AIB unilaterally set €100 limit for non-EU ATM withdrawals - no reduction in charges.

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Sue Ellen

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Not often I bother letting off steam but I think AIB are way out of order here.

From this article in Indo on Saturday they restricted withdrawals to €100 per transaction to prevent skimming. They didn't bother to notify customers other than to [broken link removed]. There's no mention of reducing their steep fees to correspond with the reduction.


  • ATM withdrawal cash transactions in any currency other than euro attract a currency conversion fee of up to 3% (depending on the currency) and also attract a commission charge of 1% (minimum EUR1.27, maximum EUR6.35).
 
I am FURIOUS about this and am contemplating switching to another bank having been with AIB since I was 12!

As a frequent traveller I never take much cash with me, I don't like travelling with large amounts of cash, and I don't like paying the ridiculous commission fees and lousy exchange rates offered in Irish banks. I would normally head to the ATM in the airport on arrival and withdraw money in local currency there. In the US I would normally take out $200 at a time, and withdraw as I need it. €100 is around $130 which would mean more frequent ATM trips and commission costs.

This story was published by Newstalk on Friday, I saw it on Twitter and there were stories from Irish people who had been badly caught out by this in the past fortnight.
 
At this stage it would be better for AIB just to close up.

We desperately need new banks.
 
€100 would hardly cover one'e overnight accommodation. It's another way for the banks to cream money off the long suffering joe public. This ludicrous idea has got to be reverted or people will find themselves in very difficult positions if they cannot access their cash when they are abroad.
 
Instead of taking the easy option of punishing customers because of the skimming scourge there is a much better option which would eliminate it altogether.

A skimmed card is only worthwhile to a skimmer if they have your 4 digit pin number. Instead banks could issue a 6 digit pin number and when you put your card in to the ATM it could ask you for 3 or 4 random digits from the card.

This would be a simple solution for the bank but of course it is much easier to punish the customer for the security shortcomings of the bank.
 
Problem is that the AIB actually have the lowest currency conversion fee between the AIB and BOI

And PTSB and UB cards are notorious for not working in various banks when abroad... So every way the bank customer loses
 
The 6 digit code with 4 digits would need a change to software in ATMS worldwide to accommodate it.

The way the ATM's work is that they gather all the info, Card No, Pin No, Amount Required, account Type and send this to the bank for validation. They get back a response either to pay the money out or not. The ATM then confirms to the bank that the transaction has been executed without error and the account is debited.
 
This will probably become a trend. Two months ago most Belgian banks blocked all accounts from working at non-EU ATMs, as a way to mitigate skimming. But card holders can proactively request to have the block lifted for a short period, on a per request basis.

Banks need to give card holders online controls. Block all foreign countries, and let the card holder schedule openings online prior to travel. Card holders should be able to set the countries, limits, and timeframe that their card will work.
 
umop3p!sdn said:
We desperately need new banks.
Click to expand...

Be careful what you wish for, here is a sample of what my bank charges:

- Monthly maintenance fee €7
- Debit/Credit advice notes €1 per note
- Calculation of interest due, if you have overdraft facilities €15 per quarter
- ePayments: Swiss €0.30 each, rest of world €5
- One time payments €20 - €25 each
- ATM card €40 pa
- ATM withdrawals: free in Switzerland, otherwise ~3% of amount withdrawn
- ATM withdrawals out side EU is restricted to €100 per day

Consumer programs here suggest that people pay about €250 - €400 in bank fees each year.

Free banking is available if you have no loans with the bank and maintain a positive balance on your account at all times of €10,000

I think that Irish banks have been giving away too much in the past, when compared to other EU banks, and now they are coming back in to line with everyone else....

Jim.
 
This is strange because I have an AIB card, which was skimmed last week. Over the period 1-3 March there were a series of withdrawls in the US, two of which were for $1000 each so the €100 limit clearly didn't apply there.

tvman
 
DingDing said:
The 6 digit code with 4 digits would need a change to software in ATMS worldwide to accommodate it.
Click to expand...
Its only a software change , could be done over a given weekend or bank holiday , and certainly should have been introduced with chip & PIN. If card issuers were serious about security/customer protection it would have been done long ago. I pointed out the 6 digit PIN and its benefits two years ago and we are no further advanced on it yet.
 
There are two questions that spring to mind about this new introduction:

The article says that the bank say this is a temporary measure and still they reduced the figure to €250 in February, 2010 so definitely not temporary.

According to this post AIB Internet Banking say that the government made them introduce it. So why have the government not made the other banks do the same?
 
timbilky said:
This will probably become a trend. Two months ago most Belgian banks blocked all accounts from working at non-EU ATMs, as a way to mitigate skimming. But card holders can proactively request to have the block lifted for a short period, on a per request basis.

Banks need to give card holders online controls. Block all foreign countries, and let the card holder schedule openings online prior to travel. Card holders should be able to set the countries, limits, and timeframe that their card will work.
Click to expand...

Some very sensible suggestions there Tim! Thanks
 
Sue Ellen said:
There are two questions that spring to mind about this new introduction:

The article says that the bank say this is a temporary measure and still they reduced the figure to €250 in February, 2010 so definitely not temporary.

According to this post AIB Internet Banking say that the government made them introduce it. So why have the government not made the other banks do the same?
Click to expand...

Hi Sue,

Interesting comment that the government made them do it.

Why not other banks? Well out of the other 4 banks that offer current accounts, 2 are in foreign ownership (NIB & Ulster), PTSB are not government controlled and BoI are not yet under majority state ownership.

The DoF/PWC/NTMA are directing all decisions in AIB at the moment. This is not happening in any of the other 4 yet.
 
I didn't have any issues taking more than $100 out when in the US in May.

I did have an issue in India in March but I put that down to a particular ATM as I'm fairly sure that I got more than that from other ATMs.
 
Is this for both debit and credit cards?

Just seen this now and am doing a RTW trip from next week, its going to be a major inconvience and cost me a lot of money. Crap.
 
EBS Debit Card charge 1% of the amount withdrawn at ATM for non-euro withdrawals- min is €1.91 and max is €6.00 per withdrawal. They do have other charges attached to the account, but for frequent users of ATM's in non Euro currency countries it could be handy to have this ac to facilate transactions

[broken link removed]
 
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