happened me before - AIB were smart enough to hold it for a day until the wages went in!

I'd be willing to bet that AIB didn't "hold" the DD, more likely the DD automatically re-presented on their system in 24 hours. Or, depending on where the DD originator holds their accounts, it can take longer for the DD to present to other banks.

SO the following month during the winding up - there was 20 euro left in the account - which I took out on a Saturday and sent in a letter to close the account, the following Tuesday they charged their fees of 12 euro to the account and charged a "referral fee" of 5 euro for the pleasure of authorising their own fees! - Therefore its obvious that they pick and choose which transactions they will let through and which ones they won't!

There are always fees due when you close an account. If you withdrew the last 20 out of the account, leaving a zero balance then obviously there would be nothing left to cover the fees with. Once they hit the 'close' button on an account, fees will automatically be charged. Again, there is no 'review' process for fee transactions, and they will go through regardless of whether or not there's money in the account - this is the case with all the banks, it's not something that's exclusive to TSB.

When I called customer service they gave another spiel blaming the last ATM withdrawl on the referral charge - however this bank never gave me a cent over the available balance on the card!!

What they told you is correct. On the saturday when you withdrew the money, there was 20 available in your account. You then posted the letter, which they probably received on a Tuesday, and when they actioned it the fees were automatically charged to the account.

UPC overcharged me by 159 euro during their initial startup (instead of 59 euro) - again I was charged a 10 euro fee for failed direct debit - despite going into the bank and clawing the direct debit back due to it being incorrect - I was never refunded the fee due to the incorrect debit - The Branch manager said "that it was up to UPC to refund the fee - PTSB was entitled to its transaction fee"

Again, this is correct. They are entitled to charge you that fee, and you consented to the terms and conditions when you opened the account. It's not their problem that UPC put the DD through for the wrong amount. If it was a case that they paid out a DD that you never signed up for, then that would be different, and I'd be expecting a refund of the amount and the fees, however in this instance the fault was with UPC, and it should be them who refund the fee. TSB did their bit by recalling the DD, they're not obliged to do any more.

I was also told incorrectly on numerous occasions when stopping direct debits that I had to get the debitor to stop the debits and I always had to get the branch manager to cancel / recall debits despite this facility being available at the customer service desks of AIB, BOI etc etc.

The 'best practice' for cancelling DDs is to inform the originator (UPC, ESB, etc) that you are cancelling the DD to ensure that they no longer attempt to present for it, and then cancel the DD with your bank also, just to cross the Ts so to speak - originators are often a bit 'slow' to cancel direct debits. They got the first bit correct, however the branch should have cancelled the direct debit when you asked. I'm not sure why they wouldn't do it, could have been poor staff training, or some lazy staff members. Regardless, you can do it with online banking.

As regards re-calling the direct debit, my guess is that the branch manager probably wasn't bothered (or possibly wasn't completely sure of the procedure) and that's why they were so slow to do it. Again, I'd say poor staff training played a part in this, because they should have known that they were obliged to do it.

The manager in PTSB on the Walkinstown roundabout actually told me to "F*CK OFF" out of the bank when I asked him about a facility to tie me over until Tuesday the 2nd of September if the outage was going to take that long!

That's disgraceful, no excuse for that from a branch manager. A front line staff member I worked with had a similar outburst with a customer. This guy was still on his 6 month probationary period, and was fired on the spot. How long ago did you lodge the complaint? If were me, I'd send a registered letter to their customer care section, outlining what happened, and also that the original complaint hasn't been acknowledged in any way. You might get nowhere, but if that had happened to me I wouldn't let it go.

I also note that their debit cards frequently suffer "outages" so always be prepared to pay cash for items otherwise you may be left stuck - again according to Customer Service this is a feature of their account and they do not guarantee reliability of their debit cards!

Personally I've never had any trouble with my PTSB debit card, it's always worked perfectly.

Look referral/unpaid fees are a pain in the hole, I get that. I've incurred a couple of them myself over the years and it's hard not to see red when one pops up on my account, but the thing is they ARE perfectly entitled to charge them. By opening an account, you're agreeing to their terms and conditions, which clearly state that you will incur charges if your account is not sufficiently funded. The onus is on the customer to always ensure that there are sufficient funds in the account to meet payments going out.

If it regularly happens that a DD is presenting the day before you're paid, then you need to contact the originator and change the date the DD goes through. I've had to do this with a number of my bills because they were coming out 4 days before I got paid, which left me absolutely skint and barely able to get my groceries for the couple of days.

Regarding the 5 day cheque clearing, that again is the same across all the banks. You may have been allowed to draw on the cheques straight away in your previous bank because your account was with them a long time, or it operated well. When a customer opens a new account, it's standard procedure not to let them draw on cheques until they are fully cleared. Cheques drawn on the same bank take 3 working days to clear, domestic cheques drawn on other banks take 5 working days, and foreign cheques can take up to 30 working days. That's just the way the clearing cycle works.

Once an account is open over 12 months and has operated well (no unpaids) then they remove what's called the 'cleared for funds indicator' and you can draw on cheques as soon as they are lodged. You will incur a small interest charge (usually a few cent, unless it's a particularly large cheque) for doing so, and this will be reflected in your quarterly fees.

Now before you go accusing me of working for PTSB, I can assure you I don't. In fact, for the last decade, I've worked for one of their competitors, so I have no allegiance to them, and absolutely nothing to gain from posting this. My only tie to TSB is that I have a current account and a savings account with them, and since I've opened them, I've been very happy with their customer service.

In fairness, several of your experiences with their customer services have been very poor. However the issues around unpaid fees and returned direct debits would be the same in pretty much any other bank.

Dia1988

Has anyone ever gone into the Permanent TSB in Drumcondra, the staff in there are really depressing and always in a bad mood and you have to queue for about 30 minutes if you need anything at the desk despite loads of back of the office staff clearly twiddling their thumbs. Plus the withdrawl/lodgement machine is too often out of action.