PostBank - a useless non-Bank?

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mathepac

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've been on the phone for a lot of yesterday having had my ear burned off me by a friend.

On my recommendation (based on limited use of their online facilities, credit and debit cards) he opened a PostBank EveryDay account a few weeks ago.

He had a series of setup problems which delayed him using the account for close to three weeks (no PIN received, no Account details received, no electronic gizmo received, then three of them delivered on successive days all with an accompanying form letter with the same date) but eventually he seemed good to go. He used his Maestro card as instructed "in an ATM which must be physically attached to or in a bank" to activate it. This instruction struck him as so strange in its specificity that he made a note of it.

He set up a few "Beneficiaries" in his account using the bank-sort code and account number details supplied by his utility providers (gas, electricity, mobile-phone, broadband, landline, etc) and fired off a couple of payments to them. The following day his account history showed the transactions credited back to his account with the message "POSTBANK IRELAND REDIRECTED" appended to them.

He contacted the PostBank helpline and after investigation their backoffice personnel provided the information via the helpline staff that the sort-code details for the Beneficiaries in question were incorrect therefore the transactions were rejected and credited back against the originating account.

He deleted the Beneficiaries, re-checked the bank-sort code and account number details with his utility providers (they were identical) and set up the Beneficiaries again in his PostBank EveryDay account, fired in a couple of payments which were rejected on his account history as previously.

He contacted the PostBank helpline again and was given the same story, invalid bank sort-code, and that's when he rang me.

I got the utility account details from him and typed them into this - and they were returned as valid. I have the printed Beneficiary details he emailed to me and I took a screen-shot of my results from the IPSO website.

I rang the helpline for one of the utility providers with a "REDIRECTED" payment on my friend's account history (I'm a customer of this utility as well) and I was informed that they are not set up to receive online payments from PostBank but couldn't explain why. I was also told they don't take the PostBank Maestro card over the phone, but again they couldn't say why.

I relayed this information to my friend who rang PostBank and he was told “emphatically” that this was not possible and the information was untrue and that once the sort-code and account number were correct the payment would go through “automatically” - we already knew this was incorrect. I have since established that using the pre-printed Giro on the bottom of the statement you can in fact pay this bill over the counter in a post office.

So the situation from my friend's perspective is :

  • PostBank cannot (or will not) validate bank sort-codes / account numbers for their users (the helpline person he spoke to asked how he expected her to be able to control what he typed ??)
  • PostBank cannot (or will not) generate meaningful messages for their customers in relation to rejected transfers to Beneficiaries
  • PostBank helpline staff don't know what IPSO is (I checked) and have told me that IPSO has nothing got to with PostBank ( partially true - the relationship is indirect as PostBank is not a clearing bank )
  • PostBank helpline staff seem to be just "parroting" scripts or responses from others and are not in a position to actually resolve problems customers encounter
  • PostBank helpline staff are providing their customers with inaccurate information in relation to the cause of problems and their resolution
Given the limited acceptability of their Maestro card and the apparent unwillingness of some major companies to accept online payments from them, and their other problems, is my thread title valid - PostBank - a useless non-Bank?
 
I've been a customer for approx 6 weeks now and have not had any such problems. I've paid bills I've set up s.o and I have used my maestro absolutly everywhere I would have previously used laser. I am a very satisfied customer so far.

Sorry to hear of the difficulties but like I say thankfully that has not been my experience!
 
It's my understanding that An Post don't actually operate Postbank, apart from the counter service? Isn't it the Belgian crowd (Fortis?) that are the 'bank' behind it?
 
Hi Mathepac,


First of all, our apologies regarding your friends difficulties in regard to paying their bills. There are a couple of reasons the above may have transpired:
  1. Your friend may have entered the details wrongly, however this appears to have been ruled out by him double checking it.
  2. If the provider he tried to pay has recently changed their details it may be updated in the IPSO database but not yet in our systems. Again this seems unlikely as we have not received any other complaints in regard to this issue.
For this reason it would be great if you wouldn't mind specifying exactly what providers were affected by this. if you're not comfortable with putting them in a public post you can PM this account. (Obviously please don't include any a/c details etc for your friend's security!) This will hopefully help us to resolve what has happened in regard to these transactions.

With regard to Maestro acceptance, the card is not currently accepted online or by phone due to the significant level of debit card fraud in the industry. We are in contact with Mastercard to ensure we are kept up to date with their plans to implement a "securecode" online system which will provide a secure online environment for the card to operate within. The card is accepted in 95% of Irish retail outlets, and this will grow as the Maestro system becomes more widley used in this country.

It's my understanding that An Post don't actually operate Postbank, apart from the counter service? Isn't it the Belgian crowd (Fortis?) that are the 'bank' behind it?
Click to expand...

Hi Yoganmahew,

Postbank is a separate company to An Post, although An Post are significant shareholders in the company and work closely with us. As such we have our own staff, our own headquarters etc. Fortis were indeed major shareholders in the business as well, but have since been taken over by BNP Paribas, a French bank with one of the highest credit ratings in the world. The new group which is called BNP Paribas Fortis is therefore our other major shareholder. I hope this answers your query.

Regards,

Postbank
 
Thankfully I've had none of the problems outlined by mathepac other than agreeing that it took a long time to get the Banksmart device.

One thing I did find crazy was that I couldn't change the PIN on the Maestro Card. When I phoned I was told that this wasn't allowed for "security reasons"
 
A quick update -

ESB and Calor Gas Bank Account numbers and sort-codes now work for on-line payments from my friend's PostBank account, the details are as follows -

  • ESB - Bank Sort Code 93-20-86, Bank Account Number 81900087
  • Calor Gas - Bank Sort Code 98-50-40, Bank Account Number 19516024
As usual, if you wish to use these details, please ensure they are entered correctly (there is no on-line validation by PostBank of the data you enter) and that you quote your ESB / Calor Gas account number in the appropriate place (the oddly named "Description" field).

For reasons known only to themselves, PostBank refer to bank-sort code and account number combined as "Account :".

Test the on-line payment facility with small amounts of money first and check that they reach the intended beneficiaries before attempting large transfers.
 
Another quick update -

Vodafone Ireland Ltd bank account number and sort-code now work for online payments from my friend's PostBank account, the details are as follows -

  • Bank Sort Code 90-00-17, Bank Account Number 46687485
As usual, if you wish to use these details, please ensure they are entered correctly (there is no on-line validation by PostBank of the data you enter) and that you quote your Vodafone Ireland Ltd customer number in the appropriate place, the "Description" field.

Please note: these details apparently were supplied by PostBank help-centre staff after consultation with Vodafone Ireland Ltd back-office staff; Vodafone Ireland Ltd help-centre staff (at the 1907 number) still insist (as of today 29/09/2009) that they cannot accept online payments from PostBank account holders. Do not use the details printed on the reverse of your Vodafone Ireland Ltd bill as they will not work, but strangely will work for payments lodged at a post-office counter..

Test the online payment facility with a small sum of money first and check that it reaches the intended beneficiary before attempting large transfers.
 
bond-007 said:
95% acceptance of the maestro card? Your having a laugh!
Click to expand...

In my expierence, it's closer to 40%, and even that is being optimistic.

One of my friends, who lives in America, has a Maestro card and he says it's accepted everywhere that Mastercard is accepted (as they are the same company, really) and he has no problems with acceptance. That doesn't seem to be the case for the Irish Maestro. Even the shops that have stickers on the front saying Maestro, their shopkeepers say that they don't accept Maestro, only for me to prove them wrong by pointing at the sign.

But what I hate is shops that don't show which cards they accept - that way if the shopkeepers say that they don't accept Maestro you have to take their word.
 
Also why can't they put your transactions in plain english on your statement/online banking? All the put down for a direct debit is DD followed by a random selection of numbers. How am I supposed to identify the originator from that?

I am surprised that the FR has not fined them heavily for this.
 
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