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DUTY ON CREDIT CARDS

Earlier this year, David Bradley received a letter from Bank of Ireland, the bank which operates the franchise for the American Express "Blue" credit card, alerting him to the fact that the card was going to be withdrawn from the market from November 1st due to a lack of take-up while the 1 per cent cash-back element on the card would cease on August 31st. The letter said an alternative product would be offered.

"However, I have now received a second letter which offered no alternative product," he says. The Government's annual stamp duty of €30 will be applied to the card on closure at November 1st.

David is not happy to be asked to pay a year's duty for just seven months of usage - April to October, 2009.

He says: "I called Bank of Ireland credit cards to discuss the matter and they stated their position that there was nothing they could do regarding the stamp duty. When I asked why the account was not being transferred to a new product, as they had indicated in their first communication, they said I could apply for their platinum card.

"This is not remotely attractive to me as it carries an annual fee of €75 which I'm not prepared to pay to delude myself that I have some kind of status if I carry such a card!"

He is now convinced the whole exercise has been designed to rid Bank of Ireland credit cards of customers like him who pay their balance in full each month.

"These are the customers who would have been attracted to the American Express Blue credit card when it was introduced."

A Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said she could not comment on individual customers but said it had written to most of its "Amex" customers and, in principal, offered them an alternative option. She said that a very small number of card holders were not offered a card explicitly but this does not preclude them from applying for any one of its cards.

She went on to say that the bank also looked at the stamp duty issue, but claimed that the Revenue's guidelines made it very clear that the bank had to collect it and pass it on, and she felt the bank could not set a precedent by offering to pay a portion of that duty for affected customers.

BUY IRISH

Recently we pointed out savings on buying own-brand, generic medicines - like 24 own-brand paracetamol in Boots at €1.89. This left Maeve Lynch "bothered" as there are "thousands of Irish-owned pharmacies in this country who sell 24s of paracetamol for this price. Give the Irish companies a mention!"

Ann O'Duffy, meanwhile, is done with buying Irish at any price. "I bought three skincare items online from salonskincare.co.uk. The price was £77.75 (€85.66)" and the products were delivered the next day. "I have previously been charged €135 for the same items here. I will be purchasing the products online in future."

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