NIB changes - the good and the bad

Have to say I noticed something new with the NIB online service today.

I went to pay my credit card bill and noticed that it no longer takes a day to transfer - it was totally instant. Very impressed.

Transfer to Rabodirect and AIB took 2 days earlier in the week.

On the other hand, I notice that the new credit cards all offer between 9.8& and 10.5%. However my visa is still on 14.9%. Not so good.

Another negative is that my "freebank" account now shows charges accuring - wondering are these charges that would accure IF I was not in credit or new charges?

Staff seem a little unsure on some new features, but called back promptly - good service there.

Best feature is the text message notification - I really like this!

lff12 said:

Best feature is the text message notification - I really like this!

Click to expand...

Still trying to get to understand the new system.

How do you get the text message notification ?

Called to them on fri. Thought that they would be interested in getting my business, but the staff member I dealt with ,couldn't care less! The apathy displayed has turned me off dealing eith them. like the perfume add, first impressions, last!

I have to say that they are very poor at dealing with people trying to create new business and the didn't explain to me on the 1st 3 telephone calls or when I called in on my lunchbreak that the reason you have to make an appointment now to open or change account type is because they no longer use forms - everything is inputted in directly. It makes some sense in ways, but at the same time, potential customers are not told this when they call, so it looks as if they don't want your business.

Perhaps if somebody feed this back to NIB they might change things, but I do think it needs to be put to them that most people just expect to fill out forms.

I'm going in this week to change over from a freebank/standard visa to the "easy" package so will post how I get on here.

Regarding charges on FreeBank:
I mailed them about this and Brigette Nielsen(isn't that Sly's ex. wife) replied saying that the error was going to be rectified and no fees were being applied to my freebank account.

Regarding apathy -
I called in to NIB Blanch two weeks ago to lodge a cheque and at the time I asked about opening up a deposit account as I had too much money in my current account doing nothing.
They said there was no one available to speak to me at the time but took my number and said they'd get someone to call me.
No one called.
Last week I phoned the branch and asked again about opening a deposit account - they said that I'd have to come in for an interview. I pointed out that I bank with them already. She said it was needed for compliance with money laundering regulations. I said RaboBank would allow me to open an account by post and would give me a deposit rate .95% better than on offer with NIB.
She was insistent that I come in.

I said I'd leave it at that as I had no intention of taking time off to go to a bank at a time that didn't suit me for an interview to open a deposit account.

Have now opened Rabobank deposit account, waiting on papers to come back.

Hi Dipole,

Your treatment in NIB seems to be part of a wide range of issues that they face relating to trying to do too many things at once - i.e. Entirely new systems, and a range of new products, and new centres for the back office processing.

What I would note is that I opened one of their new ECB tracker deposit accounts - ONLINE last week. I requested the acc to be opened using the ebanking email on a Monday night. I got a phone call following day to say that the acc was open! Having said that, I got the terms and conditions for the account in the post following day, which I had to sign off and return. I guess if I hadn't then I would be in the same boat as most mail opened acc's - you can put money in, but ya can't take it out until you sign the forms.

Rate on ECB depo is 5k+ ECB+80bps, 20k, ECB+100bps. You need 5k to open the acc, but can let it fall below that to say 1k, you earn ECB+50bps for 0-5k. I love the fact that I can sweep money out of my NIB current acc real-time using e-banking.

I guess the message is, NIB has an awful lot on its plate at moment, perhaps too much, but the new products when taken altogether can be a much better proposition. Maybe worth putting up with a bit of teething problems at the start.

I am still waiting since last Friday for my NIB branch to call me back. I was interested in the online share dealing which apparently needs to be opened through the branch. I am going to stick with it because I understand they are going through a lot of changes at the moment.

At least NIB pioneered free banking in Ireland - something that even now BOI can't do properly despite claims. When I changed a few years ago no other bank had anything as genuine as Freebank. I also grew to prefer the NIB online service.

Danske/NIB have made one monumental cock-up.

This morning I went to buy a sterling draft at the main branch (27 College Green, Dublin 2).

I was told that under the new regime, they no longer issue sterling drafts over the counter. You have two choices:

1. You can order the draft - before 11.30a.m. - and it will be available for collection the following day.

2. You can order the draft and it will be posted out to you.

So, depending on which option you choose, Danske have managed to turn what was a 10 minute service into a (minimum) 24 hour one. Perhaps even four or five days if you let An Post in on the act.

Needless to say, I was speechless. Do the good burghers of Denmark realize how much business we do with the UK? Frankly, of all people, I would have thought that the Danes wouldn't make a howler like this.

I phoned the person I deal with in their business centre in Tallaght. She told me that they have already logged 'hundreds' of calls about this fiasco. The decision may be reviewed.

One step forward, two steps back. Or, as someone said recently in reference to something else, they've discovered a way of converting wine into water. Indeed.

D.

You could a step forward and just do a credit transfer to the person you're paying. You can do this using the e-banking facility. Might be slightly more pricey depending on the size of the transaction. Personally, haven't used a draft in years.

I know that UK and Ireland are among the last bastions of paper transactions such as cheques and drafts.

I've opened up an Easy package - the only hitch so far has been that they selected the option to create a new account rather than transfer an existing account "as it might leave you stuck". As it happened the new account was opened within 12 hours of me signing the forms so I don't think it'd have left me stuck.

Now I've to go through the whole process of changing direct debits, etc - worst of all is work as I seem to have the most ineffecient HR dept in Ireland (even getting a payslip is too much effort for them). I'm a bit annoyed about this, but they did open the account very quickly and no hitches.

All a bit clunky with paperless applications but very nice to move from a 14.9% visa to 9.9% mastercard. My only problem now is if they will charge me stamp duty for the old card when changing - I'm guessing that they will.

marksa said:

You could a step forward and just do a credit transfer to the person you're paying. You can do this using the e-banking facility. Might be slightly more pricey depending on the size of the transaction. Personally, haven't used a draft in years.

I know that UK and Ireland are among the last bastions of paper transactions such as cheques and drafts.

Click to expand...

The minimum charge for online Stg transfer is €10, up to a maximum of €30.00, at least four times the cost of an over the counter draft. My business is too small to justify this on a regular basis.

These charges also make a mockery of the greater efficiencies of online banking.

D.

I checked with Amex today on 2 payments made from NIB's new system, and Amex recorded receipt of these payments on the day after I made the NIB payments, which seems like an improvement over the old system.

Called to WILTON branch yesterday. Totally different service to South Mall. Someone was actually interested in my business! Appt to have further discussion next week. Will report thereafter.

lff12 said:

Another negative is that my "freebank" account now shows charges accuring - wondering are these charges that would accure IF I was not in credit or new charges?

Click to expand...

These are the fees that would accrue if you were not in credit. I queried this too as I got a bit of a shock seeing charges on a 'free' account and this is what they told me. I think they are calculated every quarter - if you stay in credit for that period then the charges are not applied.

Ravima said:

Called to WILTON branch yesterday. Totally different service to South Mall. Someone was actually interested in my business! Appt to have further discussion next week. Will report thereafter.

Click to expand...

I find South Mall ok - main problem there is a lot of the staff seemed to be pretty befuddled with all the process changes. I requested a foreign currency transaction nearly a month ago for "as soon as possible" and only heard back nearly 3-4 weeks after I'd given up waiting and just gone in - where at the time they had totally no knowledge of the request. Big black mark there! Though I think just one guy deals with foreign currency and perhaps he is just clueless . . .

I went into the Fermoy branch the other day to make a cash lodgement and I have to say that the level of service was a lot better than South Mall. My mother banks with the Swords branch and again good service but some reason long waits and lots of queueing.

Alas, despite interest being shown by staff mmber in Wilton, there had been no response since. I revealed all my assets and liabilities and was told that they would get back to me, but after 10 days, no call. I think that I will have to stick with my current bankers after all.