Is that really true, though? Rabo had 90,000 customers. I know they weren't a full service bank but within their narrow focus they obviously did enough things well enough to attract a large base. I'd certainly take a close look at any new contenders. Even a half decent credit rating and I would be with them like a shot. I'm finding the lack of choice is reaching scary proportions, and I don't mean that as hyperbole whatsoever.
Elderly person tired of Bank of Ireland, is AIB any better?
- Thread starter Brendan Burgess
- Start date
I keep a working account in the Ulster Bank and my local credit union.
I dread going in to the Ulster Bank branch. There are about four staff members who are completely useless. There is one staff member who is superb. I go in to this branch about twice a month. If I see any of the useless four manning the counter I turn around and leave. If I see the knowledgeable staff member I do all my business in one go.
I am mainly lodging Sterling dividends. Some of the useless four are clueless about dealing with them. Some have not even bothered to log in to their FX system. As a result I often have three or four dividends in my pocket for periods of time until I know the right person is available to deal with them.
I use my credit union for lots of bits and pieces. The staff are superb. Friendly, smiling and helpful.
I dread going in to the Ulster Bank branch. There are about four staff members who are completely useless. There is one staff member who is superb. I go in to this branch about twice a month. If I see any of the useless four manning the counter I turn around and leave. If I see the knowledgeable staff member I do all my business in one go.
I am mainly lodging Sterling dividends. Some of the useless four are clueless about dealing with them. Some have not even bothered to log in to their FX system. As a result I often have three or four dividends in my pocket for periods of time until I know the right person is available to deal with them.
I use my credit union for lots of bits and pieces. The staff are superb. Friendly, smiling and helpful.
Yes, I think it is true.
Often, there is overlap, where a customer could have an account with more than one bank. Each bank conveniently claims the customer to help bump their own numbers, but ultimately it's the bank where most of the transactions take place that should count as the principal retail bank.
Consider RaboDirect, ACC (who were a separate retail bank, even though Rabo owned), Danske, PostBank, Hallifax.... All were challenger banks, many offered more competitively priced services than AIB or BoI, but none of them remain. I know the banking crisis played it's part, but if they had significant retail businesses here, at least some would remain open (even if they'd merged or been sold on to another stronger bank etc.).
As things stand, I think AIB & BoI continue to have something like 70% - 80% of the retail banking market. That's far from a competitive market. KBC, PTSB and UB share the remainder. While it might be interesting to ask all of the banks to tell us their customer numbers and add them all up, I suspect that we'd end up with a number equal to about 2-3 times our population.
Ultimately, it comes down to one thing - as a nation, we love to bitch and moan in the pubs etc., but we are very slow to vote with our feet. If we took more definitive action, BoI might be treating their retail customers a little better, Ulster Bank might have invested sufficiently to fix it's IT problems etc. as if they didn't, they'd have lost most of their customers by now.
But if, as you say, people tend to bank with multiple institutions, then they are probably seeking different things from different banks. I know I do. I don't have a mortgage but I presume people will definitely switch to get the best rate as there are significant sums of money involved. In a similar vein I shop around continually for best deposit rates. But I don't want to shop around for my current account, where it would be much more disruptive. And on that score, I've been a more than satisfied BoI customer for decades. Yes, the branches are sub-standard nowadays but for general retail business I visit a bank only once every several years on average. Everything is online and that's the way I want it. And it's incredibly good value as I have never paid a current account fee in my life.
(I got a free account offer decades ago when I started working; about ten years later they tried to impose fees but I told them to get lost as I had a large chunk of money sitting in a current account earning nothing at the time so I reckoned they were getting good value from that; to my amazement they agreed, but I only found out years later that they had sidestepped their own internal rules by changing me to a "Golden Years" customer, a privilege I am still a decade and a half away from being entitled to
).
My problems only crop up when I have to use BoI, UB or others for "non-standard business", e.g. setting up new term deposits. There I have found them slow, cumbersome, bureaucratic and not sufficiently automated. And basically in the current environment nobody really wants your money anyway.
(I got a free account offer decades ago when I started working; about ten years later they tried to impose fees but I told them to get lost as I had a large chunk of money sitting in a current account earning nothing at the time so I reckoned they were getting good value from that; to my amazement they agreed, but I only found out years later that they had sidestepped their own internal rules by changing me to a "Golden Years" customer, a privilege I am still a decade and a half away from being entitled to
).My problems only crop up when I have to use BoI, UB or others for "non-standard business", e.g. setting up new term deposits. There I have found them slow, cumbersome, bureaucratic and not sufficiently automated. And basically in the current environment nobody really wants your money anyway.
Why don't you get the dividends lodged into your bank account by credit transfer? I'm sure the companies/registrar that issue the dividends would be only too glad to do that instead of issuing cheques
I don't have control of the currency exchange rate used. I can hold on to the cheques and keep an eye on the exchange rate as needs be. However this may be a false economy and it might be easier to do as you suggest.
Do you still get the Dividend Counterpart sent to you if you have the Dividends lodged electronically?
As I needed to make a cheque lodgement, I had occasion recently to visit a B O I in a west clare town.The AIB closed two years ago . The building is quite small and has only one machine capable of lodgements. When I arrived there was a queue out the door . The person in front of me in the queue was able to tell me that the person at the lodgement machine was 15/20 min at the machine making commercial lodgements. After another 15 mins I eventually got inside the bank only to see TWO officials sitting inside the counter just looking at the queue 20/30 minute queue.
Unfortunately they have a monopoly
Unfortunately they have a monopoly
I live in the west of Ireland, smallish town but it has the BOI, AIB and UB plus a Credit Union. As far as i'm concerned none of the banks give you the feeling they want you coming in at all, want everything automated, etc. Credit Union is a people transacted business more or less but one cannot do everything they need in there, so for me just stick a pin and see which of the other three it sticks in, then use that one. There's certainly no difference between them and they couldn't care a less about you. Funny thing is, there's no loyalty in any business's anymore, neither is there any loyalty in people. We go where there's a deal and that's about it.
I find AIB slightly better than BOI mainly because my local AIB will always have a cash desk open but BOI has to be before 12.30. I find the whole banking situation must be quite hard now for a lot of elderly people with it all being done online and through machines.
My experience of both AIB and BOI over the years would have me say, a pox on all their houses. I had many years ago used AIB for a personnel and business accounts. I had the pleasure of getting my revenge on AIB for dodgy practice that I eventually dragged them through the ombudsman office which they had squirmed to avoid. I continued to use them for a few more years after as they had a big note on my A/C, don't fook with this one. They have not changed much over the years as I recently had to deal with the estate and even though a small A/C with some funds was suspended they decided to take the funds and pay off a credit card balance that when I went to pay was found to be part paid off. When I challenged the manager about this she panicked and told me sorry. It was a small amount but they seemed to never learn. Reminded her to check head office about my record with them and they got really sorry but I just let it go.
I just opened a BOI current account and requested a Instant Access Deposit account, I was told to do it on line, when I went on line there were no option for this only accounts that required notice. I went back to my branch and I was told it was not in the current page to these accounts and was elswhelse, which was not clear to me when I tried again, so back to the branch who did it for me when I showed them the brochure saying it could be opened in any branch.
I still have to set it up on line by going to Add Account. There was no options to order a paper statement monthly. Seems their software has been patched up with additions.
I still have to set it up on line by going to Add Account. There was no options to order a paper statement monthly. Seems their software has been patched up with additions.
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