PTSB - Switch Current Account Interest - Bank only advising some customers

Five of us in our office have PTSB switch current accounts for having our salary paid into. One of the guys remarked that he got €40 interest at Christmas, having received a letter to tell him to register for the interest.

I phoned internet Banking and spoke to a rude advisor who told me that I should have received at least two letters, which I did not. I said I wanted to complain so another customer service advisor phoned me back this morning to tell me that only some people(mostly new customers) were notified by post to advise them to claim the interest, but that there were ads on the radio, website etc, and I should listened to them.

Out of five of us in our office, only one got a letter, and got the interest. Another colleague phoned and asked why she did not get a letter, to be told that some people dont want the interest! She was also told that only some people were advised by post.

I asked what the take up on the interest was, and they do not have figures available.

I think this is very bad policy for the bank, if you are entitled to the interest, you should be advised. The advisor also told me that they were advising people of this when they phoned in to 24 hour banking, I phoned in at least four times during last year and did not get advised of this. I was however, pushed to sign up for various loans and pensions.

Did anyone else get the interest?

I got the interest - about €35. I got the letter(s) announcing the interest option when it first came about. Nobody on Open24 telephone banking ever mentioned it (maybe because I was already opted in?). Open24 online banking has a link on current accounts to opt in. The main website used to have a link about it too. I actually used to have an old current account which was still subject to some periodic charges (e.g. DD setup charges) which I always got refunded until eventually somebody in PTSB advised that I would be better off just converting to a Switch account.

Why not just go to Halifax and get 10% on balances up to €2K if you lodge at least €1.5K per month?

Funny you should mention it, I was about to add a post on this topic.

The first I heard of the Switch Current Account Interest was in an article in last month's Consumer Choice magazine. I read the article on Sunday night and e-mailed PTSB yesterday.
In their reply they instructed me how to sign up for it. Log into Open24, click on "Apply Credit Interest" link.

I'm a little annoyed that I was not contacted about this. I don't know how long this has been available. The interest is added annually, this year on 2nd January.

It seems to be quiet common with the banks that these extras are made more availabe to new customers.

Am considering moving to Halifax, 10% is a very attractive rate.

I didn't receive a letter either but I did notice it mentioned on the [broken link removed] so I went and registered anyway back in November. Received my interest in January.

Update on this. We phoned Financial Regulator on this to make a complaint and they advised us to phone HO for PTSB in Cork first and then send an email laying out the complete facts . We have phoned Cork and are awaiting a call back.

Why were some customers notified by post and others were not? Is that not discrimination? We have asked what criteria were customers selected to be notified by post.

Out of five in our office, one was notified by post and four were not. One girl has her account with them 18 years and is really annoyed. She is more annoyed that she gets phone calls every month, to come in for a financial review,(ie sell her policies or pensions) but yet she did not get a call or letter advising her of something which she was entitled to.

We are thinking of bringing this one up as a consumer issue with one of the radio stations, can you imagine how many people are still unaware that they can claim their interest!

By the way, its been available since March. One of the guys on 24 hour banking told me that it started in March, an initial mail shot was sent to a batch of customers, then they stopped, and then later on in the year it was reintroduced?

Thanks for this info, I have also now applied for the credit interest to be applied to my two accounts in PTSB. I did not receive any information or was not made aware of it during any of my calls to open 24.

MandaC said:

only some people(mostly new customers) were notified by post to advise them to claim the interest, but that there were ads on the radio, website etc, and I should listened to them.

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Forgive my ignorance, I am not a PTSB customer, but why would it not be automatically available to everyone who qualified? Why should anyone have to apply to get interest on a bank account?

I totally agree that if you qualify for the interest that you should be given it automatically.

No, unless you went in and ticked the box on the internet banking, you were not given the interest, even if you qualified for it.

They say its to incentivise people to use internet banking.

I am still waiting to hear back as to why certain customers were advised by post whilst others were not.

The guy who did get the letter in our office is not a new customer either, and has his account a fair few years.

The best argument was from them was that some customers might not actually want the interest, so thats why you had to tick the box to say you did!

Joe1234 said:

Forgive my ignorance, I am not a PTSB customer, but why would it not be automatically available to everyone who qualified? Why should anyone have to apply to get interest on a bank account?

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Possibly because it's a change to the terms & conditions of the account to which you originally agreed and they need you to explicitly opt in and accept the new regime even if it is to your benefit?

If they want to make changes to the terms and conditions of any account, surely the account holder should be contacted and advised that there are changes to the conditions they originally signed up to.

I dont think its acceptable to be expected to have to "hear it on the grapvine", so to speak.

Banks are very quick to contact you to advise you of new products suitable for you, which generate lots of commission for them.

MandaC said:

If they want to make changes to the terms and conditions of any account, surely the account holder should be contacted and advised that there are changes to the conditions they originally signed up to.

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Any chance people who didn't get the letter which I and others got opted out of receiving any communication regarding offers or other issues relating to their account other than statements? Maybe it is a cock up on PTSB's part that they didn't notify every customer who might qualify - I don't know.

Another thought - any chance that only Switch current account holders were contact and other legacy current account holders were not? I had a non Switch current account until a couple of years ago and only "upgraded" to Switch on the advice of a PTSB staff member who told me that doing so would avoid DD setup charges that I was still being billed for (but getting manually refunded).

ClubMan said:

Another thought - any chance that only Switch current account holders were contact...

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The only PTSB account I've ever had is a Switch current account, but I was never contacted.

No one in our offices opted out either, and all have switch current accounts. I also have a 21 Day interest account, but this does not apply.

Anyway, sent off complaints form to Financial Ombudsman today, so will see the outcome.

When asked what I would like as a resolution, I stated that I would like for all customers to be contacted by post and advised of their entitlements.

MandaC said:

Anyway, sent off complaints form to Financial Ombudsman today, so will see the outcome.

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Did you exhaust the PTSB complaints process and get a final response letter from them first because if you didn't then it's virtually certain that the FSO will simply return your complaint telling you to do that first before they will look into it.

ClubMan said:

Possibly because it's a change to the terms & conditions of the account to which you originally agreed and they need you to explicitly opt in and accept the new regime even if it is to your benefit?

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Surely if they want to change the T & C's then they should inform ALL customers, in writing, who are affected by the change. As you said in a later post, "maybe it's a cock up on PTSB's part that they didn't notify every customer who might qualify".

PTSB have confirmed to two different people that they did not inform every customer directly. Why remains to be seen?

Fair play to you MandaC. I was in the exact same position as you having heard about this credit interest lark via my sister. I've been a customer with them for over 20 years and cannot believe that I have to actually APPLY to get the interest I am entitled to!