When free banking is not free ... new bank recommendations?

I'm off to find me a new bank ... again! First BoI then Ulster Bank and now NIB and their 23c charge per on-line bill payment with their so-called free bank account. Grr! Any suggestions for a bank that offers actual, real, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin free banking? I'm thinking Permanent TSB (bless all that marketing! ) ... Has anyone any experiences/observations on Permanent TSB or, indeed, any other free banking service?

I don't have very complicated banking requirements. I'm looking for free on-line banking, free laser transactions, free standing orders and a cheque book. Ideally not in an account such as my previous account with Ulster Bank where a minimum balance of €500 had to be maintained in order to qualify for free banking, or other such restrictions.

Moved to PTSB in Jan and no complaints, don't use a cheque book though so cannot comment on whether it is free.

Have you looked at the Financial Regulator's website? They have done a survey of who charges for what (does not incorporate latest offerings from NIB and AIB).

Thanks for your comments. Looks like PTSB is the way to go.

...I'm off to find me a new bank ... again! First BoI then Ulster Bank and now NIB and their 23c charge per on-line bill payment with their so-called free bank account. Grr! Any suggestions for a bank that offers actual, real, does-what-it-says-on-the-tin free banking?

Hi Coolaboola,
[broken link removed] gives the details of the charges for NIB. complicated or what! anyway, what will depend is whether you have an existing pre-18th April account - in which case, if your acc was a freebank acc, then you should have no charge for bill payment online - provided of course that your acc was in credit for the period.

In the case of the post 18th April, it will depend on the package you choose. the basic packages vary, but see page 5, there should again be no charges for online payments. I've had about 10 years of NIB accounts, most of that as freebank - NIB was the first bank in Ireland to offer this years ago - although never f'n told anyone! Just had to watch for going overdrawn.

I'm with ptsb and the monthly statement lists all the charges for atm / laser transactions just to show you how much you would be paying if you had to pay the charges. Its nice to see what you are saving.

I use the open24 for all of my transactions so I never have to go to a branch either.

I have a PTSB account and am sorry to tell you they all charge for something. With PTSB as follows

1. They supply bank statements on these accounts on quarterly basis, anything more frequent than this and you get charged E2.50 per statement.
2. They also charge for ATM withdrawals in UK. we got stung on this, paid about E65 over a period of 5 days.
3. They appear to have the worst service in branch(ie, usually only have one service counter open at a time, even at lunch time) that I have come accross ever. No fees to pay additional staff? who knows

There the only ones I've come accross, but I'm beginning to believe there's no such thing as free banking. You just need to find one that offers the things you need free

PS no other complaints with PTSB

AIB offer bill payment for free with their new package:

A purchase transaction means any purchase transaction using an AIB Debit Card through the following channels - Point of Sale (POS) terminal, telephone, mail order and Internet.

An AIB Phone & Internet Banking debit transaction means any debit transaction made using the AIB Phone & Internet Banking service i.e. inter-account transfers, transfers to other branches and banks, International Payment, bill payment and mobile top up (including online and SMS mobile top up but excluding mobile top up via ATM).

Click to expand...

see [broken link removed] for details of their offering.

deem said:

1. They supply bank statements on these accounts on quarterly basis, anything more frequent than this and you get charged E2.50 per statement.
3. They appear to have the worst service in branch(ie, usually only have one service counter open at a time, even at lunch time) that I have come accross ever. No fees to pay additional staff? who knows

There the only ones I've come accross, but I'm beginning to believe there's no such thing as free banking. You just need to find one that offers the things you need free

PS no other complaints with PTSB

Click to expand...

I needed 6 Months statements from PTSB for a mortgage application and they just did a print screen of my account and put a PTSB Stamp on it. This statement was acceptable by UB. I was not charged for this by PTSB, so point 1 may not be such an issue.
As for point 3 I agree. The bank are fine if you dont need to go to the branch. Long queues.
I have my current account with UB and find them very good and almost free.

You can't beat Ulster Bank for Service -

Hi Marksa,

My account was opened long before 18 April and has always been in credit, ergo I should have the free banking described in my terms and conditions - see [broken link removed] and search for NIB28801 2006.03 which gives the T&C's for the now no-longer available packages such as FreeBank as well as the new packages.

I contacted my branch again to ask why they were now breaching/changing the T&C's of my FreeBank account and was given the same 'bank commission' explanation - along with the 'consolation' that had I not banked on line but at the counter at the branch instead I would be charged €0.50 per bill instead of €0.23. When I pushed them about that fact that my T&C's explicitly state no account transaction charges or maintenance charges apply to my account they waivered and said that they're having a lot of problems with the new system ...

Anyhoo, have just been in touch with NIB who have confirmed that the €0.23 fee applies as paying a bill does not clasify as a transaction (!!) and therefore is subject to (and has always been subject to) bank commission charges (how come I never noticed before!!) ... Anyhoo, time to take my business eslewhere.

online bill payment does not classify as a 'transaction' .... i am lost for words

my experience of the new look NIB: as an existing AIB customer annoyed at their gouging of customers, doubly annoyed that their imminent freebanking is limited to customers with a special new 'Maestro' card, I decided to drop into the local dub6 branch of NIB and talk about opening an a/c there.

This was the week of the big publicity blitz a few weeks ago. One counter was open, three customers in line ahead of me. No literature in the office ... tools and equipment on the floor, somebody obviously putting up a small counter or sthing ... in the backroom, four people huddled around a computer, one on the phone announcing that the 'we've just had a changeover, systems have been down all morning' - if I recall, their new, spanking efficient danish SYSTEM was one of the advertisement selling points for all the new services

readers, i left the queue and left the bank.

I am sticking it out with NIB. Not far off the experience that stanbowles had, however willing to give them a cautious chance. With BOI at the mo and all they do is charge me or put silly clauses on. Even if I qualify for their free banking, their online service is archaic. My wife is with AIB and I once was, so when their 'only some strings attached' version came out, I nearly jumped ship last week until they told me about their yearly €25 overdraft maintenance fee. Their high interest rates charged on an overdraft facility should more than compensate for any costs that they might incur for providing the overdraft facility. So no luck there either.

It has only taken me the best part of 2 weeks since I first walked into the NIB branch to open the account, and today it has gone off for credit assessment to give the final ok. Really bad start, but covering myself by leaving my BOI account open until I know that they can actually do the job. One lives in hope...

I have been with Freebank for years and I have never had bank charges in the past. I would hope this will not change under Dansk. I've just looked at the online Freebank terms and it says fees 29.29 EUR. I'm not sure what this is for ?

Update: I've ditched NIB and I'm now with PTSB. Early days yet (only opened the account last Friday, still waiting on cards, registration for on-line and phone banking etc.) but so far, so good.

On Friday morning, before heading down to PTSB to open my account, I made one last call to NIB to confirm that the charges did indeed apply to my FreeBank account. I had twice received adamant confirmations from different staff following several calls to NIB that these charges did apply but it was still niggling at me that this was in breach of the T&Cs of the account (per earlier quotes of T&C's). This time I was adamantly assured that the charges did not apply...

At this stage I was fed up of contradictory advice and unreturned calls so I went ahead with my switch to PTSB. I noticed that as I transferred cash online from NIB to my new account that the NIB system was charging a fee of €0.10 for the transaction so they still haven't sorted the technical glitches if that's what they are.

stanbowles said:

as an existing AIB customer annoyed at their gouging of customers, doubly annoyed that their imminent freebanking is limited to customers with a special new 'Maestro' card....

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Count yourself lucky - a friend of mine has been so much gouged by AIB - she's had a cashsave account for years.

Then they started charging users of cashsave accounts - at current account rates - without any current account services.
So she opened an SSIA with them - at the time they also insisted she open a current account - but refused to give her a laser/maestro card.

As a result she pays about 120 a year in bank charges for what is effectively a deposit account. She's coming to NIB next week to switchover.

As for my own experiences with AIB. Had a cashsave account for years, for about a year also an online savings account. Closed them last week (to be honest partly in retaliation for being turned down for a loan twice in two years). Got a telephone call on Wednesday asking me to lodge 56 cent into the account to cover the last of the bank charges. My family are still laughing. Some suggested I should have refused. Actually I did transfer it, but only because it probably cost them more to phone me on the mobile than 56c....

Currently in the process of shifting from Freebank/standard VISA to the Easy current account/Mastercard at 9.9% package. Has been a bit awkward but I would say a lot of these problems are just teething. NIB have given me an excellent service and given me a VISA at a good rate and a personal loan when nobody else would. I'm sticking with them and hoping the appliation to move to Easy goes ok.