BoI Change Free Banking Conditions Again (November 2012)

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BoI are changing the conditions for getting free banking.

In a nutshell, you now need to keep at least 3,000.00 EUR in your bank account each and every day to have zero fees.

You lose significant forgone interest by keeping 3,000.00+ EUR in your account at zero interest.

Ulster Bank give free banking until at least July 2013. EBS and PTSB have easier to comply with T&C's. Switch.

Current Conditions

[broken link removed]
  • Day-to-day banking:
    €11.90 per quarter for the first 90 transactions and then €0.28 per transaction thereafter
    OR
    Free if you comply with the below conditions:
    (1) Maintain a balance of at least €3,000 every and every day during the 'BoI billing quarter'.
    The 'BoI quarter' is defined by BoI as a 'billing quarter' and does not correspond to a calendar quarter and does not start at the start of any particular month. The 'billing quarter' periods vary from year to year. The 2012 billing quarter dates are here.
    OR
    Free if you comply with the below conditions:
    (1) Make at last 9 debits online/via telephone banking each 'BoI billing quarter'. 9 transactions does not include standing orders and direct debits when calculating a number of transactions.
    AND
    (2) Lodge at least €3,000 to the account during the 'BoI billing quarter'. The 2012 billing quarter dates are here..
  • Credit interest rate: Zero.
  • Non-euro cash withdrawals: 3.5% (min €3.17, max €11.43).
  • Debit Card Type: Visa Debit (with all new cards issued).
Click to expand...
New Conditions

[broken link removed]
  • Day-to-day banking:
    €11.90 per quarter for the first 90 transactions and then €0.28 per transaction thereafter
    OR
    Free if you comply with the below conditions:
    (1) Maintain a balance of at least €3,000 every and every day during the 'BoI billing quarter'.
    The 'BoI quarter' is defined by BoI as a 'billing quarter' and does not correspond to a calendar quarter and does not start at the start of any particular month. The 'billing quarter' periods vary from year to year. The 2012 billing quarter dates are here.
  • Credit interest rate: Zero.
  • Non-euro cash withdrawals: 3.5% (min €3.17, max €11.43).
  • Debit Card Type: Visa Debit (with all new cards issued).
Click to expand...
More here:

[broken link removed]

Best Buy current account list.
 
How can I reduce my fees and charge?

With a standard current account there are two fee options:
  • Option 1 - Pay as You Go
Pay 28c for every transaction into or out of your account (charged quarterly).
  • Option 2 - Flat Fee
11.40 per quarter, for up to 90 transactions into and out of your account. Over 90 transactions would costs 28c each. If you have more than 40 transactions per quarter, Flat Fee becomes the better option for you. You can, however, switch between the two options at any stage by contacting your branch. The change will take effect at the beginning of the next fee-charging quarter

Will they still have the pay as you go option from November 2012?
 
I suppose it was only a matter of time.

It's crazy the way they charge you fees for using online banking. I always pay off my credit card online as well as doing many other online transactions. I'm not using their branch facilities, yet I still have to pay fees?!
 
Because usually the reason people are encouraged to use online facilities is for the bank to save money on having people carry out the same tasks? If I'm saving the bank money by doing the work myself (and yes, I know someone has to be in the background keeping the systems going) then I am far more likely to resent having to pay for it.
 
Janet said:
Because usually the reason people are encouraged to use online facilities is for the bank to save money on having people carry out the same tasks? If I'm saving the bank money by doing the work myself (and yes, I know someone has to be in the background keeping the systems going) then I am far more likely to resent having to pay for it.
Click to expand...

Exactly
 
Janet said:
Because usually the reason people are encouraged to use online facilities is for the bank to save money on having people carry out the same tasks? If I'm saving the bank money by doing the work myself (and yes, I know someone has to be in the background keeping the systems going) then I am far more likely to resent having to pay for it.
Click to expand...

That is history, in the old days switching to servicing a customer online did reduce the banks costs, but here is the thing there is no longer some thing switch from, so adding more online customers increases costs.

The last figures I saw for mainland Europe was that 4 out of 6 bank employees were IT professionals! I don't know if these figures hold for Ireland, but I expect so.
 
CiaranT said:
BoI are changing the conditions for getting free banking.

In a nutshell, you now need to keep at least 3,000.00 EUR in your bank account each and every day to have zero fees.

You lose significant forgone interest by keeping 3,000.00+ EUR in your account at zero interest.

Ulster Bank give free banking until at least July 2013. EBS and PTSB have easier to comply with T&C's. Switch.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much Ciaran,

I hadn't seen the ads - another great heads up from CiaranT and askaboutmoney.

I was doing the €1 transfers to bring it up to 9 transactions with bank of ireland

Ulster Bank here I come .

(might help others --> I was thinking "sure I dont do many transactions, then went looking at last years statements .......... there was a lot!!)

EDIT
Ciaran, you have been spot on over the years with all this, I know the whole world can predict but how do you think charges will go with Ulster Bank after July 2013?
 
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theresa1 said:
How can I reduce my fees and charge?

With a standard current account there are two fee options:
  • Option 1 - Pay as You Go
Pay 28c for every transaction into or out of your account (charged quarterly).
  • Option 2 - Flat Fee
11.40 per quarter, for up to 90 transactions into and out of your account. Over 90 transactions would costs 28c each. If you have more than 40 transactions per quarter, Flat Fee becomes the better option for you. You can, however, switch between the two options at any stage by contacting your branch. The change will take effect at the beginning of the next fee-charging quarter
Click to expand...

Over €130 a year for a current account.

My god. Surely there is some way to get a useful account that wont cost you transaction fees.
 
pator said:
Thanks very much Ciaran,

I hadn't seen the ads - another great heads up from CiaranT and askaboutmoney.

I was doing the €1 transfers to bring it up to 9 transactions with bank of ireland

Ulster Bank here I come .

(might help others --> I was thinking "sure I dont do many transactions, then went looking at last years statements .......... there was a lot!!)

EDIT
Ciaran, you have been spot on over the years with all this, I know the whole world can predict but how do you think charges will go with Ulster Bank after July 2013?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the kind words.

Ulster Bank will, no doubt, determine their current account fees closer to July 2013. Ulster Bank, will want to be competitive versus AIB and BoI as Ulster Bank don't have dominant market status. This means offering slightly better T&C's that AIB and BoI. Hence, I would guess that they will give free banking if you keep at least 1,500 EUR or perhaps 2,000 EUR in your account. Just a guess.
 
cashier said:
Well done on keeping us up to date with all this Ciaran, you are an ace with your information, I reckon you should be nominated AAM poster of the year :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Cashier.

BOI want theri customers to keep €3000 euro each and every day in their current account. What is this worth a year if one gets 3% interest rate in a savings account maybe 60 euro after DIRT. So maybe it might be worth it if people kept the 3000 in their current accounts because the average fees as far as I can make out is 40 or 50 euro a quarter.

Then again not many have €3000 to spare these days so for most people it is not an option.
Click to expand...

Using the EBS regular saver rate:

3,000 EUR * 0.041% * 0.7 = 86.10 EUR.

But the above calculation is not correct as you need to factor in a buffer above 3,000 EUR to be sure you never ever drop below. 400 EUR might be ones buffer figure. Hence ...

3,400 EUR * 0.041% * 0.7 = 97.58 EUR.

Hence, the opportunity cost is around 97.58 EUR.

The opportunity cost is not 97.58 EUR minus BoI fees because Ulster Bank have zero fees and people can switch.

Hence, one is unnecessarily paying at least 97.58 EUR per year to BoI in opportunity cost if they do not switch.
 
fees will be €11.90 per quarter or €45.60 per year for 90 transactions per quarter, I can't see many customers exceeding that.
 
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:confused: €11.90 x 4 = €47.60 (unless I'm missing something?)

Yes, still, more reasonable than AIB (and certainly better than NIB, whom I left over their unilateral removal of the Freebank account they insisted I was required to now pay fees for, or lose my tracker mortgage).

In all of this discussion about what's reasonable for banks to charge, let's not forget the billions of taxpayers' money ploughed into shoring them up over the past 5 or 10 years and paying for their gross mismanagement for the next twenty-odd.

I just don't have the damn energy to go through another switch to UB. :(
 
I have some savings with rabo and was considering transferring 3K in to my current account to avoid the fees but looking at it, even taking into consideration paying DIRT on the interest on 3K with rabo, the banking fees will still work out cheaper if I stay within the transactions including in the €11.90 fee.

Still more money out of our pockets though.
 
Actually, doing my sums again, it seems like it might be actually slightly cheaper to lodge 3k in the current account. Theres only a few cents in it.

*Edit* Actually, while 90 transactions per quarter sounds quite a lot, I ve just checked my last 6 months statements and have over 30 every month so additional fees would apply at that rate.

This is going to make my Visa debit card more or less defunct. I`m going to use my credit card for any transactions I can and then pay it off when its due.
 
There's also the security aspect to condider (of having over 3K in your current account)

I think im going to change to PTSB (still wary of UB and its IT systems)
 
DrMoriarty said:
:confused: €11.90 x 4 = €47.60 (unless I'm missing something?)

Yes, still, more reasonable than AIB (and certainly better than NIB, whom I left over their unilateral removal of the Freebank account they insisted I was required to now pay fees for, or lose my tracker mortgage).

In all of this discussion about what's reasonable for banks to charge, let's not forget the billions of taxpayers' money ploughed into shoring them up over the past 5 or 10 years and paying for their gross mismanagement for the next twenty-odd.

I just don't have the damn energy to go through another switch to UB. :(
Click to expand...
Yes, I put the wrong figures in:eek::eek:
It was also discussed on 5-7 live and the recommendation was to move transactions over to your credit card provided that you pay 100% of your liability each month.
Presumably we will now have to pay a fee every time we use a debit card, get paid, pay a standing order or direct debit and withdraw money, it will take the benefit out of availing of the contactless technology that is being rolled out
 
I will be using my Visa Debit card as little as possible from November. Credit card will now be used for everything I can.
 
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