Nib "freebank"

Hi
Can Anybody tell me Whats going on with the NIB freebank?
I applied for this in october and was under the impression (as was widely advertised) that this Freebank Was a FREEBANK.
So im sure you can imagine my surprise when i recieved a letter stating Exactly as follows:

'Freebank current account- pre-notification of interest and charges'

To me this statement seems like a contradiction (to the tune of €31.85 for the period 07.02.2206-30.06.2006).
So can anybody honestly tell me whats going on because as far as im aware i recieved no notification of changes in the basic premise behind NIB's Freebank.

Yours
Gary

DITO I received the same letter a few days ago. Incredible On the same line it mentions freebanking and notification of interest and charges.

'Freebank current account- pre-notification of interest and charges'

This has to be a joke !!! When I phoned up yesterday the lady I spoke to at the bank seemed totally confused, she "thought" that there woulndt be any charges, but wasnt sure????
I will be phoning the manager monday to find out whats going on!!!

I have one of these accounts for a number of years. I have only ever got a letter (and charges) when the account dropped into debit, as happened in this period cos 2 laser transactions from mid-April went through on 20th June! The terms of these accounts are that the account has to be in credit to be "free". If you go into debit at all, even 20cent for one day, you attract transaction charges for the full period. Bummer... I normally watch my account like a hawk on e-banking when the balance is going quite low, but was not around to look at it on the day this went through.

marksa said:

I have one of these accounts for a number of years. I have only ever got a letter (and charges) when the account dropped into debit, as happened in this period cos 2 laser transactions from mid-April went through on 20th June! The terms of these accounts are that the account has to be in credit to be "free". If you go into debit at all, even 20cent for one day, you attract transaction charges for the full period. Bummer... I normally watch my account like a hawk on e-banking when the balance is going quite low, but was not around to look at it on the day this went through.

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I can confirm 100% that my account has not gone into the red. I also check every day on e-banking.

Landlord, ring your branch and find out why you've been charged. I have an overdraft facility on my account which I use so do get charges. I'd be interested to know what their responce is.

Gary 23 said:

To me this statement seems like a contradiction (to the tune of €31.85 for the period 07.02.2206-30.06.2006).

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Is there any breakdown of what the charges are for? There was some discussion here recently about mention of charges when making 3rd party payments on the new e-banking system, but I never got to the bottom of whether this was a real issue or not.

landlord said:

I can confirm 100% that my account has not gone into the red. I also check every day on e-banking.

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Have you drawn against uncleared lodgments?

e.g. you have €100 in your account

Monday - you lodge non NIB cheque for €500. Ledger balance €600. Cleared balance €100.

Tuesday - a cheque of yours for €300 is presented. Ledger balance €300. Cleared balance €200 DR.

Interest accrues on the cleared balance. Looking at your statement shows you in constant credit as the ledger balance is the one that is displayed in the balance column.

Not sure how long until a cheque is cleared for value with NIB system (probably 2 days - so Wednesday) as opposed to being cleared for fate.

I got a letter on Friday detailing my charges from Feb to June on my Freebank account. A lodgement was late going into my account so the account was overdrawn by €143 when a direct debit came out. For being overdrawn by €143 for less than 48 hours I got charged a fee of €4.44 and account charges for the full quarter. I know it was my own fault, and I should have kept a better watch but will be very careful from now on. It's a handy way for the bank to make money.

Or just switch to a bank that doesn't charge fees regardless of balance - am open to correction but think you can get it with ptsb, aib (some T&Cs re. using laser card, online), boi (some T&Cs like AIB) & ub?

landlord said:

I can confirm 100% that my account has not gone into the red. I also check every day on e-banking.

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Landlord....any responce from the bank yet?

bambino said:

Landlord....any responce from the bank yet?

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Well i can confirm that i was 100% "wrong".....my account did go into the red due a bank error. The NIB owed me 4000 for switching a few mortgages to them........and they had the cheek to give me the 4,000 cash AND TAKE THE MONEY OUT OF MY OWN PERSONAL ACOUNT (I ended up paying my self 4000 cash)!!!!!! AND THEN CHARGE ME INTEREST FOR GOING IN THE RED AND CHARGES FOR THAT MONTH......Its all sorted now....all monies owed have been refunded.
So it does appear correct that you will be chaged full bank charges if your account goes into negative figures at any time during the period.

At least you got it sorted out and are geting your money back.

Hi
Just a quick update on the situation. I rang NIB and after asking me my account details and did i go into the red in the past few months to which i answered no, they told me to send the letter that they originally sent to me back to them and they will give me my money back. They said that thier new computer system which has been operating since april has been screwing up and charging people with freebank accounts among other things.
If you have been charged for a freebank i suggest that you ring the bank up and explain it to them and you will probably get your charges refunded as they let slip to me that a lot of people had rang up complaining for similiar problems and the banks policy now is to refund the money.

Yours
Gary

Gary 23 said:

they told me to send the letter that they originally sent to me back to them and they will give me my money back. They said that thier new computer system which has been operating since april has been screwing up and charging people with freebank accounts among other things.
If you have been charged for a freebank i suggest that you ring the bank up and explain it to them and you will probably get your charges refunded as they let slip to me that a lot of people had rang up complaining for similiar problems and the banks policy now is to refund the money.

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Wouldn't it be nice to think that a bank like NIB that has been through the traumas of overcharging scandals would not be waiting for customers to ring up - They should really be proactively arranging refunds.

from what I can see, everything under the sun gets blamed on the new computer system. really, it's a case of branches still learning what it can do, and understanding whether is a real system problem or not.

As I said earlier, due to a tiny overdrawn balance for 1 day, got charged. My problem, not a case of going to the bank and saying, why haven't you refunded me. Banks are not a charity shop! Having said that - perhaps an indication of why the charges have been applied might be useful - i.e. you were overdrawn 12th to 13th June - so charges apply as per the terms of the account.

The NIB freebank always worked in this way, they had it years before any other bank in the irish market, just never told anyone cos their previous owners did't like advertising! Having said that, a lot of other banks now offer the service, and perhaps NIB needs to look at a new offering - sorry, I think they have put out new offerings, but I can't follow them at all!