Free Banking

[comethekingdom]

Got a statement there today basically telling me that I owe them 18 euros for direct debits, use of debit card etc for the last 3 months! Anyone know how to get these fees waived, free banking?? (I'm with BOI)

[armaghniac]

Keep €3000 in the account and BOI will happily provide these services for nowt.

But being a student or OAP might also do.

[comethekingdom]

Keep €3000 in the account and BOI will happily provide these services for nowt.

But being a student or OAP might also do.

Some chance of that in this day and age! Barely able to scrape by from month to month! Any other banks offering less restrictive deals?

[bennydorano]

They are all pretty much free if you dont stray into overdraft territory are they not?

I'm with First Direct, first class i have to say, i left BOI & Northern previous to that - special mention to Northern as worst bank ever, useless shower.

[armaghniac]

They can't really be free at a time of such low interest rates. Basically the interest value of the money in your account is used to pay for the services, with interest rates < 1% this is not feasible.

[Puckoon]

Not sure if any of the banks offer this at home, but I get free savings, provided I keep $500 in it, and free checking provided I have a monthly direct deposit going into it.

Might be worth asking for?

[Main Street]

The customer is being conned, if charged for doing a debit card transaction.
The retailer is charged per transaction.
Threaten to close the account unless they promote you to a 'chargeless' account.
They should be sending you a cheque at the end of the year for your % of the total transaction fees gained by using their debit card to make transactions.

[Puckoon]

Yes, it's actually slightly more common for a smaller retailer to pass on that transaction fee (35c here) to you if you use your card.

[macdanger2]

With BoI, make nine transactions / quarter online and you have free banking - transfer 0.01 nine times to some other account and you'll be grand. Unless they've changed it again.......

They've had this for the last 12-18 months at least, how is it you're only after getting stung now? I rang up to complain the first time and they waived it so you might have some luck with that...........

[Dougal Maguire]

 I don't know if you have Santander down south but if you have you should try their 123 Account. Not only does it give you monthly interest it also pays cashback of 1% on any spend on rates bills and Santander mortgage payments that come out of the account.  This cashback rises to 2% of spend on electricity and gas bills, and 3% of spend on mobile, home phone, broadband and paid-for TV packages. I moved to A&L as it was then from First Trust a few years ago, the easiest and the best move I ever made

[the Deel Rover]

With BoI, make nine transactions / quarter online and you have free banking - transfer 0.01 nine times to some other account and you'll be grand. Unless they've changed it again.......

They've had this for the last 12-18 months at least, how is it you're only after getting stung now? I rang up to complain the first time and they waived it so you might have some luck with that...........

They have done away with that now McDanger no free banking unless you can keep 3k  of a credit balance . Got hit by 22 yo yo 's yesterday the dirty feckers for a few lously transactions.   

[Corner Forward]

As someone already suggested speak to your bank and threaten to leave.

I had a student acc with Santander purely to make use of their overdraft facility had all my wages, student loan etc paid into my first trust acc. One month I was close to my arranged overdraft limit and forgot to lodge money into the acc to cover Direct debits and standing orders. The direct debits came out allowing Santander to charge me ridiculous interest fees whilst the standing order was refused allowing them to charge me more for it bouncing back. In the end I ended up with about £80 to pay, spoke to the bank an although they probably legally were well within their rights I said it was bad customer service that they would let a account run up such fees and not inform the acc holder and said I was closing the account, manager came and spoke to me and waived the fees with no hassle.

First trust are top class never any hassle with them!!

[supersarsfields]

You should look into some of the cheaper paid for current accounts.I pay £9 a month and that covers overdraft fees if used, all transactions and a load of added perks including Holiday insurance for the year, Phone insurance, fraud protection, vouchers for hotels, restaurants etc.
I had been paying £4-5 a month for the phone insurance anyway so it works out good enough value for me.     

[armaghniac]

As someone already suggested speak to your bank and threaten to leave.

This isn't worth the price of the phone call. If you aren't paying them anything they would be happy to see you leave.

[Corner Forward]

As someone already suggested speak to your bank and threaten to leave.

This isn't worth the price of the phone call. If you aren't paying them anything they would be happy to see you leave.

Just a suggestion worked for me, banks know if you leave them cause your unhappy with your account then your unlikely to return to them in future for a loan or savings account etc the areas where the banks really make their money!!

I called into my branch and spoke to the manager and had no issues.