Maturation of Fixed Term Deposit Accounts

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kdoc

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Does anyone else feel that the financial institutions make you go through hoops in order to get your own money back when fixed term deposits reach their maturation date? Should it not be the case that when you sign up for a fixed term the funds are automatically sent to the depositor (unless the financial institution is instructed otherwise) when the term matures; isn't that the agreement? Some of them seem to want to drag you in to the office, supposedly to sign for closure of the account, but to me it seems that they want to push other products at you.
 
I agree that there should be a code of bank conduct in these cases and that some banks are slimy with what they do with the cash on maturity date.

Some banks transfer the money into a notice account by default, some transfer the cash into "special" low interest accounts, some roll the deposit into a new term deposit!!

What should happen is when the customer opens their TD, they selects from a list of options when they open the account, as to what should happen on maturity. By default the money should be wired to an instant access account.

Another area where there is a need for more bank regulation.
 
kdoc said:
Does anyone else feel that the financial institutions make you go through hoops in order to get your own money back when fixed term deposits reach their maturation date?
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Absolutely. I had a very bad experience with AIB on this recently.

My two year fixed term matured and I went into the branch to have the money transfered to my new savings account at another bank. They told me Id have to pay a €63 early withdrawal fee as they had rolled it into a 1 month fixed term account. I was absolutely disgusted at this brazen fraud attempt as the Terms & Conditions clearly stated the funds would be rolled into an overnight deposit account on maturity.

I pulled out my printout of the T&Cs to prove this, but then the AIB staff member suggested to me that I never even had a two year fixed term account. I insisted I did.

They continued to insist the fee would be applied unless a manager cancelled it and he was currently at lunch. I said Id be back. I came back 45 mins later and they processed my transfer. They obviously knew I wasnt backing down.

Beware AIB banksters. They are extremely tenacious and dont take no for an answer. One of these days Im going to start shouting at them and causing a disturbance, if they try any more of this crap on me.
 
Mercantilist, that's an appalling way to be treated, particularly when it's your own money. I had 20 grand in a term account with Irish Nationwide and I received a letter advising me that the account was due to mature. The letter suggested I contact their treasury department. I did and I told them that I wanted to withdraw the funds and close the account. I was told that I would have to put my request in writing. I did. As the maturation date was nearing and I heard nothing back I rang them again. This time I was told that I would have to furnish the book (even though there was only one entry in the book) with the letter. So I wrote another letter stating my wishes and I enclosed the book. I finally got my money.
Other institutions have different methods of putting you through the hoops when it comes to withdrawing funds.
My argument is that a cheque for the amount due should be posted to you after close of business on the date the account matures. There clearly is a a need for regulation here because I can understand how some people would be intimidated by smooth talking salesmen in the financial institutions.
 
Mercantilst, 63 euro seems a very high breakage for a 1 month breakage for being in a one month fixed account when 1 month interest rates are falling by the day. You should write to AIB and make your compliant with reference to the Consumer Protection code (hand it onto a branch and ask for the name of the official or send it by email) and if you don't get satisfaction ( or a reply) go to Finanical ombudsman and fill out some forms by hand and get your money back and 2 tickets for the All-Ireland to keep quiet and not ring Joe Duffy !!!
 
I had an account with First Active with the withdrawl instructions "repayable to either". When I called to the branch I was told that I needed two signatures to close the account, despite me asking for the cheque to be made payable to both account holders. I made a complaint and received a letter from the branch manager saying that their audit department were looking in to it and would get back to me to clarify the situation. One year later and nobody has bothered to contact me.
 
OPTIMUM said:
Mercantilst, 63 euro seems a very high breakage for a 1 month breakage for being in a one month fixed account when 1 month interest rates are falling by the day. You should write to AIB and make your compliant with reference to the Consumer Protection code (hand it onto a branch and ask for the name of the official or send it by email) and if you don't get satisfaction ( or a reply) go to Finanical ombudsman and fill out some forms by hand and get your money back and 2 tickets for the All-Ireland to keep quiet and not ring Joe Duffy !!!
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Writing letters of complaint is a waste of time. The only way to win against these guys is to have some leverage over them or to start an action at the small claims court.

The leverage I had was a printout of the account T&Cs showing that no fee was due. I brought along the printout with me as backup, because I know how AIB staff deal with withdrawals. Their policy is to either stop the withdrawal or extract a fee.
 
Well I can tell you that FA have a policy of rolling on the account to a 3 month fixed term. Last year my 80+ year old mother had problems getting the account closed for which I had to send several letters to get sorted. They would have been well aware that she could not just 'drop in'. Needless to say the story ended with the ombudsman as some other issues were not resolved either. Only advice I would give is to hold the acceptance letter when opening as this usually states what will happen on maturity. Then on maturity hand deliver the letter and insist on getting someone to sign for acceptance of same letter. Seems even the old snail mail doesn't force banks to act these days and while I accept that some letters can go missing in the process I would say that some banks are bordering on the sharp practice of ignoring written correspondence.
 
I have had to make sure when closing accounts in both the First Active and NIB that the person I am talking to understands the word "closing". I have, in both institutions been given the balance in the account but not the accrued interest. I have had to ask for the accrued interest to be added to the balance and been met with the blank stare and "Oh! you want to close the account fully". No wonder there are huge amounts of dormant accounts made up of unpaid interest sitting in the books of the banks.
 
I had this experience with BOI (ACC?). I had bought a 3 month bond. They automatically rolled it over for another 3 months on Maturity. At this point I redrew it and they tried to charge me 10 euro fee for closing it prematurely as they had rolled it over again for another 3 months even though I never asked them. I had to give written authorisation to cancel it which they dragged their heels with. I bought a 3 month bond it should just return to my account after 3 months not all that nonense
 
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