Elderly person tired of Bank of Ireland, is AIB any better?

My elderly mother had a deposit account with Rabo.
Her current account is with Bank of Ireland.
She moved the money from Rabo into her BoI current account
She went down to the BoI branch to open a deposit account.
She came away with a form to be filled in.

I filled in the form for her and she signed it.
I dropped into her branch, the Montrose branch, today to make sure that they were happy with the form.

It was not clear to me who were staff and who were customers.
There appeared to be two people helping one customer but it might have been one person helping two customers.
When they were finished I asked the woman to help me.
She did not seem too happy and said she would get someone else, as she was going into a meeting.
She got someone else out of a room who said that my mother had to come in herself by appointment to meet someone from deposits.
I told her that she had been in already and it was not convenient.
She went away to the deposits staff and came back with the same answer.

I have absolutely no problem with Bank of Ireland or any other bank cutting their costs by only providing an online and ATM service. But they should really say "We don't want your custom."



I am thinking of suggesting to my mother to switch to her local AIB in Dalkey. She could, at least, walk to them.

But is AIB any better? When I occasionally visit my local branch of AIB, there is a cashier and other people sitting at desks so it's clear who the AIB staff are.

I don't want to go to all the hassle of switching banks only to find that they are the exact same.

Brendan

I doubt you're going to see much better anywhere else. I've had exactly the same experience with BoI and Ulster Bank in the last few weeks, for the same reason -- trying to open deposit accounts with Rabo money. Ulster totally screwed me around, told me they'd take money but then said they couldn't. I opened an account online with BoI but got phone messages from them and now playing telephone tag. It's over three weeks since I closed my Rabo accounts and the money is still sitting in a current account earning the square root of zippo. And yes, none of the banks I've dealt with can handle you just walking in off the street. It's appointments in advance only. The staff don't seem to have fixed abodes, they move around from branch to branch, presumably trying the share the inefficiencies all around.

It's no different in AIB. I dread the few times a year I have to go to a branch.

Can't say I'm surprised by that, endless horror stories coming out of BoI these days. I've always seem them as a little arrogant when dealing with their customers and think their successful exit from the recent banking crisis has only fueled that.

AIB are pushing their four strategic pillars, to include "customer first"

Our customers are at the heart of our organisation. Customer interaction enabled through a digitally-enabled, omni-channel banking experience.

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So I'd expect a little more from AIB at their branches, at least in the short term.

All that said, I actually don't think any of the retail banks want people coming into branches anymore and are purposely trying to force them to use other channels as part of a strategy to close branches over the medium term.

Elderly people seem to be getting the short end of the stick, given many need a little face to face interaction, or may not be comfortable using mobile phone apps etc.

If there's a credit union near your mother's home, then I'd be suggesting she lodges her money with them. She'll get decent service and a friendly face when some goes in to them, even if there's only a limited range of services at most CUs. Obviously interest rates are not worth mentioning, in the current environment.

In the absence of a CU, I'd next look at the Post Office when considering what to do with your mother's savings account.

This came up 3 or 4 times at the recent bank of ireland agm. Were you there Brendan ?

Older shareholders ( former staff , mainly I guess ), saying not wanted as branch customers etc.
Some made the point elderly have the cash bank needs to lend out .

I am not a customer of bank of Ireland but I find aib fine to deal with.

mtk said:

....some made point elderly have the cash bank needs to lend out...

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Banks are not currently under pressure for deposits, while paying staff to put their arm around the elderly and talk about poor old Mrs. Smith down the road doesn't generate short term revenue, so the elderly are not high on most Banks priority lists these days.

I'm actually amazed that there hasn't been more backlash from the elderly on the entire issue of how Banks are dealing with the elderly. There were some small objections in the early days of BoI changing their branches to remove cashiers etc. but nothing like what I expected from the blue rinse (who are usually great at busting politicians balls, taking up space where they are not wanted etc. ... oh and for the record, that's not a criticism of the elderly, so much as me making the point that they've got time on their hands and know how to make a nuisance of themselves)

MrEarl said:

Banks are not currently under pressure for deposits

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While I understand that, this will change in time. We will see them advertising heavily for deposits.

If one of the main banks made themselves more elderly-friendly, they could steal a march on their competitors.

Brendan

Hi Brendan

I recently opened a deposit account with AIB and I have to say the whole process was completely painless.

The staff member that I was dealt with (in a city centre branch) asked me for the details and filled out the relevant sections of their account opening form himself. I then handed over the requisite customer identification documentation and signed the form where indicated.

The whole process took less than 5 minutes and I walked out of the branch with my new IBAN in hand.

It was the first time that I had been in a "bricks and mortar" branch in years and I was amazed at the number of customers (not all elderly by any means) that were queuing up to withdraw cash from a cashier with their direct debit cards, rather than using one of the ATMs.

Update:

She was able to open a deposit account with BoI online easily enough. The whole range of accounts is not available, but there was one with 31 day notice which is probably ok.

We will see how it works in practice.

Brendan

I opened an account with them online too, but somebody seems to have tried to call me about it and I can't get them back on the phone. I'm all for automation -- if I never had to go into a branch again it would be too soon -- but if they're going to automate things they need to happen ...well, automatically.

I deal with AIB and find their staff helpful. In most branches that I have gone into recently they have staff 'floating on the floor' and always available to help with queries on ATM and lodgement machines. If they can't help their reception desks are good too.

They were using Relationship Managers some time back so this might be an option too. Getting through to them with a landline number is much easier than trying to get through to BofI who I am not a fan of.

Not directed at Brendan.

But be wary of older people changing things like banks. Sometimes when people are struggling with other conditions they start changing everything around them thinking that's the problem not them. The relatives only find out later on and no one has the details of any accounts, services etc, as they've all been changed.

I don't find any bank better than another. They've all gone automated. Less staff etc, even cashless.

There's an opportunity here for

Brendan Burgess said:

If one of the main banks made themselves more elderly-friendly, they could steal a march on their competitors.
Brendan

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Maybe there's an opportunity here for the Post Office to come up with a decent, human-focused banking product?

I was a life long customer of boi. I'm not quite elderly but I closed everything down with them because of this policy.
Even if you went to a branch they weren't able to deal with anything . Staff were stressed all the time. Meanwhile they were killed trying to assign me a relationship manager because I was such a valued customer.

I moved to ptsb but do some banking with aib. There is no comparison to boi. They're both great. Bank of ireland are a disaster and hold their customers and bank staff in contempt in my experience

We have no humans in our branch of BOI after 12.30.

If you need to speak to a human you wait (sit on the blue chairs) and eventually someone appears from the holy of holies and proceeds to discuss your business with you right there in the middle of the floor and the others sitting on the blue chairs. I always ask if their office is available.

Having been a customer with them for over 40 years it's awkward to change now.

From friends and family it appears there is a more customer focused approach in the AIB just down the street.

I opened a term deposit account online with BOI at the start of last week. Called them today to check why no money has moved yet. Apparently it takes ten days to debit money from one BOI account and put it in another. Ten days! And this is after Ulster gave me the runaround for another ten days before that until they decided they didn't want my Rabo money. I suppose the one saving grace is that the interest rates are so abysmal I am beyond caring. If this was five years ago I would be losing a packet having money doing nothing for three weeks.

Black Sheep said:

If you need to speak to a human you wait (sit on the blue chairs) and eventually someone appears from the holy of holies and proceeds to discuss your business with you right there in the middle of the floor and the others sitting on the blue chairs. I always ask if their office is available.

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Mother of good God

I needed to get cash recently. None of the BOI branches anywhere near me provide cash services. I drove to one that does (only until 12.30). There was one hatch manned. There was a guy lodging coins. He took 18 minutes. There were 14 people in the queue at that stage. I demanded to see the manager; a number of people chimed in and it turned reasonably ugly with customers complaining vociferously and venting. The staff were utterly demoralised and couldn’t have given a flying you know what. We desperately need a challenger bank that respects its customers.

Gordon Gekko said:

....We desperately need a challenger bank that respects its customers.

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Highly unlikely to happen my friend.

Last time challenger banks tried to open up, very few customers moved over to them despite all the bitchin' and moanin' about the BoI's of this world.