HAVE YOUR SAY:Instant overdraft from the hole in the wall

If you thought the days of banks being free and easy with their loan offers went the way of the Celtic Tiger, you may want to read on.

A Bank of Ireland customer contacted us after being offered, unprompted, an overdraft facility by her bank via an ATM on a Saturday night. She had gone to withdraw money but the insufficient funds message flashed up on the screen.

It was, however, immediately followed by an offer of an overdraft of €700. Delighted with herself, she accepted the offer, withdrew the money and got on with her night.

When we heard this we thought it could not possibly be true. Bank machines offering potentially drunk people big overdrafts on Saturday evenings? Surely not. So we contacted the bank and received the following statement: “We do not offer unsolicited credit facilities to our customers. Customers need to apply for an overdraft facility and they can do this online, by phone or by visiting their branch.” We breathed a sigh of relief. Our reader was obviously mistaken and the bank was not extending automated loan offers to people on the street. Then we read on.

“We provide some customers with the facility to apply for an overdraft at an ATM where they have requested funds in an amount greater than their available balance. Such customers are invited to apply for an overdraft and, if they select ‘yes’, they are taken through a number of questions before they are advised that they are approved for €700. The option to apply for an overdraft, in this situation, is only offered where customers have operated their current account within their terms and conditions over a sustained period and, through the management of their account, have demonstrated a capacity to repay an overdraft.”

What the Bank of Ireland statement appeared to be saying was “no, we don’t offer unsolicited overdrafts to anyone except those people who we do offer unsolicited overdrafts to”. We asked the bank how it could square the first part of the statement with the rest of it.

A spokeswoman insisted there was no contradiction. We begged to differ and received a follow-up response containing much the same information with an additional bit which said it was “not a widespread offer. The customers have pristine credit histories and behaviours when operating their account. This is a fully compliant offering”.

So we got back on to the bank and asked what “not a widespread offer meant”? We were told that it was not “going to comment on the numbers involved but we would stress that this is not a widespread offering”.

What has Sky Atlantic done to my signal?

Last week we carried an item about a Wexford reader who down-graded her Sky TV package in April and signed up for one which included MTV+1 – but not MTV – at no extra cost. But she never got MTV+1. Sky eventually got back to us with a response saying that it offers six basic packages which start at €23, including a variety pack and a music pack. MTV and MTV+1 are included in the variety pack and not the music pack. The customer, the company notes, is not a subscriber to the variety pack and therefore has no access to either MTV or MTV+1. To receive these channels, she would have to subscribe to the variety pack at an extra €2 per month. Sky says that it appears there was some confusion as to how to access MTV and MTV+1. The company has offered our reader the variety pack for six months free of charge which will provide access to both channels.

Several people contacted us with issues connected with the same company and Gary Gubbins was one of them. “Since the introduction of Sky Atlantic our signal has gotten steadily worse,” he writes. “The only channels which work reasonably well are RTÉ, BBC and Channel 4. However, these last few weeks they might only work two days a week and poorly at that.”

He has been calling and e-mailing Sky to get someone to check it for months. “They are insisting that I pay €100 for a service engineer to come out, yet they still take the full amount every month from my account.”

“Out of principle” he refuses to pay for this service call. “During my last call I did speak to a decent guy who said if I threaten to quit they would probably send out the service engineer for free and possibly reimburse me for the last few months of very poor service. I think it is wrong that you have to go this far.”

So we contacted the company again and the head of Sky in Ireland, Mark Deering, said the company regretted the technical issues our reader has been experiencing but noted that since Mr Gubbins has been a subscriber for more than a year, the 12-month warranty is not applicable and that a €100 service charge for a visit is normally levied. “However, on this occasion,” Deering said, “Sky would waive the service fee and apply a credit to the customer’s account covering the period when he was unable to receive Sky’s services.”