Topping up prize bonds, transaction over daily AIB limit

Just trying to make a prize bond purchase on State Savings website for over €50k, using AIB card. The State Savings website allows you proceed with a debit card purchase, and AIB let you get to the stage of getting a secure authentication request on your device, only for it to fail. I've been told that the maximum transfer is €5k per day, and have to go to my branch to organise.

But this is an online transaction on the State Savings website, so i can't see how AIB in branch can help out, unless they 'unlock' the limit temporarily on the card?

So it's off to a Post Office with a cheque. In 2021. We hear about getting rid of cheques, but there doesn't seem to be sufficient trust in online security for you to do a large transaction, even with secure authentication.

Perhaps as you say, the AIB branch will unlock the limit temporarily. To be fair, there should be some limit for day-to-day transactions or someone could be cleared out of enormous sums.

I gave up and got a cheque book - it's the only cheque I've written in 15 years.

Edit: here are the limits by bank the last time I checked:
Post in thread 'Limit in Debit Card' https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/limit-in-debit-card.206842/post-1563746

podgerodge said:

Just trying to make a prize bond purchase on State Savings website for over €50k, using AIB card. The State Savings website allows you proceed with a debit card purchase, and AIB let you get to the stage of getting a secure authentication request on your device, only for it to fail. I've been told that the maximum transfer is €5k per day, and have to go to my branch to organise. So it's off to a Post Office with a cheque. In 2021. We hear about getting rid of cheques, but there doesn't seem to be sufficient trust in online security for you to do a large transaction, even with secure authentication.

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Count your blessings - my PTSB card will only allow me to invest €2,500 per day in any of the State Savings products available online!

I find Revlout to be the most flexible in dealing with these issues. Have long left the Irish banks behind.

Itchy said:

I find Revlout to be the most flexible in dealing with these issues. Have long left the Irish banks behind.

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you'll find the revolut card limit is €5,000 in a 4 day period (or at least it was earlier this year). Very inflexible in my opinion

Whilst revolut is handy, it offers nowhere near a replacement for pillar banks and the adverts that fill the screen everytime you log on are just annoying.

With AIB I believe you can request a higher limit.

Well it seems you are out of luck unless you can find a Bank that will lift there limit. This handy website seems to have the limits for each.


I see Bunq (which I am a very satisfied customer of , but don't use the card) is listed as having a limit of €50k but unfortunately, the card is treated as a credit card so may be rejected by the payments website as it specifically states that it only accepts debit cards.

podgerodge said:

Just trying to make a prize bond purchase on State Savings website for over €50k, using AIB card. the maximum transfer is €5k per day

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It's a bit of hassle but you could just buy €5,000 worth of bonds per day for 10 days. Should only take a few minutes a day. Of course that's assuming the card isn't used for other transactions which would take you over the daily limit.

podgerodge said:

We hear about getting rid of cheques, but there doesn't seem to be sufficient trust in online security for you to do a large transaction, even with secure authentication.

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Cheques aren't going anywhere. 23.5 million were used in Ireland in 2020. In a year of lockdowns, restrictions, contactless payments, and online shopping.

Not really feasible and practical. With other payments, spending a couple of weeks doing daily transactions woud be pointless, I will use the cheque and go to the post office. The banks have implemented what one assumes is state of the art secure authentication, but don't seem to have a solution for large value payments to replace cheques.

I would totally disagree with you - cheques are most certainly going somewhere - DOWN!

According to the BPFI, "both Ireland and the UK have seen substantial falls in cheque usage in the past decade, with Irish cheque usage per capita down from 22.1 in 2009 to 6.4 in 2019".

"New figures show that the use of cheques continued to decline here with only 6.6 million cheque payments made in the first quarter of 2020.

This is down 15% from the 7.8 million cheques issued the same time last year and a 45% drop on the first quarter of 2016, the figures from Banking & Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) show.

In Q1 2021 they have already fallen by another 26%.