My fiance is Northern Irish but has been living in the Republic for the past 3 years. He has a First Trust Visa card and it's a Sterling credit card. He also has an AIB current account here in the Republic.
I have been bemused over the past year or so as he has travelled up to the North every month to pay off his bill. I told him that there was surely a way of transferring the money from his AIB account onto his First Trust Visa but he seemed to think that there was no way.
As he is fed up with having to travel up North every month just for the sake of his credit card, he has decided to pay it off and apply for a new credit card down here. In the meantime however, there are a couple of payments due to be made until the card is cleared.
He decided to lodge some money to my current account which is an Ulster Bank Account as I said I could probably set his Visa card up on my internet banking as a 'beneficiary' and then transfer the money from my account to his Visa. That would save him having to go up North every month. When I rang Ulster Bank internet banking to set this up, they told me that I couldn't do this (transfer euros to a sterling credit card) and that I would have to go into my branch and do an international transfer.
My fiance also asked in his AIB branch and they concurred that an international transfer was the way to go.
So last week I went to my Ulster bank branch and filled in a transfer form giving my fiance's IBAN number, BIC code, credit card number as a reference. The payment totalled €1400 and I was charged 51cent for a standard transfer. It left my account on Friday.
Yesterday, my fiance got a letter from VISA to say he had missed his last payment. He rang them and they said they had received nothing. I double checked with my bank and they said the payment had definitely gone.
When my fiance enquired again, AIB told him that the payment had been rejected and sent back to my account as they do not accept Visa payments via international transfer! Despite the same branch advising him he could do this a couple of weeks ago!
To add insult to injury, the payment has now come back to my account but is for €1380 so we have lost 20 quid on this. Surely they should refund at the same exchange rate as the day the payment was made?
So my very long winded question is:
Surely there is some way of paying money onto a Northern Irish credit card from the Republic without having to physically travel up to the North and go to a bank there? My fiance now has to take a half day off work tomorrow to go up to Belfast to lodge the now late payment and has also incurred late payment charges... There must be lots of Nothern Irish people living and/or working in the Republic who still have Northern Irish credit cards and I'm sure they don't all have to drive up North every time they want to pay their bill!
Any solutions would be much appreciated.
I have been bemused over the past year or so as he has travelled up to the North every month to pay off his bill. I told him that there was surely a way of transferring the money from his AIB account onto his First Trust Visa but he seemed to think that there was no way.
As he is fed up with having to travel up North every month just for the sake of his credit card, he has decided to pay it off and apply for a new credit card down here. In the meantime however, there are a couple of payments due to be made until the card is cleared.
He decided to lodge some money to my current account which is an Ulster Bank Account as I said I could probably set his Visa card up on my internet banking as a 'beneficiary' and then transfer the money from my account to his Visa. That would save him having to go up North every month. When I rang Ulster Bank internet banking to set this up, they told me that I couldn't do this (transfer euros to a sterling credit card) and that I would have to go into my branch and do an international transfer.
My fiance also asked in his AIB branch and they concurred that an international transfer was the way to go.
So last week I went to my Ulster bank branch and filled in a transfer form giving my fiance's IBAN number, BIC code, credit card number as a reference. The payment totalled €1400 and I was charged 51cent for a standard transfer. It left my account on Friday.
Yesterday, my fiance got a letter from VISA to say he had missed his last payment. He rang them and they said they had received nothing. I double checked with my bank and they said the payment had definitely gone.
When my fiance enquired again, AIB told him that the payment had been rejected and sent back to my account as they do not accept Visa payments via international transfer! Despite the same branch advising him he could do this a couple of weeks ago!
To add insult to injury, the payment has now come back to my account but is for €1380 so we have lost 20 quid on this. Surely they should refund at the same exchange rate as the day the payment was made?
So my very long winded question is:
Surely there is some way of paying money onto a Northern Irish credit card from the Republic without having to physically travel up to the North and go to a bank there? My fiance now has to take a half day off work tomorrow to go up to Belfast to lodge the now late payment and has also incurred late payment charges... There must be lots of Nothern Irish people living and/or working in the Republic who still have Northern Irish credit cards and I'm sure they don't all have to drive up North every time they want to pay their bill!
Any solutions would be much appreciated.