# Opinions on Business Bank A/C's?



## ButtermilkJa (4 Sep 2007)

I'm about to open a bank a/c for my new Ltd. Co. and I've been doing research on business bank a/c's and have narrowed in down to three...

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BoSI claim to "cost less and pay more" than the others, but only on balances over €20k as far as I can see.

Ulster Bank (who I am currently with as sole trader, and personal banking) offer, among others, internet banking free for 3 years, which would be a big plus for me.

BoI seem to have a whole list of offers and vouchers etc that you get (including 50% off Brian O'Kane's book which I've always wanted to read  ).

So, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/experiences they could share about any of the above a/c's?


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## Moggy (4 Sep 2007)

If you're planning on using online banking - BOSI does not work on Vista and they have no plans of upgrading.


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## ButtermilkJa (4 Sep 2007)

Thanks Moggy. I use a Mac instead so Vista compatability is not an issue for me. However, Mac compatability is. I know the UB personal online banking works with Mac but not sure about the business banking as it's different.

Can anyone else update on compatability issues with the above?


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## contemporary (4 Sep 2007)

BOI's banking on line isnt compatible with a mac


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## ButtermilkJa (4 Sep 2007)

Ta!

Looks like I'll have my mind made up for me at this rate


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## JMR (4 Sep 2007)

Sort of related.....
I use AIB Internet Business Banking (IBB) and found out last weekend that the system shuts down from 18:00 to 22:00 every Sunday.
Not too bad you might say?
If a popup message informed the user of this shutdown it wouldn't be too bad but instead if you try to logon during this time you get all sorts of Failure to connect, TCP/IP etc.. messages.
I was left thinking that the problem lay with my PC.
Called tech support the next morning and was told "Ah yeah I think it shuts down every Sunday evening" 
Very frustrating!!


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## ClubMan (4 Sep 2007)

Moggy said:


> If you're planning on using online banking - BOSI does not work on Vista and they have no plans of upgrading.





contemporary said:


> BOI's banking on line isnt compatible with a mac





JMR said:


> I use AIB Internet Business Banking (IBB) and found out last weekend that the system shuts down from 18:00 to 22:00 every Sunday.
> Not too bad you might say?
> If a popup message informed the user of this shutdown it wouldn't be too bad but instead if you try to logon during this time you get all sorts of Failure to connect, TCP/IP etc.. messages.
> I was left thinking that the problem lay with my PC.
> ...


I can't believe what I'm reading here! Seems like poor stuff from some of the banks....


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## ButtermilkJa (4 Sep 2007)

ClubMan said:


> I can't believe what I'm reading here! Seems like poor stuff from some of the banks....


Yes indeed. I always knew us Mac users were doomed to a solitary life in cyberspace but it seems that as technology progresses nothing else does. You'd wonder what these large IT departments are doing in some banks


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## JMR (4 Sep 2007)

ClubMan said:


> I can't believe what I'm reading here! Seems like poor stuff from some of the banks....


 
And I pay €200 p/a for the service!!

Should really move, but the big banks count on the inertia of the likes of me!!


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## ClubMan (4 Sep 2007)

Well PTSB's Open24 site once (early 2005) locked out _Firefox _users until they responded to complaints by fixing the problem. They still have this on the login screen:


> The use of either Internet Explorer (v5 or higher), or Netscape  								Navigator (v6 or higher) is recommended when browsing this site. The use of any  								other browser is not recommended.


Which technically rules out lots of popular browsers that would certainly more secure than _IE5/6 _for example...


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## ButtermilkJa (4 Sep 2007)

It always amazes me when I hear of people still using Internet Explorer, but what amazes me even more is that software developers consider it to be the basis of there development. It's pure laziness to stick with IE. Any IT programmer worth there weight should insist on doing things to standards.

In web development circles we have moved away from IE completely and base all our development on standards compliant browsers and then work backwards to fix bugs in IE.

Anyway, rant over!! Back on topic...


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## amgd28 (4 Sep 2007)

Hi I set up my ltd account with UB last November, as to be honest I have been rather disappointed with the level of service received. 
I decided to join them as I am friendly with one of their commercial lending managers (although my company wouldn't come under his area). I was also impressed with their supposed reputation for support of start-up companies

My issue is that despite signing everything as requested at the time and furnishing all required docs from myself and my business partner, they requested me to repeat the entire exercise "because now they are under RBS, they need different forms". I couldn't believe what I was hearing and I told them so, so they backed down and decided that the original ones supplied would do

However since then, I have requested on a number of occassions for a basic business CC which I was told would not be a problem. But when it came to it they requested reams of further documentation (for a limit of 5k!!) and even after I submitted what they originally asked for they asked for it again because "we lost it"

In addition, I have had no contact from my 'account manager' apart from an account statement (covering November to January) which I received last MAY

Maybe it is the takeover and integration of same, but to be honest, they seem to be a shambles at the moment, so maybe your decision is not as clearcut as you think. I am actively considering switching to AIB or BOI

I am also paying 20 euro a month for their Internet banking!

On the plus side, the internet banking works quite well. I found no issues using IE6, IE7 or Firefox


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## MidlandsBase (4 Sep 2007)

Moggy said:


> If you're planning on using online banking - BOSI does not work on Vista and they have no plans of upgrading.


 
Incorrect. I have Vista Business and Vista Home basic on two desktops and have no issues accessing BOSI on either.


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## ButtermilkJa (5 Sep 2007)

amgd28 said:


> Hi I set up my ltd account with UB last November, as to be honest I have been rather disappointed with the level of service received.
> I decided to join them as I am friendly with one of their commercial lending managers (although my company wouldn't come under his area). I was also impressed with their supposed reputation for support of start-up companies
> 
> My issue is that despite signing everything as requested at the time and furnishing all required docs from myself and my business partner, they requested me to repeat the entire exercise "because now they are under RBS, they need different forms". I couldn't believe what I was hearing and I told them so, so they backed down and decided that the original ones supplied would do
> ...


Wow, that seems to be a pretty damning report on UB. To be honest though, it's just about spot on in terms of what I've heard from other peoples experience also. And I've had one or two run ins with them myself lately also.

In fairness though, would it be any better switching to anyone else? I might be wrong here, but from what I can see, Irish companies don't really care if you're happy or not. They don't make any effort anymore to satisfy their customers. As far as I can see it would be like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.


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## Towger (5 Sep 2007)

With BOI:

They have a historic problem with printing the wrong narrative for Credits (Payments) into accounts. We are on the phone almost every day to our branch to identify who paid us. Why they can't display both is beyond me (and our branch), whatever about saving paper/money on printed statments.

The also resinc the Internet banking database with their main one at 10 or 11 o'clock each night. If you logon while you details are being updated the account will look in a total mess!!!

They also lack features other banks have.

Towger


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## amgd28 (5 Sep 2007)

ButtermilkJa said:


> In fairness though, would it be any better switching to anyone else? I might be wrong here, but from what I can see, Irish companies don't really care if you're happy or not. They don't make any effort anymore to satisfy their customers. As far as I can see it would be like jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire.



Hence the reason for me not switching yet. On the other hand, my business partner is quite a significant client of AIB (between Private banking and his other commercial interests), and is friendly with some of the senior people there, so with him on board, I would expect an improved service......It would also mean I don't need to get him to fill out any more forms, as they already have his details....I'm only sorry I convinced him to go with UB back at the start,a s he wanted AIB
But in general, yeah I think your point is valid, the little guy is squeezed out when it comes to big firms offering even an acceptable level of service


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## Banking2006 (5 Sep 2007)

Similar to a previous poster re. UB- know a friend who set up a new business account at a west Dublin branch and was surprised at the amount of questions re. if she wanted a loan, financing at the initial meeting to open the account. 

Lucky for her she had savings to cover her total set up costs. But the Account Manager at UB was not impressed! The account was only opened for 2 months when my friend decided enough was enough!

She's now happy with BoI- think she got initial free fees etc


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## greentree (5 Sep 2007)

JMR said:


> Sort of related.....
> I use AIB Internet Business Banking (IBB) and found out last weekend that the system shuts down from 18:00 to 22:00 every Sunday.
> Not too bad you might say?
> If a popup message informed the user of this shutdown it wouldn't be too bad but instead if you try to logon during this time you get all sorts of Failure to connect, TCP/IP etc.. messages.
> ...



I have found some very bad customer service in general with online banking.

I have had a number of problems with AIBs internet banking. The responses from customer service (on a number of different issues) have been, in order of humerous:

1) Oh - you cant transfer mony in the evenings (when I do it all the time)

2) Oh, the error you are getting comes from Microsoft

3) You need to shutdown your computer and start again

To be honest, they are all just as bad.

Also - tech support is only open during business hours. I mean - WTF - 24hour online banking??!

One particular gripe I have is this thing where banks think they can dictate to the customer what browser they should use to access their system. I mean, why should I change my browser just to suit their system? I access hundreds of websites per day, imagine they all requested me to have a different web browser! Its very bank centric.

C'mon, Irish banks - cop on!!

Mike


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## JMR (5 Sep 2007)

Another gripe about AIB's IBB system, albeit one that they say will be sorted soon enough.....

To access the system you need a digital certificate sitting on the hard drive of the PC you are currently using.
Presumably this is a security measure but come on, in this day and age......

You cannot access the system from any old PC.
i.e. if, as in my case I am on site with a client I cannot use one of their PC's to access the system


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## ClubMan (5 Sep 2007)

JMR said:


> Another gripe about AIB's IBB system, albeit one that they say will be sorted soon enough.....
> 
> To access the system you need a digital certificate sitting on the hard drive of the PC you are currently using.
> Presumably this is a security measure but come on, in this day and age......
> ...


Wasn't that the case with some bank's (_AIB's_?) personal banking system in the past but they fixed this "node locking" problem since?


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## JMR (5 Sep 2007)

ClubMan said:


> Wasn't that the case with some bank's (_AIB's_?) personal banking system in the past but they fixed this "node locking" problem since?


 
Don't know but I've used their personal internet banking system for a good few years now and have never had this issue.
But...... as far as their personal "24 Hour Internet Banking" service goes, I was told by AIB themselves that they only guarantee to have the system on-line for 20 hours per day!!!

I was working nights a number of years ago and had constant logon issues in the wee small hours.
Upon contacting AIB to complain, that was the explanation I eventually got!!
24-Hour Banking that's only available for 20 hours.......


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## greentree (5 Sep 2007)

JMR said:


> Another gripe about AIB's IBB system, albeit one that they say will be sorted soon enough.....
> 
> To access the system you need a digital certificate sitting on the hard drive of the PC you are currently using.
> Presumably this is a security measure but come on, in this day and age......
> ...



They seem to have two systems, one which uses a cert on your PC and another which uses a digipass (like a calculator). All new customers (me included) use the digipass system - which means I can logon anywhere. I presume they are migrating all cert users to the digipass system?!

As someone mentioned above, their error messages are cryptic. I kept getting one last week - 'Technical Error - please contact support'. Needless to say support didn't have a clue.


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## greentree (5 Sep 2007)

JMR said:


> Don't know but I've used their personal internet banking system for a good few years now and have never had this issue.



Same here, I've never had an issue with it either. Why you can't use this for business banking beats me. Seems perfectly adequate for a small company that doesn't need all the payroll stuff - and its free.


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## Bob the slob (5 Sep 2007)

Prob to squeez more money out of you.


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## esperanza2 (5 Sep 2007)

Bob the slob said:


> Prob to squeez more money out of you.



Exactly. I'm a sole trader and just use a normal student current account for my business. I guess if you're a limited it's a different story.


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## ButtermilkJa (5 Sep 2007)

Well I know that UB recently switched over their Personal Online Banking so you can login from any computer. It's a great system to be honest, always worked well for me from anywhere, and very simple to use.

However, they haven't updated their Business Online system yet and this is what concerns me.


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## Moggy (6 Sep 2007)

MidlandsBase said:


> Incorrect. I have Vista Business and Vista Home basic on two desktops and have no issues accessing BOSI on either.



Really? Using their security CD?  Doesn't work for me.  can't even install it it says straight away "not compatible with this version of windows" (Vista Business). When I rang them about it they contacted the developers who told them it doesn't work on Vista and they have no plans on upgrading.  Maybe they have upgraded, when did you get the CD?


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