Well, I thought I knew who my money was with - AIB Direct. That's what they told me in all the letters. I got my statements from AIB Direct. I rang AIB Direct to get my money, etc . . .
At the end of the day, as long as I get my interest and I can get my money back I'm happy enough.
I could move it to get an extra 0.1% or 0.2% with someone else, but all other things being equal (and given the overhead opening new accounts) I felt that it was as good in AIB Direct as anywhere else. After all, it's not like I left it with a failed bank like Anglo . . . oh, wait - I now realise that that's what seems to have happened.
In truth I did try to open a new deposit account with NIB (to move the Anglo money to) last year but ultimately gave up as the process was just crazy. We wanted to open a joint account so we wandered up to the local branch. We talked to the front desk. We waited. We waited. The new accounts person was on lunch. Could we just get a form ? No. Can you come back when the new accounts person is around ? Well, OK, but it seems mad. We came back at the next arranged time, met the new accounts person and she gave us the forms. We gave in copies of passports, utility bills, etc . . . We mailed in the form and eventually got a letter back asking us to come in to meet the new account person. We both work in different locations, so it's not like we can just wander up to the branch at the drop of a hat. We had already been to the branch twice, we had our paperwork in order, we had our money at the ready. At this point we decided it was easier to leave it with Anglo/AIB Direct/IBRC. It's not like we were looking to take out a loan with them - we wanted to give them our money.
I've just read that article - that's mad entirely. Last I heard, Anglo/IBRC had shut up shop and had no 'retail' (i.e. walk in the door with money in your hand) presence for the last 18 months or so. They didn't need one because all their depositors had been moved to AIB. Yet, here it looks like AIB (which has a branch network of its own, remember) retained the use of their retail space, despite telling people that the only way to access their money was over the phone or by post.
It's mad, Ted, mad.
z