RaboDirect Ireland will be closing in May

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1dave123

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"Online savings bank RaboDirect Ireland will be closing in May following a decision by its parent group to restructure its business model.

RaboDirect, which was established in Ireland in 2005, has over 90,000 customers in Ireland with over €3bn on deposit.

According to a statement from the bank on Wednesday, it is waiving the notice period on notice saver accounts and will be paying the interest earned up to the point of account closure"
 
That's huge news.

RaboDirect join a long list of deposit taker brand exits since the crisis:
Northern Rock
Irish Nationwide
Anglo Irish Bank
First Active
ACCBank
Nationwide UK (Ireland)
Halifax / Bank of Scotland (Ireland)
Danske Bank
Leeds Building Society (Ireland)
ICS
PostBank
Raisin (Opened EU wide and then exited 2 EU countries including Ireland)

Plus Investec Ireland are apparently about to be acquired by AIB.

90,000 savers finding new homes is huge. Big opportunity for KBC to try to get their hands on the customers.
 
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Speaking as an ordinary punter, this is a surprise, though I see it was mooted here a year ago. Always found Rabo straightforward to deal with, easy to manage accounts etc.

Does nobody want Irish depositor's savings?? Seems that those of us who are prudent and save for a rainy day in this country are punished. Whilst those who are reckless and flathulach can throw themselves on the mercy of others and expect/ get writeoffs of their debts :(
 
Arrrgh!

I recently opened an account with Rabo to replace one I previously had with Nationwide UK. Now I'm going to have to go through the whole palaver again with another bank.:mad:

More importantly, it now seems clear to me that the Government's deliberate attempt to reduce competition in the deposit market (to favour the State owned domestic banks) has been successful.



This will have significant long-term ramifications for our economy.

Meanwhile, FF and the media are obsessed with PTSB's perfectly legitimate loan book sale....o_O
 
Sorry to hear they are leaving. Although their rates went to near zero in the last few years I had a substantial chunk of money with them as they felt secure, were easy to deal with and easy to move money in and out of.

Guess I will have to look for a new home for my savings. A new account will have to be opened somewhere.
 
Crikey! God knows where I'll put my money. I have a current account with AIB so I guess I'll open a savings account with them. All the interest rates are universally terrible anyway.
 
God be with the days when they were paying 5% interest on savings, don't think we will ever see those rates again.
 
Personally, really disappointed with this news as I liked Rabo - felt I could trust them and didn't get a sense of corruptness, not like in our main banks here. Not sure where to put my savings now, really don't want to give it to the likes of PTSB, BOI, AIB or Ulster.
 
Similar feelings to Moneypit above, I liked Rabo even though the interest had fallen off a cliff in recent years. The ease of access to the money when needed was really handy, not sure where I'm going to put my few bob now. Credit Union seems like the best option...
 
At this stage interest rates are so low and once DIRT is factored in my current account is nearly as appealing as most instant access deposit accounts
 
Just wondering if anyone has got the letter from Rabodirect on this? It says they have begun notifying customers. Will there be any charges to withdraw your savings? Wondering who to go to also!
 
An EBS official mentioned to me that there are plenty of deposits, so they don't have to compete anymore.

Their best is 0.35% pa for lump-sums.
 
It's been on the cards. They closed their business accounts, pension fund access, investment arm. It was only a matter of time.

Fewer and fewer banks in Ireland. We're too small for a bank to bother coming in and trying to compete.


Steven
www.bluewaterfp.ie
 
It's a shame alright - they were the first bank in Ireland to have a decent user-friendly online platform.

The basing of the bank levy on DIRT has certainly hurt deposit competition.
 
lollipop said:
Just wondering if anyone has got the letter from Rabodirect on this? It says they have begun notifying customers. Will there be any charges to withdraw your savings?
Click to expand...

Letters have only started to be issued. There are no charges for withdrawing your savings.
 
SBarrett said:
It's been on the cards. They closed their business accounts, pension fund access, investment arm. It was only a matter of time. ...
Click to expand...

Agree 100%.

I'm still sorry to read the news as they were an institution that I also liked dealing with, but in no way am I surprised by the news. I'm actually surprised that some others here, were surprised tbh.

Ireland is a very small market, but we make it even smaller each time something like this happens, and we all run off back to AIB or BoI. There are deposit options available form a lot more than just those two institutions and while rates are low everywhere, people should remember that putting their business elsewhere, will help ensure that we continue to have some level of competition in the country. If anything, the fact that deposit rates are so close to zero everywhere, means that there is no justification for not placing your deposit with an alternative to the "Big Two".


cpt_boom said:
It's a shame alright - they were the first bank in Ireland to have a decent user-friendly online platform..
Click to expand...

Yes, both Rabo and Danske offered excellent online banking services.

To this day, I don't think that I've seen a better online offering from a Bank, then the one I had from Danske back in 2005 or thereabouts.
 
Rabo were good, though I didn't like their quirky telephone manner, made me wonder are these guys really secure? State Savings I suppose.
 
I consider this a minor disaster. Rabo is the only institution in the country with an AA (high grade) credit rating. BOI is BBB (lower medium grade) and AIB is BBB- (lower medium grade, one notch above "non investment grade / speculative"). Leaves me with a considerable dilemma.

I'd be less concerned if I thought our banks were credibly repairing their balance sheets and we hadn't spent the last five years doing our best to reinflate the housing bubble. And there's no option to go north of the border with their different currency and now Brexit. From a banking point of view, Ireland's starting to feel like a one horse town.

I have some close contacts in Maastricht. I might be knocking on the door of the local Rabobank there. :(
 
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