Since August 19th there is no way to avoid being charged some account fees if you have a Bank of Ireland current account.
Prior to Aug 19th BOI customers could avoid current account fees if they kept at least €3000 in their account at all times. From August 19th 2013 all BOI customers are being charged a €5 “maintenance fee” every quarter – regardless of the balance on the account.
Transaction fees will also be charged on top of this €5 maintenance fee – but these can still be avoided if €3000 is kept in the account. Customers will no longer be able to opt to pay a flat rate of €11.40 a quarter to cover transactions – if your balance goes below €3000 in the quarter you will be charged for each transaction on top of the €5 maintenance fee.
The amounts of the BOI transaction charges from August 19th
All automated/electronic transactions will now be 20 cent each (reduced from 28 cent).
All branch/paper based transactions will now be charged at 40 cent each (increasing from 28c) .
A new “cheque issuing” fee of 20c per cheque will also be introduced in August – so that means writing a cheque will cost you €1.10 ( €0.20 cheque charge +€0.50 Government Stamp Duty + €0.40 transaction cost .)
Bank of Ireland only introduced the rule about keeping €3000 in the account in November 2012 .
See our summary of Bank Charges in Ireland here.
Maintenance fees and also transaction fees on top really does take the biscuit.
I’ve reduced the usage of my account with them over the past couple of years with all the transaction charges, but I guess it’s time to close it altogether and probably the credit card that goes with it too…
EBS seem to be doing the best deal at the moment with their Money Manager account. There are no quarterly fees. You only get charged for ATM and branch withdrawals and you can even have five of those free per month if you keep €500 in your account or pay in €1500 every month.
You get a MasterCard Debit with no charge for point of sale transactions or cash-back. The card also has the best foreign transaction fee I have seen.
Only two small complaints so far:
– The online banking leaves a little to be desired, but then again so do the rest of the banks’.
– They don’t have the facility to make single transfers to another bank. Direct debits and standing orders are fine but you cant do a single transfer.
EBS don’t do cheques – which may be a problem for some people. They don’t have many branches around the country – so that could be a problem too for some people – but the charging structure seems better as long as it stays that way..
I have never had a cheque book so that is not an issue for me. I realise this may be an issue for some people but cheques are becoming rarer and rarer these days.
As for branches, I haven’t had an issue so far. There has been one wherever I have needed it. But there are less than the main banks (77 branches according to their site).
I’ve been a BOI customer for 18 years and this week I closed my account and moved to PTSB. I hope more people do the same, its the only way to show these guys!!
Hi Brendan, I’ve been a customer with BOI for 30+ years also and have now opened a PTSB account. Have paid almost €100 in fees to BOI for the last 2 qtrs so PTSB is the way forward. Do you know if there is a charge to close the BOI account? Thanks!
Just wondering if its possible to change banks if you have a loan with your current bank.
Having a loan shoild not prevent you from switching current accounts.
@Rob, EBS does look attractive, are you sure about the single transfer thing as not being able to do that would be a deal breaker? Just not online or phone and branch as well?
Unfortunately, yes. It doesn’t matter whether it is online, telephone or in branch. The girl said it was because they didn’t have the system to initiate payments. Direct debits and standing orders work because the other bank initiates the request for payment. That’s how I understood it anyway.
Actually, scratch that. They have updated their online banking to be able to handle transfers. They don’t support international payments at the minute but I think they will have to have this soon to comply with SEPA.