Key Post Cheapest way to get full banking service at lowest fees with AIB

[Freelance]

If you wish to remain with AIB the cheapest way to have full service bricks and mortar banking at minimum cost is as follows:

• Open an AIB current account, with a debit card. Don’t use the account and put the debit card in a drawer.
• Open an AIB Demand Deposit Account. Use this for wages/pension, miscellaneous income (e.g. rent) and all DD and SO. No fees.
• Open an AIB Credit card account. Register the CC in ApplePay. Use your phone/watch for all CC transactions. Pay your CC using a DD against your Demand Deposit Account.

The above gives you full service banking at minimum cost (Quarterly service charge, CC and debit card annual levy and a few transactions e.g. ATM and cash lodgements) and keeps most of your accounts/money/transactions withing one institution and one App. It should cost you no more than €30 per annum. Difficult to get to a lower cost while keeping a bricks and mortar option. If you want to go cheaper N26 is possibly your best option but there are a few limitations (e.g. no cash lodgements and no possibility of face to face dealings).

• If you need ATM access you have two options (1) If it’s very occasional use, use your AIB Debit Card (2) If it’s more frequent open a standard N26 account
• If you travel abroad open a standard N26 account and use that Debit Card rather than your AIB CC

I have exactly the above AIB arrangement and it works perfectly (only one difference, my CC direct debit is against my AIB c/a for ages and I’ve been too last to change it).

Other thoughts:

• Variations of the above are possible using debit cards from N26 or Revolut to avoid having a credit card. (but bear in mind the general advice re keeping balances above a few hundred euro with Revolut)
• I have an AIB Online Saver a/c into which I weekly transfer any “largish” balances (more than I will be spending in the next week) to avail of the 3% rate, transferring money back as required. Gets me about €100 per annum.
• AIB App/WEB are middle of the road offerings, in the halfpenny place compared to Ulster, marginally better than BOI, PTSB and light years ahead of EBS
• I also have current accounts with BOI (for largish Debit Card transactions on account of AIB’s transaction/daily limits being rubbish), N26 for overseas use and CA Britline for elevated deposit interest. Useful to have backup.
• Someone on here was told recently that they couldn’t have wages paid to an AIB Deposit account – that nonsense. I have multiple private and state pensions paid to my AIB Demand Deposit Account and have never had an issue.

Anyway it’s all academic now since I very recently acquired free banking…….

 

[BigPineapple]

Open an AIB Credit card account. Register the CC in ApplePay. Use your phone/watch for all CC transactions. Pay your CC using a DD against your Demand Deposit Account.

To add to this, don't just use any AIB credit card. Specifically if you meet the AIB Platinum criteria of minimum qualifying salary of 40K per annum, apply for it.

Cash Back Awards:
Spend over €5,000 (and up to €50,000) in any 12 month period from your account opening date, we will give you 0.5% of that amount back (maximum award for each 12 month period is €225)*

The benefit is that after the first 5K of spending (which they don't pay you anything), everything between the 5K up to 50K in a year, they pay you 0.5% cash back. So realistically, after the initial 5K spend and you spend another 6K during the year (i.e. up to 11K total), the card pays for itself in terms of stamp duty. Everything after that is a bonus so try to shift everything over to the Credit Card where possible and don't use Debit Card.

The above gives you full service banking at minimum cost (Quarterly service charge, CC and debit card annual levy and a few transactions e.g. ATM and cash lodgements) and keeps most of your accounts/money/transactions withing one institution and one App. It should cost you no more than €30 per annum.

Now the stamp duty can be eliminated which I would think a lot of people can realistically achieve. AIB (or Visa) have been paying me to use the card for the past few years.

 

[coolwap]

• Open an AIB current account, with a debit card. Don’t use the account and put the debit card in a drawer.
• Open an AIB Demand Deposit Account. Use this for wages/pension, miscellaneous income (e.g. rent) and all DD and SO. No fees.
• Open an AIB Credit card account. Register the CC in ApplePay. Use your phone/watch for all CC transactions. Pay your CC using a DD against your Demand Deposit Account.

Extreme option that I discovered recently:

• Set up payees in AIB Online with a card reader
• Close AIB Current Account

You can continue using AIB Online with Demand Deposit account to pay previously created payees or to make once-off payments up to €1,000 with the app.

If you need more than €1,000, just top up your Revolut account using Credit Card and get 0.5% cashback as a bonus.

Now you actually earn money instead of paying fees.

 

[misemoi]

Work for them